Palm Desert I like… Palm Springs is nice too but just for a short visit. Rich people these days make me nervous. And as one of the current ‘have nots’ in this grand country of America, I prefer to not be harassed by police if it can be avoided.
Main impression of Palm Springs: lots of medical clinics next door to or across the street from liquor stores and pretty flat. Thought it was nice and could see how wealthy retirees would flock there.
It’s really all about the sunshine and there is plenty of it. We stayed at a lovely hotel in Palm Springs: Caliente Tropics Resort Hotel.
They are dog friendly but our two buddies slept in the car as no way was I paying another $50 ($25 per pet) to have them in the room. We were going to camp at Joshua Tree but it was right before Thanksgiving and the place was booked solid.
We went back to my free camp spot at Desert View Conservation Area and all of us slept in the car.
A storm hit and the strong winds would have blown our little tent to smithereens. I woke up in the middle of the night and actually thought the jeep was going to get blown over.
Yes, that’s a little silly but seriously you had to be there; it was a crazy-forceful wind storm.
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I dug Desert Hot Springs.
It’s a small town on the outskirts of the above two areas that I had seen a turn off for that peaked my interest when I was driving to Joshua Tree from San Diego. I like hot springs.
But two weeks later when I left Yucca and arrived on the fringes of Palm Springs at about 3 a.m. and treated myself to an actual meal (so sick of deli items – had an eggs, toast and hash browns breakfast) the waitress at Dennys gave me a friendly warning to not drive to the town.
“No one here (from Palm Springs) goes there”, she said.
I listened (nice local folk usually know what they are talking about) and almost did not go, but the next day ended up there anyways and had a nice time.
That story is up next: Desert Hot Springs and Hot Springs Hotels.