RESET Hotel Joshua Tree is built around a single idea: that the night sky over the Mojave is worth designing a hotel for. Less than a 10-minute drive from Joshua Tree National Park's north entrance, spread across 180 acres of high desert outside Twentynine Palms, it's a modernist retreat where a Celestron Origin telescope and a dedicated stargazing deck matter more to the pitch than a spa menu. This isn't a roadside motel with a firepit bolted on for the photos. It opened as part of the current wave of purpose-built stargazing properties in the mid-2020s, and it shows.
The only hotel with a Celestron Origin
RESET is, by its own account and every source checked for this review, the only hotel in the world to install a Celestron Origin on its grounds: an AI-powered smart telescope that stacks exposures and resolves faint galaxies and nebulae on a phone screen in seconds, rather than the twenty minutes of manual polar alignment a standalone unit demands, useful for guests trying astrophotography for the first time. For guests who'd rather learn the sky by hand, there's also a StarSense Explorer DX 102AZ, which uses phone-camera plate-solving to walk beginners to a target constellation step by step, plus a set of Celestron binoculars for anyone who just wants to lie back and scan the Milky Way. Guided stargazing sessions run on-site, aimed squarely at guests who've never touched a telescope before.
The moonpad and the rest of the dark-sky setup
The property's signature feature is a flying-saucer-shaped viewing platform set a few hundred yards into the desert, built specifically for lying back and watching the sky rotate without a hotel silhouette in the frame; RESET's own materials refer to it as both the moonpad and the moon deck. It looks out over 180 acres of private land, 170 of which the owners have committed to leaving undeveloped: a real commitment to the view, given how easily a resort this size could add a second building phase later. A communal firepit dug into the earth anchors the property's evening gathering point, and every room type comes with its own Solo Stove fire pit on a private patio, so nobody's competing for a spot after dinner.
Rooms, and what each one gives you after dark
Four room types, all built around outdoor space rather than square footage indoors. The Mountain View Suite and Mountain View Room both come with a king bed, a private patio with fire pit, and mountain views; the Desert King Room swaps the mountain view for open desert, same king bed and patio fire pit. The Moonlit Patio Queen is the one exception, a queen bed with a fully enclosed private patio, its own fire pit, and an outdoor daybed rather than open desert exposure. Every option gets you outside after the sun goes down, which is the point. On-site facilities cover a saltwater heated pool, a hot tub, a five-person cedar sauna, an outdoor plunge pool, and the Split Rock restaurant for breakfast, cocktails, and light fare, none of it the reason you'd book this hotel, but none of it feels like an afterthought either.
What a new property can't promise you yet
RESET is genuinely new, and worth being upfront about: it opened in the current wave of purpose-built stargazing resorts (2024-2026), so there's no decade of guest reviews to lean on the way there is for an older lodge. What early data exists is solid. 167 TripAdvisor reviews put it at 4.0 out of 5, ranked #2 of 14 hotels in Twentynine Palms, and couples specifically rated the location 9.4 out of 10. That's a good early signal, not a guarantee. Book expecting a hotel still settling into its operational rhythm, and check recent reviews before you go, the way you would for any property without a long track record.
Location, price, and how to book
Joshua Tree National Park is a designated International Dark Sky Park, and RESET's whole location pitch rests on that adjacency: less than 10 minutes to the north entrance, about 45 minutes to the park's main visitor area. Rates start around $236 a night. Book direct through stayreset.com or by phone, or through Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, TripAdvisor, Michelin Guide, and Tablet Hotels if you're using an existing OTA credit or loyalty points. If you want to weigh RESET against the handful of other stargazing-focused options near the park, the guide to the best lodges for Joshua Tree stargazing lines them up side by side.
