Palm Springs and the Desert Resorts
We’ve compiled the best of the best in Palm Springs and the Desert Resorts - browse our top choices for the top things to see or do during your stay.
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21. Rancho Mirage Library and Observatory
Get a good look the night sky at this city-owned observatory next to the public library. The complex includes five high-powered telescopes—four on the deck and a main telescope in the 360-degree observatory dome that's designed to look like a comet. There is a 3 pm tour on weekdays, and stargazing parties are usually scheduled two times a week. Astronomy lectures are also held regularly.
71–100 Hwy. 111, Rancho Mirage, California, 92270, USA760-341–7323Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, Closed Sun. -
22. Salton Sea State Recreation Area
Each year, this huge recreation area on the sea's northeastern shore draws thousands of campers, hikers, anglers, paddlers, and bird-watchers (the park is on the Pacific Flyway). Ranger-guided walking tours take place during the winter migration season (November to February) when up to 4 million birds visit daily. Fishing is best from June through September.
100–225 State Park Rd., North Shore, California, 92254, USA760-393–3810-visitor centerSight Details
Rate Includes: $7 -
23. Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument
Jointly managed by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, this 280,000-acre desert habitat protects animals like Peninsular bighorn sheep and contains areas of geological, cultural, and scientific significance. You can experience the monument using an augmented-reality app or by hiking one of several trails that wind through it. You can access the backcountry from the Coachella Valley and the nearby alpine village of Idyllwild.
51–500 Hwy. 74, Palm Desert, California, 92260, USA760-862–9984Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free -
24. Shields Date Garden and Café
Sample, select, and take home some of Shields's locally grown dates. Ten varieties are available, including the giant supersweet royal medjools, along with specialty date products such as date crystals, stuffed dates, confections, and local honey. At the Shields Date Garden Café you can try an iconic date shake, dig into date pancakes, or go exotic with a date burger. Breakfast and lunch are served daily. For almost a century, Shields Family dates have been grown, sold, and enjoyed on this site, which now includes a 105-seat theater showing “The Romance & Sex Life of the Date” on a loop, a store where you can sample the 10 varieties, gulp down a date shake at the original 1960s counter, and purchase all kinds of snacks and sweets featuring the star fruit, a café serving breakfast and lunch, and a walk through a 17-acre date grove and botanical garden that features 23 biblical statues.
80225 Hwy. 111, Indio, California, 92201, USA760-347–0996Sight Details
Rate Includes: Café closed July 4–Aug. 6. Garden closes on very windy days, $5 for garden walk -
25. Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge
Named after pop star and area congressman Sonny Bono, the 37,900-acre wildlife refuge on the Pacific Flyway is a wonderful spot for viewing migratory birds. There are observation towers, photography blinds, and platforms, as well as numerous trails through desert scrub and wetlands along which you might view eared grebes, burrowing owls, great blue herons, ospreys, yellow-footed gulls, or any of the 400 species that have been documented on and around California's largest lake. Though the scenery is beautiful, the waters here give off an unpleasant odor, and the New River, which empties into the sea, is quite toxic.
906 W. Sinclair Rd., Calipatria, California, 92233, USA760-348–5278Sight Details
Rate Includes: Free, Visitor center closed Mar.–Oct., Birding is best Nov.--Feb. -
Recommended Fodor’s Video
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26. Tahquitz Canyon
Hikers who power through the strenuous 1.8-mile trail, 350 feet of elevation gain, and approximately 100 steep rock steps in this secluded restroom-less canyon on the Agua Caliente Reservation will be rewarded with a spectacular 60-foot waterfall, rock art, ancient irrigation systems, and native flora and fauna. Venture out on your own or join ranger-led walks (free with admission), which are conducted four times a day except during the summer when there is only one at 8 am. At the visitor center at the canyon entrance, watch a short video, look at artifacts, and pick up a map. Remember to be respectful as this is sacred tribal land.
500 W. Mesquite Ave., Palm Springs, California, 92262, USA760-323–6018Sight Details
Rate Includes: $15, Closed Mon.–Thurs. from July 5–Sept. 30
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