Coachella Valley, California

The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum is a history and culture museum situated in Palm Springs in the Coachella Valley. The focus as the museum is on the area’s Cahuilla people. The new museum is set to open to the public in 2020 in the downtown district of Palm Springs at the corner of South Indian Canyon Drive and East Tahquitz Canyon Way. The museum is designed to be a place to celebrate the modern times, culture, and history of the Agua Caliente Band of the Cahuilla people. The design for the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum was inspired by Agua Caliente traditions.

Address: Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, Palm Springs, CA 92262, Phone: 760-778-1079

The mission of the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens is desert conservation by means of preservation, appreciation, and education. The Living Desert Zoo is home to several desert animals that have adapted to the desert’s harsh conditions. The gardens of the Living Desert highlight the diversity in the forms that plant life has adopted to survive in the harsh desert environment. More than 1,400 different plant species can be found in the several gardens that showcase the plant collection of the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens. The facility aims to preserve, in its natural state, part of the Colorado Desert.

Address: 47900 Portola Ave, Palm Desert, CA 92260, Phone: 760-346-5694

Cabot’s Pueblo Museum is a wonder of design and engineering. Built in the year 1941, the home was always meant to be used as a museum, along with being the residence of Cabot and Portia Yerxa. The building is inspired by the Hopi, handmade and constructed from found and reclaimed materials from the local area. The four-story Cabot’s Pueblo Museum, which opened in 1949, is full of Native American artifacts and art, works made by Cabot himself, and souvenirs from Cabot’s world travels. A large portion of the Pueblo is made out of sun-dried and adobe-style bricks made by Cabot.

Address: 67616 E Desert View Ave, Desert Hot Springs, CA 92240, Phone: 760-329-7610

The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is one of the biggest music festivals in the United States. In addition to the many artists that perform at the festival every year, Coachella also offers world class art exhibits and a variety of delicious food. There is more amazing food than anyone could eat in a weekend, with more than one hundred vendors offering everything from hand-crafted burgers and wood-fried pizzas to freshly made pad thai and authentic street tacos. Several site-specific, large-scale, original art installations are on display by both up-and-coming and established artists at the festival.

Address: Empire Polo Club, Indio, CA

Fun Adventures

Two distinctly different desert ecosystems meet in Joshua Tree National Park, the Colorado and the Mojave. The park protects almost 800,000 acres of the southern region of California. Visitors can explore an amazing variety of plants and landforms due to the park grounds spanning across two different desert environments. There are four visitors centers throughout the park where visitors can get information, talk to a ranger, view interpretive exhibits, and more. There are many sites to see in the Joshua Tree National Park, including Black Rock Canyon, Cottonwood Spring, Covington Flats, Skull Rock, Keys View, and Indian Cove.

Address: Joshua Tree National Park, 74485 National Park Dr, Twentynine Palms, CA 92277, Phone: 760-367-5500

Desert Adventures Red Jeep Tours & Events has provided visitors to the Coachella Valley with some of the highest regarded outdoor adventures in the area of Greater Palm Springs. The eco-tour and outdoor adventure company is the largest, original, and one of the most respected in the Southern California desert, offering a wide variety of options for activities and tours. The events, activities, and tours offered by Desert Adventures include something for everyone, whether visitors are seeking amazing scenery, panoramic vistas, amazing desert events, fauna and flora, geology, nature, culture and history, team building, rugged adventure, and more.

Address: Desert Adventures Red Jeep Tours & Events, 74-794 Lennon Pl, Palm Desert, CA 92260, Phone: 760-324-5337

Desert X is a site-specific art installation that was originally created for a biennial art exhibition in the spring season of 2017. Artists from all over the world were invited to come to the Coachella Valley and create artwork in response to the valley’s unique conditions. The idea was for the desert of Southern California to be a canvas on which contemporary artists, just like many musicians, architects, and writers before them, could project their visions and create experiences and objects from the extraordinary social and natural history around them that’s reflective of the unparalleled surroundings of the barren landscape.

Address: Desert X, Palm Springs, CA 92262