The highway passes through the city of Twentynine Palms and along the northern boundary of the Joshua Tree National Park.

Route 62 begins at a freeway-to-freeway interchange with Interstate 10 at the eastern end of the San Gorgonio Pass northwest of Palm Springs in Riverside County.

East of Twentynine Palms, there is a sign warning drivers that there are no services for 100 miles (160 km) until reaching Vidal Junction where SR 62 meets US 95.

In 2014, the Palm Springs Desert Sun newspaper reported that a dozen marines from the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms have been killed in accidents on Highway 62 since 2007 (out of a total of 33 vehicle-related deaths among personnel at the base); the paper attributed the problem in part to the base's unusually remote location, leaving personnel few options for entertainment.

[15] Except where prefixed with a letter, postmiles were measured on the road as it was in 1964, based on the alignment that existed at the time, and do not necessarily reflect current mileage.