A Winter Vacation in Desert Hot Springs

I have had a love affair with deserts since childhood. As a young child growing up in the Los Angeles area, we often camped in the desert at Joshua Tree National Park or Anza Borrego State Park. My later childhood was in the high desert of northern California, in Lassen County near the town of Janesville. Dad was a driller and I stayed with him in the deserts of Nevada and Death Valley; and as an adult I traveled to all the California deserts, as well as deserts in Idaho, Oregon, New Mexico, and Arizona. As an Environmental Scientist I worked to conserve species in the Mojave and Colorado Deserts, and when I'm an old person, I darn well hope to retire on my 5 acres of desert property. So after a very hard year of a lot of hard work and difficult problem solving, a winter vacation in the Southern California desert sounded like a winning idea. My uncle had offered to take us to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway and to the mineral pools in Desert Hot Springs. Although my parents invited themselves along, my uncle dropped out, and we were all sick with cold and flu viruses, the trip was still on.

When I was young I hiked cross country at night in the remote desert beneath the foothills of the Sierra Nevada range near Doyle, California, to a natural hot spring; however, my older and crankier body decided a resort with a bunch of mineral pools would suit me just fine. Our bodies ached from a whole year of moving four people out of a house and hosting parties and holidays, so on the day after Christmas we headed down south. We visited relatives in Santa Monica, West Hollywood, and Westchester. But with family politics, tensions were high, and getting out of the big cities and into the open desert was just what I needed.

We stopped for a hearty home-cooked meal of ribs and chicken at Gramma's Country Kitchen in the city of Banning. Towards evening we arrived in Desert Hot Springs and checked into the Aqua Soleil Hotel and Mineral Water Spa, which I had found on Hotels.com and reserved for  3 nights. On the first night we hit the mineral hot tub, and the hotel broadcasted on a large screen in the pool area the movie "Maze Runner" for our entertainment while soaking. Desert Hot Springs is conveniently located north of Palm Springs and the Santa Rosa-San Jacinto mountain range, just a tad southwest of Joshua Tree National Park, and just a few miles east of the San Bernardino National Forest. So for a person who likes to hike the desert mountains by day and then come in for the night for a nice soak in the hot tub, Desert Hot Springs is the right place to stay. My only complaint was lack of a microwave in the rooms; but my clever parents finagled one from maintenance staff.

Palm Springs Aerial Tram

On the first day we took the aerial tram; it was so close, we bought our tickets, went back to the hotel for lunch, and then returned to take the discounted evening ride at 4:00. The tram takes a packed load of people from the valley station in Mt. San Jacinto State Park, over 6,000 feet up the steep northeastern facing slope to the top of San Jacinto peak in 10 minutes (mountain station). The view of the rocky cliffs and canyons leading up to the summit is one that I'd only otherwise see in a helicopter; that is once I pushed my way through a wall of people and claimed a spot by the window.

While slightly disappointed with the sheer crowdedness of the tram ride, the destination on the top of Mt. San Jacinto was another story. It was winter at 8500 feet in elevation, so temperatures were down in the 30s, and a very strong wind greeted us as we stepped outside the station. But wrapped up in layers of field biologist clothing, I was quite comfortable and able to enjoy the spectacular view from the viewing deck. From the overlook we watched the sun set over San Gorgonio Mountain, Palm Springs, and the western edge of Joshua Tree National Park.

Shadow of Mt. San Jacinto, looking northeast towards Palm Springs and Joshua Tree National Park

Looking north towards San Gorgonio Mountain, San Bernardino range

Mountain station lookout

There is a restaurant and bar on top of this mountain, and most people take the tram up to have dinner and a drink and then go back down. Not me. I took the path down to the 0.75-mile Long Valley Discovery Trail and hiked the loop through the ice and snow of the meadow. Here is where I found my peace, and all my moodiness from the hard year and the earlier parts of the trip faded away. Aside from a slip on the ice that landed me flat on my ass, the trail was flat and mellow and the scenery was beautiful.

Long Valley

Long Valley Discovery Trail

I hiked back up to the mountain station just as it was getting dark, and vied for my position by the window on the tram ride back down. We met my parents for dinner in Desert Hot Springs at Casa Blanca, a good Mexican food restaurant recommended by hotel staff, and went for another late evening soak in the tubs.

Joshua Tree National Park

Our next day's outing, after half a day of being lazy by the pools, was to Joshua Tree National Park. It was a cold late afternoon in the high desert mountains and I forgot to bring warm pants, so I had to buy some sweats at WalMart in Yucca Valley. Yucca Valley is one of the gateways into the western edge of the park, as are the towns of Joshua Tree and 29 Palms. We took Highway 62 through the Morongo Valley, and as we started driving through and alongside the park, the Joshua Trees appeared and the snow started coming down. The Joshua Tree is endemic to this part of the California desert and grows nowhere else in the world. They are ancient trees with a very slow growth rate, and are declining to the point of only occurring in protected areas such as parks and conservation lands. Yet they are very important to wildlife and the ecosystem and have high aesthetic beauty that inspires artists and scientists alike. I loved these trees as a child--they appeared so sweet and fuzzy and seemed to have a tremendous amount of character. To see these trees disappear would rip a piece out of my heart. But like mom said as we passed through Yucca Valley, "How many Joshua Trees were taken out to build this WalMart?" And with climate change and other factors, the fate of this unique species is uncertain.

The beautiful Joshua Tree - icon of the southern California desert

I had been to Joshua Tree National Park many times from childhood through adulthood, but going back into it was not at all a feeling of "been there, done that." It's like entering a different world, another planet on which the pristine beauty of the desert is untouched by human destruction. The placement of granite boulders, shaped and eroded by the wind, weather, and movement of the earth, creates amazing formations that appear to have been carefully sculpted by nature's most talented artist. Some of the formations seem to defy the laws of gravity--like how on earth does that rock stay balanced in the position it is in?

There is only one paved road in the northwestern corner of the park and that's Park Boulevard. We took Park Boulevard from the west entrance out of Joshua Tree village to Hidden Valley. Hidden Valley is a campground and picnic area with a one-mile loop trail. I dragged my sick husband and 82-year old mother with her bad back on the hike, which involved climbing rock steps and scrambling over boulders--easy for an experienced hiker but a phenomenal accomplishment for mom. It helped that we stopped every 10 seconds to photograph the amazing geological rock formations and desert flora. Again I felt a rush of joy in my element of nature, the peace broken only by some very loud rock climbers. It was almost dark when we were back at the parking lot, greeted by a hungry lone coyote, no doubt looking for people food.

Hidden Valley trail

One of many rock caves that could be explored

This isn't the modern art museum. This is nature.

Hidden Valley campground

With exotic grasses and Joshua trees are Mohave yucca (Yucca schidigera) (foreground) and Parry nolina (Nolina parryii)

A popular rock climbing spot

Dollarjoint prickly pear (Opuntia chlorotica)

Though it was dark, we continued on Park Boulevard and left the park at the north entrance in 29 Palms. The snow was coming down and we wound up having dinner at Applebee's in Yucca Valley. One last soak in the tubs, and that concluded our vacation in Desert Hot Springs. The next day, on New Year's Eve, we traveled back to Santa Monica to welcome in 2015 at my cousin's party. And thus concludes the travel blogs for 2014. Stay tuned for another set of adventures in 2015.