Los Angeles & Southern California - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [288]
The Inland Empire, as locals call it, comprises Riverside County to the south and San Bernardino County to the north. The latter is the nation’s largest county, at 20,105 sq miles (52,073 sq km). True, much of the drive from LA is through the sprawl-by-which-all-other-sprawl-is-measured, but once you’ve arrived you’re really someplace special.
Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, which stretches to the southeast, are the desert’s chief draw for poolside lounging, golf, tennis and the ‘it’ factor. Nearby, Joshua Tree National Park is a favorite of hikers and rock climbers. Beyond the nearly two-mile-high San Jacinto Mountains, gigantic Anza-Borrego Desert State Park thrills with wide-open spaces and desolate hills. Back toward the coast, Temecula has developed a following for winemaking and a historic downtown.
Spend some time here, and you too may understand why so many find this land so magical, chic and irresistible.
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HIGHLIGHTS
Whisking 6000ft up the San Jacinto Mountains aboard the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway
A nighttime mineral bath under infinite stars in Desert Hot Springs
Checking out the trees and zipping up and down giant rocks at Joshua Tree National Park
Marveling at Palm Springs Modernist masterpieces
Watching for wildlife – and maybe even spotting a rare bighorn sheep – in Indian or Tahquitz Canyons
Gazing at the vast expanse of desert that unfurls below you from Font’s Point at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park
Sipping chocolate port in Temecula
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PALM SPRINGS & COACHELLA VALLEY
The Rat Pack is back, baby, or at least its hangout is. In the 1950s and ’60s, Palm Springs, some 100 miles east of LA, was the swinging getaway of Sinatra, Elvis, Liberace and dozens of other stars, partying the night away in futuristic homes built just for them. Once the Rat Pack packed it in, the 300-sq-mile Coachella Valley gave over to retirees in golf clothing and grew, well, not hip. That was until the mid-1990s, when a new generation latched onto the city’s retro-chic charms: kidney-shaped pools, steel-and-glass bungalows, boutique hotels with vintage decor, and piano bars serving perfect martinis. In today’s Palm Springs, retirees mix amiably with hipsters and a significant gay and lesbian contingent.
Around Palm Springs, hike palm-studded canyons or ski through silky snow (or both in the same day), play golf, explore mu-seums, shop at massive malls or high-toned boutiques, sample a date milkshake, tour a windmill or straddle a fault line.
‘Down Valley’, as the Coachella Valley southeast of Palm Springs is called, boasts world-class golf resorts, ritzy shopping and expensive retirement homes in the cities of Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells and La Quinta. Indio, America’s date capital, sits at the valley’s southern end. North of town, Desert Hot Springs is emerging from a slump as a down-and-outpost thanks to hip hotels atop those namesake springs.
High season is October to April, but Palm Springs stays reasonably busy even in summer when hotel rates drop and temperatures rise well above 100°F (38°C).
Click here for information about Joshua Tree National Park and environs.
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HISTORY
For over a thousand years, Cahuilla (say ‘ka-wee-ya’) tribespeople occupied the canyons on the southwest edge of the Coachella Valley, where permanent streams flowed from the San Jacinto Mountains. Early Spanish explorers called the hot springs where the city of Palm Springs now stands Agua Caliente (hot water), a term later used to refer to the local band of Cahuillas.
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FAST FACTS
Palm Springs to Joshua Tree National Park 66 miles
Palm Springs to Temecula 84 miles
Palm Springs to Disneyland 94 miles
Palm Springs to LA 110 miles
Palm Springs