A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 142 miles from Palm Desert to Winterhaven, California.
Author: David
Travel from Palm Desert to Winterhaven, California
We drove our coach 142 miles, about three hours of driving, from Palm Desert, California to Winterhaven, California.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading southeast:
An interactive map:
Departing Thousand Trails Palm Springs, with Paladin on the dash, and our tag ready to hand in at the gate:
Passing a recumbent bike:
Joining I-10 East:
Salton Sea:
Fuel stop at Love’s; we only added a bit of fuel to reduce range anxiety, since it will be much cheaper once we leave California:
Lots of parking available; we went in to have Subway sandwiches for lunch:
Paladin on the dash when we got back:
Later, while underway, Paladin in his safe space, with a sunbeam:
I-8 East:
Passing by the border wall for Mexico:
Sand dunes and canal:
Boondockers and their dune buggies:
Passing by our destination, accessed via a side road from the next exit:
Entrance to our destination:
Our site:
Joshua Tree National Park: Wonderland Ranch & Wall Street Mill
On another visit to Joshua Tree National Park, we hiked to Wonderland Ranch and Wall Street Mill.
An interactive map of our route, going in the north entrance for a change, then to Wall Street Mill, and a picnic dinner on Keys Ranch Road, and finally back out the main west entrance:
An interactive map of the hike; zoom in to see more details:
North entrance sign:
Wall Street Mill Trail:
Wonderland Ranch ruins:
Windmill:
“Here is where Worth Bagly bit the dust at the hands of W.F. Keys, May 11 1943″:
Truck ruins:
Wall Street Mill ruins:
After the hike, we had a picnic dinner along Keys Ranch Road:
Sunset:
Joshua Tree National Park: Hall of Horrors
On another visit to Joshua Tree National Park, we hiked around the Hall of Horrors, an imaginatively named and fascinating set of rocks.
An interactive map of our route, heading in the main (northwest) entrance:
Another interactive map of the Hall of Horrors Area; zoom in to see more detail:
We stopped by the main visitor center:
Park road:
Hall of Horrors hike:
The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens
We visited The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens in Palm Desert, California. It is one of the nicest zoos we’ve been to; not because it has a lot of animals; it doesn’t have as many as others. But because it specializes in desert animals and plants, and harmonizes the gardens so well with the area.
This was our second visit to this zoo, though the first time was somewhat different: we attended some holiday lights in December 2021.
Here’s a map of the zoo; click or tap to see a larger map on their site (please let me know if the link breaks in the future):
An interactive map:
Entrance:
Animals:
A tasty lunch from their grill:
Also fascinating plants:
Miniature railway:
New area under construction:
Shields Date Garden
We visited Shields Date Garden in Indio, California, to have brunch, explore their garden, and browse their store.
Firstly we went to their restaurant, the Café at Shields, for brunch:
I had the Churro Waffle, and Jenn had the Beef Sopes:
There was live music (can’t really see him, but a guy playing a guitar):
After lunch, we explored The Walk, a garden path that winds through the date farm, with biblical statuary:
Ladders formerly used to harvest dates (nowadays they just use cherry pickers):
Then we watched their film about date growing and harvesting in the Romance Theatre (you can watch it on YouTube):
We perused their shop:
We bought a couple of date samplers, plus some Cactus Candy (that we’ve enjoyed elsewhere):
Finally, we got a date shake to share; it was very tasty:
A worthwhile visit in the Palm Springs area.
Joshua Tree National Park: Geology Tour Road
One of our favorite National Parks is Joshua Tree in California.
We visited the park on several evenings, starting with Geology Tour Road.
An interactive map of our route, heading in the south entrance (which doesn’t have an entrance station or lines of cars, but on the other hand has about an hour of not very exciting scenery):
Entrance sign:
Interesting rocks:
Geology Tour Road is a dirt road (in our opinion, some of the best parts of the park are down dirt roads):
We stopped at Paac Kü̱vü̱hü̱’k (pronounced “paach kurv-er-hurk”), put out our chairs, and had a picnic dinner:
Fascinating rocks:
An old dam:
Heading back up the road, some Joshua trees:
Sunset:
More rocks:
Supermoon over Joshua trees:
Thousand Trails Palm Springs
We stayed at Thousand Trails Palm Springs in Palm Desert, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)
Our third stay here. It can be tricky to get positioned, with lots of palm trees and other obstacles, but it was a little easier this time, as it was much less busy; lots of vacant sites to choose from (first come first served). Though the first site we tried the power didn’t work, an issue that affects many of the sites.
