Page 169 - 2014 Travel Guide to California

BADWATER BASIN, opposite,
is an endorheic basin in Death
Valley National Park.
the cafés of Melrose Avenue, the Big Sur
cliffs or the redwood giants.
But the dry, clear climate has an
enormous appeal of its own. Palm
Springs—celebrating its 75th anniversary—
is a mecca for vacationers. The city boasts
enough events, from the January Film Fes-
tival to the Backstreet Art Walk, to keep you
busy every day of the year. Palm Desert is
slightly less posh, but equally beguiling,
with more than 150 works of public art
enlivening the already beautiful landscape.
Though one might choose a base in
Palm Desert, San Diego or even Las Vegas,
the eternal spirit of the California desert is
found in its conservation areas. Death
Valley and Joshua Tree are the premier
national parks, and many visitors plan
their entire visit around one of these mag-
ical, even spiritual, destinations. Death
Valley alone offers enough spectacular
hiking, 4WD routes, ghost towns and nat-
ural attractions to merit a four- to five-day
visit. America’s biggest state park, Anza-
Borrego, is a major pilgrimage site during
the wildflower season. The region’s signa-
ture towns—Indian Wells, Needles, Salton
Sea and Mojave—provide a taste of local
character. For more sophisticated pursuits,
the desert’s three cosmopolitan centers—
Palm Springs, Palm Desert and La
Quinta—offer golf, tennis, equestrian
sports, fashion shows and film festivals.
Desert Wildflowers
Winters in the desert can be numbingly
cold, while summers are blazing hot. But
between March and mid-May—if the rains
have been good—the desert becomes a
magnet for people who love color, fra-
grance and landscapes of almost surreal
beauty. Few wildflower displays on earth
compare with the California desert bloom,
DRIVE
»
TOUR
Though there are great off-
road trips in and around all of
California’s desert parks, the
drive to AMBOY CRATER along
legendary ROUTE 66 is both
scenic and historic. Route 66
begins in SANTA MONICA and crosses CALIFORNIA’S MOJAVE DESERT,
from BARSTOW to Needles. To get to this section of the road, take
INTERSTATE 40 and exit at FENNER. Follow Historic Route 66 toward
AMBOY through some very desolate and spectacular country. The ride
is best early in the year, when the area around the ancient crater is
carpeted with wildflowers. As always, drives through the desert can be
unpredictable. Make sure you have plenty of water—for the car as
well as for yourself!
which transforms the dry, unwelcoming
scrubland into a hallucinatory paradise
that seems lifted right out of The Wizard of
Oz. Death Valley, Anza-Borrego and Joshua
Tree are the most popular destinations for
flower and cactus lovers, with dozens of
rare and fantastic plant species—from
hearty wolf cholla to delicate ghost
flowers—in bloom. Meanwhile, on the
Mojave’s edge north of Los Angeles,
the Antelope Valley Poppy State Reserve
provides miles of trails (some wheelchair-
accessible) through rolling fields of lush
and unbroken gold flowers.
ANZA-BORREGO DESERT
State Park wildflowers, above.
Family Fun
There are infinite possibilities for adven-
ture and exploration in California’s
deserts. Just stay well-stocked with water
(one gallon per person per day) and be vig-
ilant of the dangers presented by any
desert environment—hazards that can
include rock falls, sudden storms and flash
floods.
For families, exploring ghost towns is
always a thrill. When the warm wind blows
and those ancient doors and shutters
creak, it’s easy to imagine the spirits of
long-departed gold miners haunting the
landscape.
Rock hounding delights kids of all ages,
with excellent volcanic specimens to be
found around Amboy Crater Natural Land-
mark (see Drive Tour, above) and red quartz
in the Turtle Mountain Wilderness.
Horseback riding, camping, mountain
biking and hiking are also popular desert
activities. Some federally-managed desert
areas (BLM areas) allow ATV expeditions
as well.
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