Hiking under the desert sun may not be your favorite vacation but in case you decide to visit Palm Springs one day, I would strongly recommend that you do in May before it gets extremely hot. We took advantage of Memorial Day to make a week long trip. After flying to Los Angeles and spending 2 days on the beach; walking in the mornings at Venice Canals.
On our third day, we drove our rental car to Palm Springs. After 2 hours, you can feel that it is getting hotter. Once we arrived, we were welcome by an oasis in the desert decorated by palm trees. The town is stuck in 50s with its architecture and decorations. Although it was hot, we found a lot of escapes in the nature. First stop was Indian Canyon. Relatively easier to hike, we spent 2 hours with kids.
For hiking lovers, another option is to went up to San Jacinto mountain with cable car and have a cooler hike under the trees. The view of the town and infinite desert from the top of the mountain is priceless. I would recommend choosing an accommodation with a swimming pool, as it is hot even at nights. It is great for kids to have an afternoon escape in the pool
Palm Springs has a small, but very lively center especially in the evenings. Lulu is one of the popular places from the many to dine. Restaurants of Ace and Parker hotels are my suggestions for breakfast and lunch. Although the value is not great for the food, Parker Hotel‘s decoration is worth seeing
Another popular place for breakfast is Cheeky’s. If you go there early in the morning, you can ssave the wait time. Other activity we did was the Architectural Tour. You cannot find a better 50s architecture anywhere else. If you are interested in architecture, search internet about it. Walk or drive, up to you.
When we planned our trip, of course we could not skip the Joshua Tree National park which is an hour drive. If you leave early in the morning, it is a day trip. We had our breakfast on the way at Crossroads Cafe. As the name suggests, the park is all about Joshua trees, they are everywhere. Looks like a cactus. The hiking trails are all sand.
On some trailss, we did not come by to any soul for an hour; not counting lizards, mice and birds. We entered the park from west and followed the main road. Parked our car, did our hikes and drove down to south. That is doable in a day. We first hiked on Barker Dam Nature Trail with kids for 45 minutes. As it is an easier hike, there were souls this time. Then we did Wall Street Mill trail which took 1.5 hours. If you are patient enough to do the trail, you will see an abandoned mine and rotten cars from 30s at the end.
Continuing to south, Skull Rock Natura Trail and Arch Rock were our next stops. These areas host tenting campgrounds. Not taking the heat during the day, it would be a wonderful experience to stay there overnight and watch the stars. If you exit the park from south, next stop should be Cholla Cactus Garden Bu bölgelerde güzel çadır kamp alanları vardı. Another option is to drive back and leave from the west entrance to Palm Springs.
Defne