After writing several posts about our previous visits to Indio, California, it is starting to become difficult to come up with creative titles for my blogs – how did I do ツ? Subpar blog names aside, our last trip to the desert was in November 2024, and there was definitely no shortage of places to see and things to do during our visit, despite having already spent a lot of time in this area.
We spent the first part of our trip in Indio, before heading to Las Vegas, which provided us with easier access to Death Valley National Park, as well as Grand Canyon West.
Before I get started, a quick note for my email subscribers – did you know that when a blog post is emailed to you, you can click on the title, and you will get redirected to read the post on my website? This will allow you to see the cover photo I have set for each blog!
Indio, California
As you probably already know by now, one of our favourite things to do is hike, and during our most recent visit to Indio, we came across some great new (new to us) hikes to explore:
- Bump and Grind Trail: The Bump and Grind Trail is a very popular trail for hiking, trail running and apparently mountain biking (although, we did not see any mountain bikes during our visit) located right near the city in Palm Dessert. About halfway through the loop, there is a “detour” that takes you to the highest point on the trail. If the gates are open, we would definitely recommend completing this additional portion of the hike – it provides beautiful views of the city and desert landscape. We also noticed (after-the-fact) that some reviews on AllTrails suggest doing the hike clockwise; however, we missed this detail and did the hike counter-clockwise. This made the downhill portion near the end a bit challenging – the trail was narrow, and there was loose rock and gravel. Learn from our mistake – go clockwise!
- Ladder Canyon and Painted Canyon Trail: This was my favourite hike that we did near Indio! The start of the trail head is around 45-minutes from Indio, and requires driving down a dusty, gravel road. Part way down this road, you will encounter an abandoned trailer – if you see this, you are going the right way! As the name suggests, there are several rickety, old ladders that you will need to climb to navigate your way through the canyon. The recommendations on AllTrails (we paid attention this time ツ) suggest going clockwise to ensure you are going up most of the ladders, rather than down. We would also suggest downloading a map of the trail, as it is very easy to miss the first ladder; and, make sure to download it well in advance, as there is no service on the trail itself – I believe we lost service at the start of the gravel road. What I loved most about this trail was the diversity that it offered – you start by going up several ladders through a narrow slot canyon, before emerging onto a ridge that provides panoramic views of the surrounding desert mountains. After the ridge, you will descend back into the canyon to complete the hike, except the way back is along a much wider path (surrounded by colourful canyon rock), compared to the narrow slot canyon at the start of the hike. There is definitely no shortage of beautiful sights at the Ladder Canyon and Painted Canyon Trail.
- Pushwalla Palms Loop: The Pushwalla Palms Loop starts off as a flat trail, but you quickly approach a hill that takes you onto a ridge, overlooking multiple different cities within the Palm Desert vicinity. After walking along the ridge (as seen in this blog’s cover photo), you will descend into a grove of palm trees, aka the Pushwalla Palms. This is the only part of the trail where you will find shade, and there was even a small water stream running between the trees. There was also a lot (and I mean a lot) of droppings from desert big horn sheep amongst the Pushwalla Palms. Fortunately, we did not run into a herd of sheep during our hike – you may recall how spooked I was by the big horn sheep that were watching me in Jasper. After walking through the palm trees, you will go up a rock scramble to begin your return to the trailhead. There are two ways to get back – you can either go back along the same ridge you used to reach the Pushwalla Palms, or you can walk below the ridge. We accidentally opted for the latter (we missed the path back onto the ridge), but would definitely recommend taking the ridge back for better views of the surrounding landscape. The Pushwalla Palms Loop was very different from the first two hikes we did, and we very much enjoyed it!
- Jane’s Hoffbrau Oasis Trail: The last hike we completed while staying in Indio was Jane’s Hoffbrau Oasis Trail. The main reason I wanted to do this trail is because the photos on AllTrails showed a heart “structure” made out of rocks that I wanted to see – it was super cute! Similar to the Pushwalla Palms Loop, Jane’s Hoffbrau Oasis Trail also leads you into a grove of palm trees. However, the grove of palm trees at Pushwalla Palms appeared much bigger and healthier than the ones at Jane’s Hoffbrau Oasis Trail. There are so many different trails in this area that you can essentially “build your own adventure” and see where it takes you! If you are looking for a slightly easier trail to do closer to the city centre, then this one is a great option.
