Last month I was on a random walk downtown with John, Drake, and our dogs and I ran into my friend Melissa at Railroad Park. We had not caught up in a while so she joined us on our walk and about an hour later we made plans to go on a girl’s trip to Palm Springs, CA a few weeks later! Yes, we work fast!
That night we both confirmed our work schedules and booked cheap flights through Southwest. They of course were not direct because nothing is direct from Birmingham! We flew out reallllly early Friday morning and got home early evening on Monday. Thankfully Melissa and I travel really well together and generally have the same interests and goals – which is key when traveling with other people! [You can check out our last adventure together hiking Havasupai Falls.] So here is my Girl’s Weekend Guide to Palm Springs!
Friday Afternoon Arrival – Hit the Ground Running!
We landed in PSP around 3 pm. We picked up our rental car, a white Mustang convertible we appropriately named Betty White. The rental car pickup and drop-off are super easy and convenient at this airport. I suspect if it had been a busier day that it could cause some longer waits but we got lucky. We booked it over to our hotel for a quick change and drove to the Palm Springs Art Museum to check out some of the structures and art installations outside and then drove about 20 minutes to the Palm Springs Ariel Tramway. The cost is $30/person and when we got there a lovely gentleman gave us an extra ticket he had so the trip was off to a great start! The tram takes you 2.5 miles up the Chino Canyons for some gorgeous views. The tram car also rotates 360 degrees as you go up so no need to worry about getting the “best spot.” At the top, there is an observation deck, restaurants, and also access to miles and miles of hiking trails. We went for the “Instagram moment” since we had dinner reservations at 7 pm.
The Parker
For dinner and drinks, we made reservations at The Parker which is a very stylish, mid-century modern hotel that recently got a facelift by the famed and talented Jonathan Adler (love to look at his aesthetic!). This place had such a cool vibe. I would totally recommend staying here or at least popping over for drinks!
Saturday Adventures
Saturday morning we loaded up Betty White for the hour-and-a-half journey to Salvation Mountain. Unfortunately, when we got there, we were told we could not walk around it due to the last several days of rain but it was still neat to see. If this looks familiar, this was the backdrop for Kesha’s latest music video for her song, “Praying.”
On the way back to town we stopped by the Salton Sea to take some pics. We had intended to put our feet in but based on looks, decided against it. Later we looked it up and apparently, it is very toxic! Yikes! But still pretty and I saw a cool white lizard! So, that’s something!
Joshua Tree
After we got back to town we did another quick change into our hiking clothes and headed to Joshua Tree National Park. This was a bucket list item for both Melissa and me. It takes about 30 minutes to drive from one visitor center to the other. We stopped at several spots along the way to hike different trails and see various landmarks and rock formations. If we had been there for a longer visit, we definitely could have spent days hiking. Fun facts: Joshua trees aren’t actually trees, they are succulents! Joshua trees usually have a single trunk and grow three to nine feet tall before branching. Branches end in clusters of spiky leaves and white, rounded flowers. They usually live to be 150 years old but the oldest found is thought to be 1,000 years old.
Saturday night we went out to dinner on the strip in downtown Palm Springs at Las Casuelas Terraza. The food was really good but note, they do not serve queso dip! I mean, whaaaat? But they did have fabulous homemade guacamole and margaritas that made up for it. I also recommend getting a table outside as it is fabulous people-watching!
Sunday Oasis
Sunday morning we drove about 20 minutes outside of downtown Palm Springs to a place called Indian Canyon. This was my favorite activity! You pay for entrance into the park. From the parking lot, it is about a half a mile walk on an established dirt road before you start seeing the palm trees popping up out of the desert. The trail is only about 2-3 miles. It goes through the canyon and has some fun elevation points and unique rock formations. You will definitely get wet on this excursion – there is no way around it (unless you decide to see the canyon on horseback which is also an option). We stopped at Walmart and bought water shoes that ended up being perfect. The fan palms were so cool and the stream was very refreshing to walk through since it is so hot. I definitely recommend getting there early as it does get toasty and the journey back to the car has no shade once you are out of the canyon. Also, when you get to the end of the trail, if you go just a little bit further up, maybe a tenth of a mile, you will find a big pool of water and a waterfall.
Also, I recommend staying on the trail. We accidentally got off the trail for a few minutes and met up with a rattlesnake! No joke! I have never seen Melissa run so fast!
After the canyon, we drove through some of the nicer neighborhoods in that area and saw some really cool mid-century modern homes. Not really my personal style, but it went the whole vibe of the town. A lot of the homes had old cars in their driveway, almost as if they were props for a movie set. Pretty neat.
After our sweaty hike, we went to a day spa called Azure Hot Springs and Day Spa. We both got massages and relaxed in their hot springs and pool. It sounded like Melissa’s massage therapist was a bit better than mine. For a 90-minute massage, I paid $220 (which is totally insane, btw), plus a tip! When he asked me if I had any areas that I wanted him to focus on I said my knees and he responded with, “Oh, I don’t do kneecaps.” Um…. ok, thought I was paying $220 for this massage, but whatever? We also got the day package so we could hang out after our massages. While it was nice to relax, a massage from Massage Envy would have been just as good if not better and the pool at our hotel would have been just as nice (or so I think, we didn’t actually go to it because we were so busy but it looked really nice!).
For our final night out, we drove about 30 minutes out of town to Palm Desert and had a delicious dinner at La Quinta Cliff House. We both ordered the Chilean sea bass and it was amazing! On our way to dinner, we decided to do a drive-by of the private residence that has all these really crazy robot structures in their yard. According to Google, during certain hours of the day, you can ring their doorbell and ask one of the family members to let you in their backyard to see it for $10. Since I would never dream of doing that, I was delighted that they had a few on the outside of their wall and that was good enough. Fun fact, this is also on the same street that Frank Sinatra’s home.
Monday Departure
We had a leisurely morning with our flight departing at 11 am. We checked out of our hotel and had breakfast at the infamous Wilma & Freida’s. I got the eggs bennies and Melissa got the chile verde omelet. We gave each 4-5 stars.
And, that’s how you do Palm Springs, California in a weekend! It was a little bit of everything. Sightseeing, adventure, good food, and relaxation. No shopping but certainly could have made a little time for that if we had wanted to. Have you been to Palm Springs? Was there anything major we missed?!