Dates:
- Check in: 2024-10-13
- Check out: 2024-10-27
- 14 nights
Weather:
- Sunny
- High temps 81-97°F, lows 58-67°F (it was a high of 109°F the week before!)
- Little wind, gusts to 16 MPH
Noise:
- Some freeway road noise
- Some train noise, but no horns most of the time
- Negligible neighbor noise
Site:
- #242, back-in, sand
- Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
- Somewhat level site; a little high on driver front side; used hydraulic leveling
- Sand site about 45 feet long by 25 feet wide, including patio
- Zero feet to neighbors on both sides (neighbors patio was under our driver-side slide-out, fortunately the site was empty)
- Picnic table on 12×6 concrete patio
- Tall palm trees
- Mostly clean site
- Some noninvasive ants
Utilities:
- 50 amp power, a little inconveniently located behind site
- 60 PSI water, inconveniently located behind site
- Loose sewer connection, very conveniently located (less than 1 10-foot pipe needed)
Internet (in usage priority order):
- T-Mobile: 150-250 Mbps down, 40 Mbps up, 30-50 ms ping, unreliable
- AT&T: 350-450 Mbps down, 35 Mbps up, 55 ms ping
- Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
- Starlink: not used
- Campground Wi-Fi: none
Amenities:
- Garbage dumpsters
- Pool
- They no longer allow package delivery to site, boo
Our review on Campground Reviews:
Gone downhill, but still decent
This was our third time and the earliest in the season we’ve stayed here. It was interesting (and a nice change) to have so many empty sites to choose from, but the fact that half the pedestals seem to be out of service isn’t great. The power was out at the first site we tried and most of the row opposite us were also out of order. On the plus side, it meant we didn’t have any immediate neighbors during our two-week stay. The other change for the worse is that they no longer accept mail and package deliveries. You used to be able to get Amazon/UPS/FedEx directly to your site, but couriers are no longer allowed in the park, so you have to get General Delivery at the Thousand Palms post office or use Amazon lockers, which isn’t as convenient. If you’re into social things, they have a lot of activities and events. We tend to avoid such things like the plague, but to each their own. It’s still a good option if you want to stay in the Palm Springs area with a Thousand Trails membership. I would choose other options if I were a retail customer. We camped at Thousand Trails Palm Springs in a Motorhome.
Campground map:
An interactive map:
Our site:
It’s always a challenge getting positioned here, fitting around the palm trees:
The sewer is very conveniently located, but the water and power are behind the site (which is fine for us):
We got out the griddle, and had several griddled dinners:
Sand gets everywhere in the desert, including in the wheels:
Industrious ants excavating a nest (fortunately they kept to themselves, rather than invading our coach):
We used to be able to get packages delivered to our site in this campground, but they don’t allow that anymore, unfortunately. So we used a nearby Amazon locker and General Delivery to a post office:
We originally pulled into this site, #240:
But when I tried to hook up the power, I couldn’t turn it on; the electrical box was busted (and very sketchy-looking):
So we moved a couple of sites over, after checking its power; site #242 has a newer pedestal. This issue affected a lot of the sites here; many are blocked off or marked as only having 30 amp power, despite having 50 amp plugs.
The site next to us had such a sign, plus a rope blocking it, probably being a seasonal site; it was nice not having anyone next to us on both sides:
A windy sunset:
And day:
Our row was mostly empty most of the time:
Other sites:
Despite the challenges of the palm trees and other obstacles, and the dodgy power, this is still one of our favorite Thousand Trails parks, if only for its proximity to Joshua Tree National Park (though still over an hour away), and us just liking the Palm Springs area. No doubt we’ll be back again (planning to come again next year).
Video: Orange to Palm Desert, California motorhome travel timelapse
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 103 miles from Orange, California to Palm Desert, California.
Travel from Orange to Palm Desert, California
We drove our coach 103 miles, about two hours of driving, from Orange, California to Palm Desert, California.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east; the start of our eastward migration for 2024, heading from California to Florida:
An interactive map:
Leaving the RV park:
Getting on CA-55 North:
Marine layer:
Hills:
Ah I-10, our old friend; one of the worst quality freeways in the country:
Cabazon Dinosaurs (which we visited a couple of years ago):
Rest area, where we had an early lunch to kill some time, as we were too early for check-in:
Paladin on the dash when getting back on the freeway (he jumped down moments later):
Desert Hot Springs and Palm Springs overpass:
Our destination, the Thousand Trails Palm Springs entrance:
Check in:
Paladin on the dash going to our site:
