Joshua Tree Guidebooks

Is there a good guidebook for Joshua Tree that specifically highlights/lists lower grade climbs (5.9 and below)??

The Trad Guide to Joshua Tree: 60 Favorite Climbs from 5.5 to 5.9 https://www.amazon.com/dp/0972441395/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_38aQFb6WX78EC

Pretty good book if you just want easy trad climbs. Bob Gaines’ “Best Climbs” book might also suit your needs. A more thorough guide like Vogel or Miramontes should have all those routes and more. The previous edition of Miramontes guide had some top 10 lists and I believe one of them was for moderate cracks or something like that, though I think he might have done away with those lists in the later edition.

The more complete guides have an index by grade in the back. You can see all of the climbs in a particular grade as a group. You'll get more options, especially off the beaten track ones, than from a select guide. If you see a 5.8 with stars that's not near the road, you'll probably have a fun time.

Lately, I’ve been using Randy Vogel’s “Joshua Tree Climbs, 1000 of the Best climbs in Joshua Tree National Park” the last handful of week-long trips - recommend it. It has indexes by both name and grade as most good guides do.

I used to use some of Vogel’s earlier guides - which tend to sacrifice detail in favor of quantity although I still frequent his Falcon guide “Joshua Tree West.”

I never bought “The Trad Guide to Joshua Tree: 60 Favorite Climbs from 5.5 to 5.9” (though a copy was recently given to me).  It is good, but may have focused too much attention on a small subset of many great climbs.  Maybe use it as a guide to which climbs will tend to have a line of people at the start?  :)

MP will get better over time.  Some submissions still tend to rely on book guides so you could wind up on something with missing but relevant information.  Originally, MP was officially intended to not outright replace guide books.  But it is trending that way for sure.  And routes with high numbers of votes probably are ok in terms of difficulty and quality ratings.  YMMV

Just keep your eye out for bolted face climbs in those grades. Many were put up by 5.12 climbers and can be run out. 

Thanks, guys!  I usually start here on MP, but the route identification can be pretty iffy,,,"it's the route to the left of XYZ"  but then you have to backtrack to find XYZ, so I like having the book as a second source.