Things to do in Palm Springs

OK, The trip is close and here are the planning.

Thursday after noon arrive PSP and pick the car rental:

Budget Confirmation Number: 22112247CA3

Pick-up: Feb 02, 2023 3:30pm

Palm Springs Apo

3400 East Tahquitz Canyon Way

Palm Springs, CA 92262, US

Ph: 760-778-1956

Hotel:7 Springs Inn & Suites, 950 N Indian Canyon Dr

Confirmation: 3473130569

relax and check around.

Palm Springs Visitor Center, 2901 N Palm Canyon Dr

Friday: Palm Springs Aerial Tramway + Indian Canyons -14 ins

Saturday to Joshua Tree National Park - 1.5 hrs.

If you have only one day in Joshua Tree, here’s something recommend:

Sunrise in Cholla Cactus Garden

Sightseeing Joshua Tree’s Rock Formations:

Skull Rock – A natural formation with an ominous look, Skull Rock is located right along the main road and draws crowds and creates traffic – but it’s still worth seeing.

Arch Rock – One of the park’s most famous arches, it’s a short 0.3-mile hike from White Tank Campground to see it.

Split Rock – You can’t tell in my photo, but this massive boulder has split almost in half. The two halves are currently sitting together, but you can walk around the rock to get a sense for the scale of how big it is.

Hike:

Trail Difficulty Distance Elevation Est. Time

Hidden Valley Nature Trail Easy 1.0mi 100 feet 1 hour

Ryan Ranch Easy 1.0mi 135 feet 1 hour

Barker Dam Easy 1.1mi 50 feet 1 hour

Split Rock Moderate 2.5mi 150 feet 1.5-2.5 hours

Lost Horse Mine Moderate 4.0mi 550 feet 2-3 hours

Lunch in Town - water and food

Sunset at Keys View:

Keys View – I recommend visiting Keys View for sunset, but you can always visit during the day too. It’s a pretty epic scene, looking out from Joshua Tree National Park across the Coachella Valley.

Dinner in Town - Joshua Tree Saloon?

Stargazing (Optional)

Sunday to Salvation Mountain - 2 hrs.

Bombay Beach Salton Sea

Slab City U.S.A.

Monday to Living Desert Zoo & Gardens - 40 mins

Sunnylands Center & Gardens - 24 mins

Palm Springs Aerial Tramway -13 mins

Indian Canyons -14 ins - https://www.indian-canyons.com/indian_canyons

Palm Springs Air Museum - 12 mins

Moorten Botanical Garden - 10 mins

Palm Springs Art Museum - walking 20 mins

Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

1. Trek a couple of minutes onto Tramway Road as you roll into Palm Springs, and you’ll come across this classic canyon-hugging gondola ride. Board a rotating car inside an angular 1963 station, and after 10 minutes—and a double-digit temperature drop—you’ll find yourself facing the entirety of the Coachella Valley below. Linger with a stop at the mountaintop restaurant, café, or lounge, or hike deeper into the San Jacinto Mountains.

2. Palm Springs Art Museum

This mid-size museum houses a collection of contemporary paintings, sculptures, and art glass from Henry Moore, Robert Motherwell, Helen Frankenthaler, and fellow West Coast artists like Sam Francis, Mark di Suvero, and Edward Ruscha. Exhibitions often focus on the cultures and themes of the desert: Modernism, Native Americans, and the American West. The museum also operates a satellite location in Palm Desert (it’s free) and an architecture and design center in downtown Palm Springs.

3. Cabazon Dinosaurs

The 100-ton Brontosaurus and T. Rex sculptures once beckoned motorists on their way to Palm Springs to a 24-hour diner. Today, they guard the entrance to a Creationist-themed dino museum with an interesting take on the facts. At the very least, pose for a photo with Mr. Rex and walk into the gift shop housed inside Dinny the Brontosaurus’s belly.

4. Palm Springs Air Museum

This air museum primarily showcases World War II and combat aircraft from the wars in Korea and Vietnam. You’ll find more than 40 flyable and static planes across three warehouses, from the B-17 flying fortress to the F-4 fighter jet, and a couple of aircraft on the tarmac, like the C-47 and PBY Catalina Flying Boat. The museum also offers a limited number of high-priced flights aboard the C-47 Skytrain and P-51 Mustang.

5. Living Desert Zoo & Gardens

True to its name, this zoo looks just like a living slice of the Sonoran Desert. Located a couple of miles outside Palm Springs, the largely outdoor locale is broadly split into North American and African environments. Explore the grounds to find an assortment of wild cats and hoofed mammals. You can also feed the giraffes, which is an experience and a half.

6. Joshua Tree

Craggy peaks, climbable boulders, and those beloved yuccas are barely an hour car ride away. Joshua Tree National Park is a popular destination for overnight campers, but you can explore plenty in a single afternoon, from an easygoing hike around Hidden Valley to vistas from 5,000 feet up at Keys View. If you’re coming from Palm Springs, you’ll want to enter from the northwest entrance in Joshua Tree; if you’re staying farther east into the Coachella Valley, you can use the south entrance, but it’ll put you—for better or worse—in a more desolate area that’s farther from the park’s main attractions.

7. Moorten Botanical Garden

Though only an acre in size, this botanical garden is packed with prickly varieties of cacti and other desert plants. The family-owned garden dates back to the 1930s and harbors more than 3,000 specimens of desert plants from around the world, grouped by region. There's also a nursery if you want to take some plants back home with you—a rather lively souvenir if you ask us.

8. Tahquitz Canyon

Flowing water in the middle of the desert? Indeed, this two-mile loop leads to a 50-foot waterfall tucked into Tahquitz Canyon. The falls are located within the Agua Caliente Band of the Cahuilla Indians reservation, so you’ll need to pay an admission fee. On the plus side, the fee keeps the trail impeccably maintained, unlike many of L.A.’s graffiti-filled waterfalls. Ranger-led hikes are also available.

9. Sunnylands Center & Gardens

Sunnylands, the former winter retreat for the wealthy Annenberg family and a popular summit space for decades of presidents, resides on a 200-acre plot of irrigated desert in Rancho Mirage. Though much of that space is occupied by a nine-hole golf course, 12 acres have been dedicated to public gardens and a visitor center with a rotating selection of artwork from the Annenberg collection. Tours of the mansion are available but regularly sell out months in advance.

10. Palm Canyon Drive

You can barely walk a block along Palm Canyon Drive without stumbling upon an eye-catching gallery, antique, or furniture showroom. Palm Springs and mid-century modernism go hand in hand, and you’ll find plenty of galleries (notably a showroom from retro-inspired artist SHAG) and furniture stores dedicated to the jet-setting aesthetic.

11. Palm Springs Visitors Center

Even if you don’t need any information from the official Palm Springs welcome center, this distinctive spot is worth a stop to admire its treasured architecture; the Space Age structure opened in 1965 as a gas station, but when the Albert Frey and Robson Chambers’s retro design was slated for the wrecking ball in the ’90s it was saved and turned into a visitors' center. If you do need some guidance, you can book a tour of Palm Springs right here.

12. Tennis Club neighborhood

Palm Springs is brimming with handsome mid-century modern homes. Keep in mind that most of these are private abodes, so you can’t exactly knock on the front door. But cruise around some notable neighborhoods, from Tennis Club to Araby Cove, and you’ll spot plenty of architectural gems along the way. Highlights include the Del Marcos Hotel and the Edris House.