California Dreamin' - Bike Riding in Palm Desert and Indian Wells

I was on a work trip last week that took me to the Palm Springs area, a bit southeast of Los Angeles. While lounging on the bed at the Hyatt and flipping through the facility guide after first checking in, I suddenly saw that the place had bikes available for guest use, free of charge. Schwing!

Holy cow - what did I do to deserve such good fortune? When you travel for business, you can go to some cool places, but most of the time there is really no good way to grab a bike and take a two-wheel tour of your temporary home. But now all I had to do was to decide what conference session I was going to ditch and figure out where to go.

Long story short, I cut out about 10 a.m. and rode an hour and a half, taking in 15 miles of the southern California scenery in and around the Indian Wells/Palm Desert area on a single-speed cruiser Electra Townie. It was great. The route took me through a long flat valley ringed by mountains, where I saw some really cool homes, a bunch of other cyclists, and some people in a park where I stopped for water who were working with easels and oil paints, trying to put the gorgeous scenery around them on canvas.

Finally the hills and the clock got me, and I had to turn back. But that one little ride made my trip.

If you're curious, the route I rode went basically up from Indian Wells/California 111 to the start of the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountains on California 74. Here is a link to a map.

Ever ride this area? Comment below.

Photos: Dave Fiedler