Other than our hikes, we made a quick visit to Pioneertown, an old western-style town that was previously used as a movie set. It is located around an hour from Indio, and is very close to Joshua Tree National Park. There are several shops you can visit along the main strip in Pioneertown, you can grab a drink at the historic Red Dog Salon, and visit the Film Museum, which displays posters of all the movies and TV shows that were filmed in Pioneertown.
Lastly, we made multiple visits to Chef Tanya’s Kitchen while exploring the desert. We enjoyed trying multiple different plant-based sandwiches (my favourite was the Chupacabra Chick’n), soup and ice cream – we cannot believe we did not know about this restaurant sooner!
The Road to Las Vegas
The drive from Indio to Las Vegas is supposed to take 4-hours; however, we made a few stops along the way, and it ended up taking us 8-hours. The problem with our timing was that we had tickets to the Vegas Golden Knights game that evening, and while we made it shortly after 7pm, we missed the warm-up and player introductions, which are Justin’s favourite parts. We would have made it on time had we not taken the wrong road through the Mojave Desert, and encountered terrible traffic on highway-15 due to a multi-vehicle accident.
Despite being late for the hockey game, we really enjoyed the stops we made on the way to Las Vegas:
- Amboy Crater: The Amboy Crater is an extinct volcano located along the iconic Route 66 (more about Route 66 below). Apparently, the Amboy Crater last erupted over 10,000 years ago. You can actually hike into the Crater, but unfortunately we did not budget enough time for this (clearly) – we definitely hope to do this hike during a future visit, as the photos I have seen online look incredible! I will not bother sharing the photo I took, as it does not do this amazing sight justice.
- Roy’s Motel and Cafe: Our next stop, just a couple of minutes further down Route 66, was Roy’s Motel and Cafe. In case you did not know, Route 66, often referred to as the “Main Street of America,” is one of the most well-travelled highways in the United States. It is 3,940km in length, and stretches from Santa Monica, California, all the way to Chicago, Illinois. While no longer in operation, Roy’s Motel and Cafe used to be a popular rest stop for travellers journeying through the desert up until the late 1970s. It just so happened that the day we were passing through (November 30, 2024), was the day Roy’s Motel and Cafe was having its Historic Mural and Monument Reveal event in honour of its 86th anniversary. There were food vendors on site, live music, and a lot of people! While we were not able to stay for the reveal ceremony (in an attempt to make it to the hockey game on time), we really enjoyed this stop! There are a lot of very cool photo opportunities here, as well – there is the neon Roy’s Motel and Cafe sign (which I can imagine looks very cool at night), and the Route 66 sign is painted onto the road in front. We may or may not have attempted to get some jumping photos on the highway with the two signs…
- Mojave National Preserve: One of the faster routes to get to Las Vegas from Indio is actually to cut through the Mojave National Preserve and connect to highway-15. Since this was the recommended route, we decided to make a couple of stops within the protected desert land. Our first stop was at the massive Kelso Dunes. While I have seen sand dunes before (when we visited the Yukon), the Kelso Dunes are massive compared to the small desert in Carcross – the tallest sand dune in Kelso is more than 600 feet tall! For some reason, I find tall mounds of sand deposited amongst other rock formations fascinating, even in the desert ツ.
We also stopped at the Kelso Depot Visitor Center. Here, we learned that Kelso used to be a booming mine town following World War II, and we also saw the original Kelso Jail that was used between 1940 and 1985 for housing “drunks and unruly individuals.” There is a lot of history and interesting sights within the Mojave National Preserve – we barely scratched the surface with our quick visit. We also saw some wildlife near the Museum, specifically a roadrunner, and a coyote – is it possible that our favourite Warner Bros. cartoons were inspired by the Mojave Desert? Fortunately for the road runner, Wile E. Coyote was on his best behaviour ツ. My distraction and determination to take a photo of the coyote is ultimately what resulted in us taking the wrong road when leaving the Kelso Depot Visitor Center. Instead of taking the Kelso Cima Road, we ended up on Kelbaker Road, adding several kilometres to our journey, and this did not allow us to skip the accident on highway-15.
Well, I originally planned to also write about our adventures through Death Valley National Park and our stops in Nevada – but since this blog is longer than anticipated already, I will report on the rest of our trip in a separate post ツ.
Always grateful,
Michelle
Exploring With Gratitude 