turning left at the first major
junction onto Pinto Basin Rd for
a winding 30-mile drive downhill
to Cottonwood Spring.7 Cottonwood
Spring
On your drive south to
Cottonwood Spring,
you’ll pass from the
high Mojave Desert
into the lower Sonoran
Desert. At the Cholla
Cactus Garden, handily
labeled specimens burst
into bloom in spring,
including unmistakable
ocotillo plants, which
look like green octopustentacles adorned
with flaming scarlet
flowers. Turn left at the
Cottonwood Visitor
Center (www.nps.gov/
jotr; off Cottonwood SpringsRd; (^) h8am-4pm) for a
short drive east past
the campground to
Cottonwood Spring.
Once used by the
Cahuilla, who left behind
archaeological evidence
such as mortars and
clay pots, the springs
became a hotbed for gold
mining in the late 19th
century. The now-dry
springs are the start of
the moderately strenuous
7.2-mile round-trip
trek out to Lost Palms
Oasis, a fan-palm oasis
blessed with solitude and
scenery.
4 p347
The Drive » Head south from
Cottonwood Springs and drive
across the I-10 to pick up scenic
Box Canyon Rd, which burrows a
hole through the desert, twisting
its way toward the Salton Sea.
Take 66th Ave west to Mecca,
then turn right onto Hwy 111
and drive northwest (‘up valley’)
toward Indio.
8 Coachella Valley
The hot but fertile
Coachella Valley is the
ideal place to find the
date of your dreams –
the kind that grows on
trees, that is. Date farms
let you sample exotic-
sounding varieties like
halawy, deglet noor and
golden zahidi for free, but
the signature taste of the
valley is a rich date shake
from certified-organic
Oasis Date Gardens
(www.oasisdate.com; 59-111
Grapefruit Blvd, Thermal;
h9am-4pm) or the 1920s
pioneer Shields Date
Garden (www.shieldsdate
garden.com; 80-225 Hwy 111,
Indio; h9am-5pm).
TRIP HIGHLIGHT
Start 7 : Cottonwood Spring
Driving along Hwy 111 southeast of Indio, it’s a
most unexpected sight: California’s largest lake
in the middle of its largest desert. In 1905 the
Colorado River breached, giving birth to the Salton
Sea. Marketed to mid-20th-century tourists as
the ‘California Riviera’ with beachfront vacation
homes, the Salton Sea has been mostly abandoned
because of the stinky annual fish die-offs caused by
chemical runoff from surrounding farmland. An even
stranger sight is folk-art Salvation Mountain (www.
salvationmountain.us), an artificial hill covered in acrylic
paint and found objects and inscribed with Christian
religious messages. It’s in Niland, about 3 miles east
of Hwy 111.
SALTON SEA
DETOUR:
SOUTHERN.CALIFORNIA.
33
(^) PALM SPRINGS & JOSHUA TREE OASES