Suggest an Interesting Place to Explore between San Diego and Palm Springs
 

After having spent several days in San Diego we will be driving to Palm Springs and are looking for a place to explore while on the road. For example, last time we went to Sedona (driving from Phoenix) we stopped at Arcosanti--fascinating! We just stumbled onto that one.

Any thoughts?

If you like to hike at all, I recommend Anza-Borrego State Park. We did the Palm Canyon hike and had a great afternoon.

The little town of Julian is interesting.You can tour an old silver mine,browse the shops and have some pie.
Palomar Observatory is very cool and a lovely drive.
Anza Borrego is an amazing place with lots of beautiful geology.but not during the summer.

The town of Idylwild is a pleasant little "alpine" village on the other side of the mountain from Palm Springs.

Temecula is nice for wine tasting especially if you can visit midweek when there are less crowds. They also have a nice downtown area with an old-time feel, one or two blocks there even have wooden boardwalks. Couple nice Mexican places to eat and a few antique shops if you like that sort of thing.
Gets hot there in summer, though, when is your trip?

Julian, Anza-Borrego State Park (with lunch at Carlee's Pace in Borrego Springs), and then into Palm Desert via this scenic route: 79, 371, and 74.

Or, if you skip Anza-Borrego SP, stop at The Living Desert Museum as you enter Palm Desert or, if shopping is your vice, at the El Paseo shopping center in Palm Desert.

HTTY

Some good suggestions above. My own opinion is that the wineries in Temecula are middling in terms of quality, but have a high opinion of themselves and most charge tasting fees.

The BLM visitor's center on Hwy 74 at the bottom of the curvy section before you get down into Palm Desert is a fast way to learn about the desert---very well done.

Living Desert entry is off Portola. El Paseo is more a strip than a shopping center, from Town Center Drive @ Hwy 111, across Hwy 74/Monterey, back to Hwy 111. A ton of retail and dining choices.

<i>The BLM visitor's center on Hwy 74 at the bottom of the curvy section before you get down into Palm Desert is a fast way to learn about the desert---very well done.</i>

They also have clean restrooms.

HTTY

I'd say El Paseo is neither a shopping center nor a "strip" since I use that as an adjective, as in "strip center". El paseo is a wide and well-kept street 4 or 5 blocks long with mostly very high-end retail on both sides. There's an excellent kitchen shop called Upper Crust.

El Paseo is pretty much considered "strip commercial" because it is a linear road with commercial lining both sides. I don't think I inferred that it is a "strip center."

We call that "urban retail" :-)

We are in San Diego now and this is the first chance I've had to check back since I posted; thank you all for responding. We area heading to Palm Springs on Monday morning with check-in late in the afternoon.

We will be in Palm Springs for a week so we'll have a chance to do trips to places to explore/hike outside in the early morning/late afternoon to account for the heat--hopefully I'm not being overly optimistic about that. We have tickets to tour Sunnylands one day. We have lots of ideas of how to fill in the other days.

Julian and Idylwild sound like good choices for this part of our trip.

I look forward to any other ideas/opinions you're willing to share.