Page 184 - 2015 Travel Guide to California

to Palm Springs Art Museum, one of Cal-
ifornia’s top regional art venues—its
Plein Art, MesoAmerican, and Contem-
porary Glass collections are outstanding.
And any sojourn through Palm Springs is
a magical mystery tour of “art-chitec-
ture,” thanks to the city’s stock of more
than two thousand midcentury Mod-
ernist homes.
Many of the finest exemplars of Mod-
ernism are boutique hotels, and almost all
have played host to the Hollywood A-list.
“Sinatra slept here” and “This was Angela
Jolie’s room” is no idle chatter.
For the Fun of It
Palm Springs has festivals to please
everyone. In March, the world-class Indian
Wells Tennis Garden fills to overflowing
for the annual BNP Paribas Open. And in
April, be there or be square for the
Coachella Music Festival, hosted in the
warm open air of neighboring Indio.
Almost 200 performers rock half a million
attendees; unannounced surprise per-
formances have included Beyoncé, Paul
McCartney and Gwen Stefani.
Higher culture? Palm Desert’s
McCallum Theater resounds to laughter
and cheers of delight with a lineup that
can range from Itzhak Perlman and The
Vienna Boys Choir to The Nutcracker
ballet and the Peking Acrobats.
Since the valley’s Cahuilla Indian terri-
tory is a sovereign nation, it’s exempt from
California’s state ban on gambling. Try
your hand with Lady Luck at any of half a
dozen casinos. And shopaholics are in for
a treat: Art galleries, haute couturiers, and
boutique stores specializing in retro mod-
ernist décor offer a dash of retail therapy
between your spa treatments.
PALM SPRINGS
DRIVE
»
TOUR
PALM
DESERT
COACHELLA VALLEY
VISTA POINT
Start in downtown PALM SPRINGS and follow
Highway 111 southeast to PALM DESERT, then
head into the San Jacinto Mountains along
steep, twisting Highway 74 to the COACHELLA
VALLEY VISTA POINT for a sensational view.
Retrace your route to Highway 111 and continue
east. Turn south onto Highway 86 past date
palms and vineyards and the Salton Sea to
SALTON CITY, then head west along Highway
522 through the BORREGO BADLANDS to the
artists’ community of BORREGO SPRINGS.
Explore the fantastical metal sculptures in
GALLETA MEADOWS, then lace up your hiking
boots to explore cactus-studded ANZA-BOR-
REGO DESERT STATE PARK.
GALLETA
MEADOWS
ANZA-BORREGO
DESERT STATE PARK
VISITOR CENTER
BORREGO
SPRINGS
182 2015 T R AV E L G U I D E TO C A L I F O R N I A
Family Fun
Kids love the desert, which offers heaps of
family fun, including old ghost towns such
as Pioneertown and Randsburg. Another
favorite is the Living Desert Zoo & Gardens,
exhibiting nearly 400 species of animals,
from aardvark to zebra. With luck you might
even spot bighorn sheep in the wild on a
Desert Adventures eco-tour by Jeep. Even
camels add to the fun at the Riverside County
Fair & National Date Festival in February.
In summer, beat the heat splashing about
at Knott’s Soak City. Or take to the air with
Fantasy Balloon Flights for a bird’s-eye view
of the Coachella Valley. Then delight the
kids, and yourself, with a ten-minute jaunt
to Alaska (at least metaphorically) aboard
the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. It ascends
through four life zones to the mountaintop
station, where the air is 30 degrees cooler
than it is in the desert below.
BORREGO
BADLANDS
SALTON CITY
OPPOSITE: SAHANI PHOTOGRAPHY/SHUTTERSTOCK