My daughter and I will be driving back from college from tucson to san francisco in mid May and want to stay overnite on the trip home somewhere between Palm Springs and L.A.
I want a quiet location but somewhere convenient to getting back to freeway in the am to drive home. Would appreciate your suggestions.

I hate to say this, but I don't think there are a whole lot of options. Your best bet would be to look on the websites of motels such as Holiday Inn Express, Residence Inn, Hampton Inn, etc to see what's along the way.

There is the Morongo Casino, but that's very close to Palm Springs.

Riverside or Pasadena (old town area) come to mind. I don't have a specific hotel reccomendation.

Oh the 1/2 way point between Tuscon and SF looks more like San Bernadino.

I'd personally just drive until you need to stop and then stay at which ever national chain you see at the next exit. They are all represented . . . .

Janis has a good point. Because you don't know how you'll feel driving wise, and may want to go farther than originally planned. That happened a few months ago to DH and I on our CA to TX road trip.