August 10, 2008: Palm Canyon and Rancho Mirage

Palm Canyon is considered the world's largest native California Fan Palm oasis. It's located on land that belongs to the Agua Caliente band of the Cahuilla Indians, who have lived in the canyon for close to 2000 years.

Sarah and I went hiking in the canyon this morning. Although we tried to beat the heat by getting up early, it was close to 109 degrees by the time we reached the entrance of the canyon.

The oasis is an amazing swatch of green in an otherwise sparse desert landscape and stretches for miles into the mountains. All along the trail you can see spots where the hot springs bubble to the surface and form a marshy stream along which the palms grow. These specimens are the "California Redwoods" of palm trees. Huge...and incredibly hardy. Many of them have blackened trunks we thought were caused by lightening strikes, but it turns out the palms survived a massive fire in 1980, started by two boys with matches in a nearby field. The main trail runs for 17 miles, but we settled for a shorter 1.5 mile loop that pretty much did us in anyway...the climb up the final staircase to the visitors' centre bordered on tragic.

In the afternoon, we dropped by the Palm Springs Museum of Art (Admission: $12, unless it's August, in which case it's free! Because only crazy people go to Palm Springs in August!) and enjoyed the art and industrial strength air conditioning. This has to be the fourth museum we've encountered that's currently featuring a Frida Kahlo exhibit. She and Dale Chihuly seem to be the reigning California pop culture "it" artists of the moment.

The afternoon was spent poking around Rancho Mirage; we checked out the local shopping mall and stocked up on take-out from the Cheesecake Factory (third time this trip...white chocolate caramel macadamia nut has become a favourite, although Sarah is partial to the Oreo chocolate fudge slide :)

I love the way classic 1950s kitsch collides with ultra-money excess in Rancho Mirage. Next to the Rancho Super Wash was the River Mall, where we found a golf cart dealership that featured customized models in a whole variety of colours. Next door was the cosmetic surgery clinic (yup, in the mall) where no appointment was necessary for Restylane and Botox touch-ups. From a design stand-point, the mall was gorgeous. It did create the illusion of floating on a river...in the middle of a desert - which is pretty much what Palm Springs and the neighbouring desert cities are all about.