LA to Palm Springs desert route makes for perfect road trip
If you’ve watched any number of films lately – Barbie, Don’t Worry Darling and Palm Springs, to name a few – you’ll have heard of Palm Springs. This region encompassing nine resort cities in Southern California is best known for being a favourite of A-listers. The likes of the Kardashians, Harry Styles and Justin Bieber have been known to bask in its thermal spa waters.
It’s where this year a swathe of new hotels, restaurants and a swanky surf club have popped up among an already stellar choice of places to eat, stay and play.
But it’s what lies beneath on which Palm Springs built its reputation. During the 19th century, the Cahuilla Native American tribes, who had long been harnessing the healing powers of the thermal springs, invited visitors to bathe in them. Around the 1950s, those early bathhouses were replaced by the first spas, which evolved into the luxury oases you’ll find there today.
All the spas except one in the region are fed by an aquifer just east of the San Andreas fault. The exception is Sec-he in downtown Palm Springs, which taps into an isolated water chamber thought to be 12,000 years old.
A sacred natural source to the Agua Caliente band of Cahuillas, this is where Palm Springs’ multi-million-dollar spa industry started.
The 82C mineral-rich elixir bubbles up from 2.5km underground and washes over your skin at a balmy 41C. It’s so rich its consistency isn’t far off baby oil.
Boutiques, vintage shops, cafes and restaurants line Palm Canyon Drive, but just as thrilling is the journey there from Los Angeles – if you take the long way around.
Follow the I-10 east out of LA and you could be sipping a date shake beside the pool two hours later (dates are the region’s key export), but you’ll be missing out on an awful lot.
Instead, head north to the Mojave desert, where epic rock formations, dramatic canyons and the chance to live out any Old West fantasies await.
Death Valley was the first stop on my week-long road trip. It’s the hottest place on Earth, with a searing 56.7C recorded in 1913.
In the very spot that reading was taken (aptly named Furnace Creek), The Ranch at Death Valley provides much-needed respite from the afternoon heat. Here you can soak in the pool while gazing at mountains, which, despite a ground temperature of 29C in March, were snow-capped.
Dinner was in the Last Kind Words Saloon, which offered a small menu of no-nonsense food (mainly steak or burgers, but veggie options were available).
If passing through Death Valley, two nights is plenty of time to see the key attractions: the Mesquite Sand Dunes, Badwater Basin (when empty, it leaves behind incredible salt flats) and Artists Palette (a kaleidoscope rockface of pastel pink, aqua, green and ochre).
As I pressed on south through the Mojave, via a small part of the famed Route 66, yucca plants appeared like a trail of breadcrumbs leading to Joshua Tree, a few at first and then hundreds of them.
Fronted by a hipster town with boutique hotels, coffee shops and vintage stores, Joshua Tree National Park is characterised by other-worldly rock formations, cactus gardens and, of course, the Joshua trees (yucca plants), named after an image of the prophet Joshua reaching to the sky in prayer by Mormon settlers.
This 800,000-acre park straddles the higher and cooler Mojave and the lower, hotter and cactus-dotted Colorado desert. As a houseplant enthusiast, I was like a kid in a candy store being surrounded by cacti as tall as me in the Cholla gardens.
Joshua Tree could easily be a holiday in itself, with days filled with hiking, yoga, shopping and relaxing in hot springs.
The chic new Bungalows by Homestead Modern provide that quintessential experience at the heart of The Joshua Tree Retreat Centre, a historical hidey hole three miles outside town.
Respectably, all of one’s preconceived stereotypes about Joshua Tree being a hippy, artsy, spiritual type place came to fruition here – and that’s not a complaint.
On site are yoga classes, a folk school, a cafeteria selling all sorts of wholesome treats, a book store and two swimming pools, one of them geothermal.
In stark contrast to Joshua Tree’s florafilled fields were the badlands in AnzaBorrego Desert Park, which was my next stop two hours south.
A short stint of off-roading down a sand track led me to a view like no other at Font Point – before me was a sheer drop 400 metres into a canyon formed over millennia by flash floods.
So arid, it was hard to comprehend this was all formed by water. Even more astonishing is the fact I was looking at debris washed in from the Grand Canyon, about 700km away.
These valleys attract many hikers and climbers. During spring, people flock to see the carpets of wildflowers on the desert floor.
After 1,050km and four days, I arrived in Palm Springs ready to dive into that Hollywood glam with a good old soak at the spa and some vintage shopping.
Where to stay
Death Valley: The Ranch at Death Valley is a former working ranch turned family-friendly, 275-room hotel. Entry to Death Valley National Park is €27 per private vehicle.
Joshua Tree: The Bungalows by Homestead Modern are just a mile from the entrance to Joshua Tree National Park. There’s a wide range of breakfasts, including vegetarian and vegan options on site or at Crossroads Cafe in Joshua Tree. Entry to Joshua Tree National Park is €27 per private vehicle.
Borrego Springs: Borrego Valley Inn is an adults-only hotel in the desert. Go for its fun, pink, mid-century modern design and stay for the breakfast-in-bed service.
Palm Springs: At the Ace Hotel & Swim Club, it’s spring break all year with music blasting over the pool, the shops on your doorstep and drag bingo at dinner on Mondays. Stay in quirky, motel-style rooms with access to the spa, pool, bar and restaurant.
PLAN YOUR TRIP
Aer Lingus flies daily from Dublin to Los Angeles. Flight time is around 11 hours.
● See visitgreaterpalmsprings.com