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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

A Palm Springs education

There's much more here than sun and golf

By: Caralyn Campbell

Posted: 04/28/2012 1:00 AM | Comments: 0

Sometimes I get hung up on the notion that a vacation has to be culturally enriching and educationally rewarding. And sometimes I just need a mindless break.

Imagine my surprise when I headed for the latter and found the former.

With its Hollywood Rat Pack reputation, I saw Palm Springs as a fun-in-the-sun playground similar to Las Vegas. I knew nothing of the Cahuilla Indians that mastered this seemingly harsh environment using desert plants and other materials in ingenious ways to ensure their survival in the Coachella Valley for thousands of years before the Spaniards arrived.

Neither did I know how much water lies just beneath the surface, which explains how these dead-looking plants are actually thriving.

We were on a four-hour Desert Adventures Red Jeep tour to the centre of the San Andreas Fault with award-winning guide Mitch Cazier. He is one of the original California surfer dudes. He is also part geologist, part naturalist and part early-America historian. He showed us how the Cahuilla used native plants to make rope, tools, baskets and dwellings, as well as for food and medicine. Some desert plants are still components in the medicines we use today.

We learned what life was like for early settlers, prospectors and gold miners at a pioneer homestead and a mining camp, complete with gold-mine exhibits, where we tried our hand at gold panning.

Life here was much simpler before Hollywood legends glamorized Palm Springs.

But you're never far from Hollywood history here, even when you've climbed deep into the heart of the San Andreas Fault.

Children of the '60s will recognize the twisted and tormented landscape (created by the collision of the Pacific and North American plates) as the backdrop for many a Hollywood western, as well as the television series Lost in Space and the original Star Trek.

During the week we spent in the desert, we also toured Indian Canyon on horseback and took a mid-century modern architectural tour. We visited the art museum, rode the tram to the top of the mountain and wandered through the streets and shops of old Palm Springs.

But mostly we came to relax and enjoy the climate, which averages 350 days of sunshine a year.

Canadians flock here in the dark days of winter to cure their seasonal blues.

We hung our hats in a spacious and comfortable room overlooking the golf course at Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa in Rancho Mirage, one of nine communities in the Coachella Valley that make up Palm Springs.

This property is ideal for a multi-generational holiday, cleverly designed to appeal to most members of the family -- perhaps aside from teenagers, who may wander to the mall and theatres across the street from the resort.

Younger kids will love Splashtopia. Ringed by a 425-foot lazy river, it's complete with inner tubes for a leisurely float. Splashtopia is a two-acre family-friendly water park with two 100-foot water slides, a cliffside Jacuzzi, and, for the toddlers, a sandy beach and water play zone. The park also features fountains and sprinklers, a waterfall off the man-made mountain, plus a mountainside Jacuzzi and a huge swimming pool.

Grandma and grandpa can relax on the quiet side of the resort, far from squealing little people. Lunch and drinks can be ordered poolside from the comfort of a teak lounger.

A 27-hole golf course winds through the resort. The gently rolling terrain, palm-lined fairways, water features and incredible mountain vistas are classic California desert golf at its best.

At a welcome reception on our first evening, we had a tour of the inventive food and drink menus on the patio outside and the adjacent R Bar, the resort's signature restaurant (and gastropub), where live music plays five nights a week.

We sipped on Moscow Mules and champagne cocktails from R Bar, enjoying the warm night air under the light of the full moon.

R Bar features artisan beers, tasting plates of comfort food and an unexpected twist on Bloody Marys with 10 different styles.

With a new focus on sourcing produce and ingredients as locally as possible, diners will enjoy a tapas menu featuring mini-tacos (smoked eggplant, mesquite barbeque duck or achiote chicken), yellow-fin tuna lollipops, "Bloody Mary" rock shrimp ceviche and smoked chicken empanadas.

An after-breakfast stroll was followed by a couples' massage and a soak in the Jacuzzi at the Spa Las Palmas. A recent facelift has transformed this space into a 20,000-square-foot desert oasis.

Palm Springs has given me a new appreciation for the magical healing powers of the desert.

-- Postmedia News

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 28, 2012 D4

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