Palm Springs
Past, Present and Future Mix and Mingle in the Flowing Desert
by Derrik J. Lang
Photo Courtesy: La Serena Villas, A Kirkwood Collection Hotel
If you were asked to close your eyes and dream of a desert landscape, the first images you’d conjure with your imagination would likely not be beautiful waterfalls or bubbling hot springs. However, in Southern California’s stunning yet harsh Coachella Valley, such liquidy vistas are a reality and a fundamental reason why life has endured—and, in many cases, thrived—since the Cahuilla people were drawn to the area thousands of years ago.
Located east of Los Angeles between the San Bernardino, San Jacinto and Santa Rosa mountains, the 45-mile-long valley is home to nine different cities: Coachella, Indio, La Quinta, Indian Wells, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs and Palm Springs. It’s the latter that attracts the most visitors with its sleek aesthetic, storied history and popular annual events such as Modernism Week and the Palm Springs International Film Festival.
Palm Springs is believed to have earned its name in the 19th century by early settlers enamored with both the area’s aquifer-fed waters and towering indigenous palm trees, later identified as the California fan palm or Washingtonia filifera. Most of the first visitors to Palm Springs were wellness seekers looking for relief from pain in the natural waters of what were then called sanitoriums. In 1938, the city of Palm Springs incorporated, solidifying itself as an attractive destination for well-to-do jetsetters in search of calm and cool.
While the city of Palm Springs, which boasts the United States’ densest collection of Mid-Century Modern architecture, is perhaps best known as an iconic design hub and boozy Hollywood getaway for legends such as Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Bob Hope, Liberace, Walt Disney and Elizabeth Taylor, other dimensions of the region have risen to the surface, enticing travelers with new travel experiences that connect visitors to the past and this present art-filled oasis.
A Real-World Oasis
Photo Courtesy: Tahquitz Canyon Waterfall
At the Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza, which opened in 2023, visitors can explore the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, a 20,000-square-foot permanent space where the 360-degree film tells an origin story of the Cahuilla people as well houses ancient artifacts, such as processing tools—some dating as far back as 8,000 years. Within the museum’s core, exhibits impart the tribe’s history and recreate the Indian Canyons, the ancestral home of Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.
Visitors are welcome to explore the lush palm gatherings and unusual rock formations that dot the sacred Indian Canyons, located a few miles south of downtown Palm Springs. The tribe is steward to more than 34,000 acres, including the Palm, Andreas and Tahquitz canyons—each with its own pristine features for hiking. Arguably, the standout landmark is Tahquitz Canyon’s 60-foot waterfall, found during a leisurely 1.8-mile round-trip jaunt.
Back at the plaza, The Spa at Séc-he invites guests to dip into the same mineral-laden waters that have soothed and healed desert dwellers since time immemorial for the ceremonial Taking of the Waters. The award-winning spa is more than 73,000 square feet of space offering an array of treatments, ranging from deep-tissue massages on quartz beds that replicate relaxing on the sand to restorative floats in zero-sensory tanks that seek to align the mind and body.
Art and Architecture
Photo Courtesy: Palm Springs Museum; Aluminaire House
For such a small city, Palm Springs is home to a massive assemblage of Mid-Century Modern architecture. Emboldened by a surge in wealth after World War II, architects such as Richard Neutra, Donald Wexler and John Lautner flocked to the area in the 1950s and 1960s to craft homes with innovative materials utilizing new construction techniques, such as prefabrication. The desert climate encouraged clean lines, large windows and indoor-outdoor living areas.
One of the preeminent examples of Mid-Century Modernism is now on permanent display next to the Palm Springs Art Museum. Designed by architects Albert Frey and A. Lawrence Kocher, the Aluminaire House is an aluminum-clad prefab structure that debuted at the New York Architectural and Allied Arts Exhibition in 1931. The compact three-story building was intended to be a prototype for an affordable, new way to build homes and is now considered to be among the first examples of mid-century modernism.
New Angles
Photo Courtesy: Thompson Palm Springs
Palm Springs’s reverence for the past has not made it beholden to bygone times. That’s evident at the chic Thompson Palm Springs, a newly constructed resort that debuted in September 2024 on the border of lively downtown Palm Springs and the chic Uptown Design District, an area lined with restaurants, lounges, vintage stores, art galleries and boutiques from the likes of fashion designer Trina Turk and groovy illustration artist Josh Agle, known as Shag.
The Thompson, which features 168 bungalow-style accommodations, aligns with the Palm Springs vibe thanks partly to its impressive art collection. The mosaic mural, “The Land is Speaking Are You Listening,” by Jeffrey Gibson, is composed of rainbow-hued shiny glass tiles. Behind the check-in desk, see Gerald Clarke’s towering Continuum Basket: Creation sculpture evoking a traditional Cahuilla basket design with crushed soda cans.
Overlooking the Thompson Palm Springs’ pool deck as well as the San Jacinto Mountains, the Lola Rose Grand Mezze restaurant pays tribute to the desert surroundings with a Levantine-tinged menu featuring locally sourced ingredients, such as dates, figs and pomegranate in lavish dishes intended to galvanize socialization. In late 2024, the hotel welcomed its latest addition: the HALL Napa Valley Tasting Room, a first-of-its-kind experience for Palm Springs.
After rebranding as a Margaritaville property a few years ago, Riviera Resort & Spa Palm Springs recently turned back the clock to its history by reclaiming its original name and has begun adding back the charm that drew the likes of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin there in the 1960s. It seems wherever you look in Palm Springs, history fabulously repeats itself and transforms into something new.
Derrik J. Lang is an award-winning California-based editor and writer specializing in culture, travel and culinary journalism. He divides his time between Palm Springs and Orange County. For 12 years, he covered the entertainment industry for The Associated Press.