Palm Springs: Off the Beaten Path

Palm Springs is my home away from home. And every time I come, I never feel I have enough time to do and see everything I want to, which is probably one of the reasons I keep coming back. 

Palm Springs and the surrounding areas are the exact opposite of what I usually look for when I vacation. There’s no beach, very limited natural bodies of water, a whole lotta dirt (it is a desert after all), and it’s unbearably hot. Mast young people tend to think PS is a party down but it’s a really retirement town meaning the city is super strict about its noise ordinance laws among other rules. 

There’s only so much you can do poolside or on the main strip, I figured a way to look for nearby adventures. Don’t get me wrong, sipping a cocktail poolside is great, but so is an early morning hike in Indian Canyons.

The one thing the desert offers is an escape from the city. Quite frankly, I love the isolation. And that’s why others come here too. To get away from the hustle and bustle to enjoy a bit of peace, quiet, and sightseeing.

The huge area of desert encompassing Riverside and San Bernardino counties, otherwise known as the Inland Empire, is pretty vast. And because it’s vast with different attractions spread between the outskirts of Los Angeles to Indio (where THE Coachella music festival is held every year), it has an abundance of activities and attractions in every direction. 

One day while I was thinking about how to restart this blog, I thought to myself “I should really write about this.” So here it goes! I’ve organized all the places that make the two hour drive from L.A. worth it. Cheers! 

What to Do 

International Banana Museum Pulling this post together I struggled with how to categorize this “museum.” It’s certainly worth a look if you’re on the way to Salvation Mountain, the Salton Sea, or simply making your way to Imperial Valley. That said, the museum is about an hour drive outside of Palm Springs (in the city of Mecca) so I would suggest combining this mini road trip with some other nearby sightseeing. 

Now about this wacky place… It’s a space completely decked out in all things bananas. With some Googling, I found out the owner of the museum was initially trying to keep his convenient store (which is right next door) from closing, so the “museum” was openied as the store’s supplemental income. The strategy worked. To enter the museum, you pay $1 to witness the largest collection of banana paraphernalia on the planet. It’s completely random but just too interesting to pass up. 

Desert X

Aerial Tramway I’ll make this one short and to the point. Hopping on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway is a must for all couples, young and old. It’s such a cute date to go up almost 9,000 feet on a rotating tram car, and then getting dropped off in the Mount San Jacinto mountains. You can do a lot when you reach the top: camping, nature walks, hikes, fine dining, all of it. For the perfect date, take this ride during winter and take lots of IG pictures. 

Where to Explore

Joshua Tree National Park I couldn’t talk about PS without speaking about this crazy beautiful national park. Joshua Tree is a gem and I can’t believe I didn’t discover it until well after I graduated college. It was in my backyard the whole time! 

First thing’s first: bring a good quality camera. The views in Joshua are unmatched and you would be remiss not to snag a few NatGeo-esque photos for yourself. My recommendation is to budget your time in the park according to what you want to see. The park is massive, but you can easily drive through in one day starting at either Highway 62 or I-10 and end up on the opposite end of where you started. My advice though, is not to breeze through the park in one drive but rather to spend at least two days hiking, picnicking, stargazing, and learning a few things about the native people, the environment, and the land. Whatever you decide, don’t miss out on Skull Rock and Cholla Cactus Garden.

Palm Canyon Trail/Oasis at Indian Canyon This is the home of the famous curved Washontonia palm tree seeking sunlight in a sea of hundreds of palm trees. For full disclosure, there are plenty of palm tree oases throughout the Coachella Valley (and beyond), but this is by definition the largest cluster of isolated palm trees in the area. And that alone is a reason to visit. The nature walk is roughly two miles and fortunately fully shaded (THANK YOU PALM TREES!) Arrive at the Indian entrance right at opening (9AM) to beat some of the heat, before weaving through this calming trail of palm trees. 

Galleta Meadow Estates in Borrego Springs

If it weren’t for the excess scrolling on Instagram during the initial months of last year’s shelter-in-place mandates, I might have never discovered these random metal sculptures ever existed. When I finally decided the boredom was too much, I asked a small group of friends to take a drive with me to see this the Jurassic Park-like artwork in person.

First things first, these scraps of metal are DEEP in the desert so bring a good playlist of tunes on the way. About a two hour drive southeast of PS (on the CA-86S then CA-78E) will lead you right to the free standing artwork by Ricardo Breceda. The steel-welded sculptures are on private-owned property (so don’t forget your manners) and there are 130 sculptures to visit. My best advice is to drive around Galleta Meadow Estates and you’ll find something very different and unique at every turn. My favorite part of visiting these sculptures was really just taking in all the detail worked in to each creature. The star of the show is of course, the “Serpent”

Off the Beaten Path

Salvation Mountain It’s been years since I’ve been to Salvation Mountain but the influencers on Instagram suggest the installation is still standing and proudly at that. This “mountain” is located in Niland, part of a community in Imperial County called Slab City. There’s always someone manning the installation, a greeter if you will, who you can ask for the history and other installations around the area. As with all art attractions in the middle of nowhere, arrive early to avoid a swarm of tourists.

East Jesus We were told about East Jesus, West Satan and the Slab City Library which were all minutes away from Salvation Mountain and to our knowledge, free (although tips are certainly encouraged). Anyways, such creativity here! Clearly all the materials made to build/craft the art pieces are recycled materials. And this really put things in perspective for me… every single article of material at this mosaic was once upon a time a consumer good that ended up in a dumpster. Although it’s only a ten minute drive from Salvation Mountain, there are hardly any tourists, so you can explore, admire, and take all the IG photos as you want without anyone bombing your pic.