Christopher P. Baker - Explorers Guide Palm Springs & Desert Resorts: A Great Destination

A COMPLETE GUIDE

Andreas Canyon. Palm Springs Desert Resorts Conventions & Visitors Authority

A COMPLETE GUIDE

FIRST EDITION

Christopher P. Baker

This book is dedicated to my sister, Alison, and her wonderful husband, Steven, both of whom I admire and love very much.

Copyright 2009 by Christopher P. Baker

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any way by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages.

Website URLs listed in this book were current at the time of publication. If you find information that has changed, let us know at and we will use that in preparing future editions.

ISBN 978-1-58157-048-9

Cover and interior photos by the author unless otherwise specified

Book design by Bodenweber Design

Page composition by Susan McClellan

Maps by Mapping Specialists Ltd., Madison, WI The Countryman Press

Published by The Countryman Press, P.O. Box 748, Woodstock, Vermont 05091

Distributed by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110

Manufactured in the United States of America

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TOURING EAST COAST WINE COUNTRY

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HISTORY

TRANSPORTATION

LODGING

CULTURE

RESTAURANTS AND FOOD PURVEYORS

RECREATION

SHOPPING

INFORMATION

IF TIME IS SHORT

MAPS

I could not have prepared this book without the help of a coterie of other people.

Particular thanks go to Mark Graves, of the Palm Springs Desert Resorts Convention & Visitors Authority; to Mary Perry, of the Palm Springs Bureau of Tourism; and to Lena Zimmerschied, of Palm Springs Aerial Tramway.

I also wish to acknowledge the following for miscellaneous assistance: Bob Bogard, of Palm Springs Art Museum; Kimberly Bowers and Peter Siminski, of The Living Desert; Bill Davis, of Celebrity Tours; Mary Dungans, of Desert Adventures; Therese Everett-Kerley, of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians; Mark Farley, of Elite Tours; Robert Imber, of PS Modern Tours; Kristy Kneiding, of the City of Palm Desert; Patrick Milson, of Flemings Restaurant; Greg Purdy, of Fabulous Palm Springs Follies; Larry Rener, of Homes Run; Rick Seidner, of Ricks; Evan Trubee, of Big Wheel Touring; Dan Westfall, of C.H.E.E.T.A. Primate Sanctuary; and Stephen and Cynthia Wilkinson, of Fantasy Balloon Flights.

Finally, Id like to hear from you if you have suggestions for ways to improve this book. Also, please let us know about your experiences, both good and bad, with hotels, restaurants, and other businesses listed. If they dont live up to their recommendations, let me know.

Snow-capped Mount San Jacinto rises in the distance. Palm Springs Desert Resorts Conventions & Visitors Authority

Date palms.

In the 1950s and 60s, Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack made Palm Springs the definition of cool. Palm Springs Hollywood-tinged hedonism began in the 1930s, when the arrival of stars and starlets turned the area from a sleepy desert outpost into a world-famous winter retreat. The season traditionally kicked off in late October with a party at the Racquet Club, where Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Bing Crosby, and Honorary Mayor Bob Hope warmed up their fellow stars. Sinatra and Hope eventually settled here, while scores of their Hollywood peers, from Elvis Presley and Dean Martin to Lucille Ball and Liberace, bought homes in which to winter and play.

The stars modernist homes defined the vernacular style of the city and were an ideal complement to the elegantly informal (and often debauched) desert lifestyle. The mountains and desert sands attracted architects now recognized as modern masters, such as Richard Neutra, John Lautner, William Cody, E. Stewart Williams, and Albert Frey, whose spare, sharp-lined, and sensuously curved designs found their full and iconoclastic blossoming amid the stark desert landscape. Modernisms place in the sun lasted two decades, then waned, along with the citys own fortunes. By the late 1970s the Hollywood set had moved on, and the town went into decline. The money moved down valley to newer cities, such as Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage, with their lush golf courses and country clubs exuding luxury beyond the dreams of Croesus.