Palm Springs

We had been to Palm Springs twice before, but only for a little day trip trying to warm up a little after spending time in a chilly LA. Twice we booked a trip out to spend more time in Palm Springs, but they both got canceled because of Covid. This time it turned out okay. We exchanged our Vistana week for 4 nights (with some points leftover) at the Westin Mission Hills resort east of Palm Springs. After our long days at Disneyland, we were ready to kind of relax a little in the desert. We did a few things in the immediate area, visited with a friend, and had a few really good meals.

Palm Springs

We left the Grand Californian mid-morning and started out towards Palm Springs. We arrived there about the same time that the solar eclipse was occurring, but seeing as how the sun was only 30% blocked, you couldn’t really see anything. We had a little lunch and then went to Moorten Botanical Garden, which was basically someone’s private backyard. Surprisingly, it had quite a number of cacti and other desert plants. Many of the plants were in bloom, and we even saw a few hummingbirds flying around.

It was time to check in at the Westin Mission Hills Villas. We had a nice 1-bedroom with a beautiful view of the golf course and mountains. The balcony was very large and we spent some time there at night just enjoying the view.

Madeline’s friend, Marie, drove from Orange County with her daughter, Lexi, to visit us and another friend. Dan stayed back and watched Purdue in the NCAA Championship game while Madeline went out with the girls.

We checked out The Living Desert Zoo|Gardens in Palm Desert. The place was beautiful, and they had an outdoor art display that was kind of cool. We like animals, though, so we started going around the African Safari section of the zoo. What we liked was that it felt like we were back at Kapama in South Africa, as we saw many of the same animals that we saw there.

Naked mole rats

Waterbuck

Springbok

Black rhino

Giraffes

Greater kudu

Warthog

Jaguar

Striped hyena

Dromedary camel

Desert tortoise

Porcupine

Cheetahs

Stork

There was a North American desert section as well

Bighorn sheep

Golden & Bald eagles

Roadrunner

Burrowing owl

They had a huge miniature train setup outside, which seemed out of place at a zoo, but it depicted life in the west in our country’s early history.

The last section was the Australian Adventures

Emu

Wallaby

It was also a desert garden, so there were a number of desert plants to be found

After the zoo, we took off driving through and around the San Jacinto mountains along the Palms to Pines Scenic Byway. There weren’t a lot of places to pull over and take some photos, but the drive was definitely scenic. We returned to our resort and then went out to dinner at Enzo’s Bistro & Bar in La Quinta, which was really good. I then found a vegan bakery to get Madeline some dessert and something for breakfast.

West of town, we went past the wind turbines and out to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. We got there early enough to beat the crowds and get tickets late morning.

The tramway was the same type as we went on in Cape Town, SA. The cab rotated on our 2.5 mile, 10-minute ride up through the canyon to the mountain station. It was 46°at the top, and there was still snow around. On the back side of the station, though, the sun was warm and the state park was easy to walk around.