Walking in the desert may not be your favorite holiday, but if you have to go to Palm Springs one day, I suggest you leave in May without the heat too hard, as we do. We took advantage of the memorial day vacation and planned a week’s trip. First of all, we flew to Los Angeles, spending our first two days on the colorful and always bustling beaches of Los Angeles. It was very enjoyable to take our morning walk on the Venice Canals. In May, the weather was ideal for a walk-around, even though it was light lemon to spend time on the beach.
On our third day, we drove our rental car to Palm Springs. On our journey, which lasted about two hours, we could feel the weather warming as we got closer to Palm Springs. When we got to Palm Springs, we came across an oasis in the middle of a desert decorated with palm trees like its name. It’s a festive city with its architecture and interiors stuck in the 1950s. Although the weather is generally warm, there are places around the city where you can escape from the heat and spend time in nature. We went to indian canyon first. Along the trail shaded by palm trees, it is possible to walk by putting your feet in a small creek and cooling off and ricocheting off the cliffs. It’s a short route, so it’s also very convenient to walk with the kids. We spent about 2 hours walking for an hour and lingering for an hour in the canyon.
For hikers, the other alternative is to go up to Mount San Jacinto with the cable car, and to walk a cool and pleasant forest walk on the mountain while the weather is extremely hot in that area and most importantly below. Not to watch the city from the top and the vast flat desert views. I would say choose a hotel with a pool for accommodation, and even in May, the days were long and the weather was quite hot even after the sun went down. You may want to spend a long time in the pool to cool off. Palm Springs has a small downtown. The streets are very lively in the evening. There’s a lot of alternatives for food or a drink. Lulu’s is one of the popular venues. For lunch or breakfast, you can try the restaurants of the Ace and Parker hotels. I think it’s worth going to see the décor of the Parker hotel and the café inside, especially despite the poor food when the price quality comparison is made.
Cheeky’s another place for breakfast. If you go early in the morning like us, your chances of sitting without waiting too long are said to be mostly lined up in front of you. Another activity we did in Palm Springs was an ‘architectural tour’. I don’t know any other city where you can see the architecture of the 1950s so beautiful. If you’re interested in architecture, there’s a lot of resources on the Internet. Whether it’s walking (it’s not very possible because it’s hot) or walking street by street with your car, it’s enjoyable enough to just watch the houses.
As we were planning our Palm Springs vacation, we had to visit this city, as well as see joshua tree national park, which is just an hour away. If you leave early in the morning, you can go and visit the day-to-day park. We set off early and had breakfast in the crossroads cafe on the way before entering the park. The main vegetation in the park, as the name suggests, is the Joshua tree. It’s like a big cactus with its appearance. It’s a pretty aesthetic tree for cactus lovers like me:) Of course, due to the warm and desert climate, it is possible to come across many other kinds of cactus. Hiking trails are generally covered with sand, even though it is a proper path.
While it’s a little scary not to come across any other creatures (except a few lizards, mice and birds) for an hour on some routes, I think desert walking is a different experience. It’s a hot factor that intimidates you in itself. You have to be extra prepared to protect yourself from the sun. We entered the park from the west entrance and followed the main road, parked our car where we were going to walk, and then drove south of the park with our car. You can cross the whole park like this in a day. First we walked on the Barker Dam Nature Trail, not a very long route, but we walked about 45 min with the children. It’s popular because the route is easy, there were many other walking from us. Then we walked the Wall Street Mill Route. This route lasted a little longer than 1-1.5 hours and only a few people were walking across. This route pushed the boundaries of the children a little bit, but the old mine at the end of the route and the old car that was left to rot attracted interest.
Then we continued to head south in the park, skull rock nature trail and arch rock was our other stop points. But we didn’t want to take any more walks in the afternoon heat, so we took a look around with short pauses. There were nice tent campsites in these areas. We thought it would be great to stay in the tent and watch the night sky in the dark of the desert, but on the other hand we decided that it would not be possible to stop or walk in the campsite during the day. In this case, I think it makes the most sense to get into the park in the afternoon, stay in the tent for only one night after a few walks and gather the tent and return in the morning and day. If you’re going to get out of the park through the south gate, the next stop in the park is cholla cactus garden. I don’t think it’s worth stopping in the part of the park until the next exit. So instead of exiting the south gate, he can go back to Arch Rock and return to Palm Springs through the west gate where we checked in.
We arrived at our hotel in the evening before dark. Children’s motivation sits in the pool at the hotel in the evening because everyone came in threw themselves into the pool 🙂
The next day we said goodbye to Palm Spring and went back to L.A., and from there we flew home.
I wouldn’t recommend this trip to those who don’t have a relationship with the heat, but we had a lot of fun and we had a colorful holiday when we said some nature.
Bay