Cactus and Cocktails

Just 10 minutes’ drive from Palm Springs Airport, a 26-foot-tall statue of Marilyn Monroe marks the entrance to Downtown Park, an urban oasis of native California fan palms. Walk beneath swaying fronds to the Palm Springs Art Museum, filled with contemporary and modern paintings, sculpture, and art glass. Browse mid-century cool home goods and clothing in Palm Springs’ Uptown Design District, then revel in tiki-cocktail culture: Sip fruity rum drinks at Bootlegger Tiki or The Reef. For an earthier excursion, visit Moorten Botanical Garden’s cactus Shangri-la planted with 3,000-plus specimens, or hike in the Indian Canyons, where streams tumble down from the San Jacinto Mountains and bighorn sheep clatter across the hillsides.

Eight U.S. presidents and a long list of Hollywood royalty have visited this Rancho Mirage gem, and you can, too. Designed by architect A. Quincy Jones in the 1960s, this pink-walled property sprawls across 200 acres of beautifully landscaped desert and includes 11 lakes, nine acres of gardens, tennis courts, and a private golf course. A guided tour inside the estate’s 25,000-square-foot mansion—which belonged to diplomat and philanthropist Walter Annenberg—reveals mid-century modern marvels: atriums lined with volcanic stone, a pyramidal roof inspired by Mayan architecture, and gleaming glass walls. Sunnylands’ extensive gardens are planted in sweeping bands of color to evoke impressionist art. A self-guided audio walk travels 1.25 miles of garden pathways.  

This weirdly wonderful park is filled with rugged boulders and beautiful desert flora, including the namesake Joshua trees (actually a type of yucca, not a tree), and leafy groves of date palms. Stop into the Cottonwood Visitor Center for maps and information, then drive north through Joshua Tree National Park. Pause to admire fuzzy-looking cactus at the Cholla Cactus Garden and explore the remarkable monzogranite boulders at Skull Rock. Take a ranger-led walking tour of Keys Ranch, the home of miner and pioneer William F. Keys, or seek out the shade of native palm trees at Fortynine Palms Oasis. For a more serious leg-stretcher, hike to the summit of Ryan Mountain, the park’s tallest peak at 5,461 feet, where you can survey this amazing landscape from up high.

This town on Joshua Tree National Park’s northeast edge houses the park’s modern new Joshua Tree Visitor & Cultural Center, with an information center, bookstore, gift shop, and museum devoted to the culture and history of Native American communities. Local art is on view on Highway 62, where 25 desert murals are painted on building facades and the Glass Outhouse Art Gallery offers a view like no other public restroom. (Luckily, the glass in this unique outhouse/gallery is one-way, so you can see out, but no one can see in.) The gallery sells unique artworks and offers creative get-togethers for artists. For evening entertainment, bask in the nostalgia of car-seat movie-watching at Smith’s Ranch drive-in. Tune your radio to hear the soundtrack and order the largest size of buttered popcorn.

You can’t miss the otherworldly volcanic cinder cone that dominates the remote desert landscape south of Interstate 40. Amboy Crater’s nearly symmetrical black cone rises 246 feet above its surrounding 25-mile-wide lava field, which appears desolate most of the year but bursts into spectacular displays of desert lilies and sand verbena in February and March. A 1.1-mile trail meanders to the crater’s west side, then ascends to the rim via a breach where lava once spewed out. Climb to the top, then circle around the 1,508-foot-wide rim, which offers panoramic vistas of the Marble Mountains and the Bristol Mountains.

This park’s geological wonders include gleaming sand dunes, dense Joshua tree forests, volcanic cliffs, and miles of delightful solitude. Pick up maps and information at the Mojave National Preserve visitor center, housed in the Spanish-style Kelso Depot, a 1923 railroad stop that served passengers traveling between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Then explore Kelso Dunes, the second-largest dune system in California and the third-highest in the United States. In spring, desert wildflowers such as evening primrose and blazing star add a tapestry of color to the rippling, pink-white sand, which piles up in 650-foot-high mounds. Or get a flexibility workout on the Rings Loop hike from Hole-in-the-Wall: By placing your feet or hands in metal rings hammered into the rock, you’ll climb or descend through the multi-layered cliffs and twisted passages of Banshee Canyon.

The tiny settlement of Baker, population 700, offers everything a desert traveler is thirsting for. Stock up on drinks, dried-meat snacks, and desert-themed curios at Alien Fresh Jerky, then check the temperature on the World's Tallest Thermometer. Its 134-foot-tall height is a nod to Death Valley’s record hottest day, a 134-degree sizzler that occurred in 1913. If you’re craving fried zucchini or gooey baklava, stop by The Mad Greek, where they’ve been slicing gyro-thin lamb and pork for 30-plus years. 

This living, breathing Old West–style town was built as a 1940s movie set by Hollywood stars Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and Russell Hayden. The actors added an entrepreneurial twist: Pioneertown’s false-front buildings were constructed to look like 1880s stables, saloons, and jails, but their interiors housed ice cream parlors, bowling alleys, and shops offering visitor-friendly businesses. The “town” was featured in more than 50 films and television shows of the 1940s and 1950s, including The Cisco Kid and Annie Oakley. Today Pioneertown is a popular Instagram stop and hosts a handful of buzzing enterprises: MazAmar Art Pottery (desert-inspired vases, mugs, and bowls) the Red Dog Saloon (Tex-Mex food and cocktails), and Pappy and Harriet’s, a honky-tonk serving the desert’s tastiest ribs and live music. Big names from Paul McCartney to Robert Plant have performed on Pappy and Harriet’s stage.