As a consolation prize for last-minute cancellation of the Albuquerque to Las Vegas tour I planned a short tour in the deserts of southernmost California.

This tour is especially welcome because I received 12 inches (30 cm) of rain at my house in the month of October. An escape to warm sunny deserts is just what the doctor ordered.

It's easier to visualize the route if you click the button in the upper right of the map and select Terrain. 

This tour is rather unusual because 1/3 of the route is below sea level!

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Four Distinct Regions

The tour begins with 2 days in Joshua Tree National Park. High elevation, the southern edge of the Mojave desert. The area has many rock outcroppings, Joshua trees, creosote bushes and occasional yucca, but very little cactus.

Days 3-5 are in the Anza-Borrego desert which is the northwest edge of the Sonoran desert. It has many varieties of cactus, plus fan palms in the canyons.

Days 6-8 are in the Imperial Valley in the Colorado desert, also a subdivision of the Sonoran desert. An arid basin, below sea level, relentlessly hot for most of the year. Much of the valley is vegetable and alfalfa fields (area shaded in light green on the map photo) irrigated with water diverted from the Colorado river. Other areas are barren desert. At the bottom of the basin is a big stinky salt lake called the Salton Sea. The shore is 235 feet (71 m) below sea level.

On day 9 I pedaled through the smaller and much more populated Coachella Valley (the Palm Springs area). The narrow desert valley is near sea level but surrounded by very tall mountains. It has sprawling upscale development mixed with impossibly green golf courses.

Extracurricular Activities

This is a tour, not an endurance race. Research and planning before the tour helped me design a scenic route and ensured that I had the knowledge and time to see many attractions near the route. I didn't reserve motels in advance but I confirmed that each day's destination has lodging.

Before the tour I arrived in Yucca Valley early enough to do a 5 mile (8 km) hike in Big Morongo Canyon Preserve. That felt good after driving 910 miles (1456 km).

At the beginning of the tour I hiked several nature trails in Joshua Tree National Park. Later I did two longer hikes in rare palm canyons. First was the 3 mile Palm Canyon trail in Anza Borrego Desert State Park. The second hike was 5 miles to Andreas and Murray canyons in the tribal park south of Palm Springs.

The detour at the southeast corner of the route took me to Five Palms warm spring where I soaked for 4 hours with a friend who drove in from San Diego.

I visited 3 places on the Slab City detour: Salvation Mountain, Slab hot spring, and Slab City, "the last free place in America".

While driving home I visited Red Rock Canyon State Park, Bodie State Historical Park (a ghost town), and the historic mining town of Virginia City, Nevada.

Weather

This region has extremely hot weather most of the year. I picked a starting date of October 31 to hopefully hit the weather sweet spot. I started during a cool spell and had mostly cloudy weather with highs in the mid 60's in Joshua Tree. Then the weather returned to normal with highs in the mid 80's in the Anza Borrego desert, and highs of about 90F in the Imperial and Coachella valleys.

Most of the route is in the rain shadow of the San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains, the highest mountain ranges in Southern California. The populated region west of the mountains is semi-arid. The region east of the mountains is truly arid. Only 2.5 inches (6.3 cm) of rain per year in the Imperial Valley, 6 inches (15 cm) per year in Joshua Tree and the Anza-Borrego desert.

This time of year there is almost no chance of being hit by a tropical storm or a winter storm. For the first time in many years I didn't use fenders (mud guards).