Palm Springs and Joshua Tree

Palm Springs sits in the Coachella Valley in the southern California desert, at the foot of the San Jacinto Mountains, which rise to over 3,000 meters. From the 1930s it became a winter retreat for Hollywood artists, and in the 1950s and 1960s it gained houses, hotels and buildings in modernist architecture that are now the city’s hallmark, with straight lines, flat roofs, large windows and pools.

Much of the valley’s land belongs to the Agua Caliente Cahuilla people, who have lived there for centuries and maintain the Indian Canyons, canyons with oases of native palms. From the city’s edge, the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway rises in rotating cabins to a pine forest, where temperatures are much lower than in the valley.

To the north, Joshua Tree National Park protects the meeting of two deserts: the Mojave, higher, with Joshua trees, a yucca-like species with twisted branches, and the Colorado, lower, with cacti and shrubs. The park is known for its rounded rock formations, popular for climbing, and for its dark skies, good for stargazing. Twentynine Palms, by the north entrance, is the most practical base for the park.

The best time to visit is October through April, with warm days and cool nights. In summer, temperatures frequently exceed 40 °C.

This destination brings together 2 cities: Palm Springs, Twentynine Palms.