March 2026 · a long weekend · with my husband
The usual advice for this part of the desert is to book a pool hotel in Palm Springs and drive out to Joshua Tree for a day. We skipped Palm Springs hotels entirely and booked Two Bunch Palms, a mineral springs resort in Desert Hot Springs, about 25 minutes north. We went for the hotel, not the town, and it was the best decision of the trip.
We'd left the kids at home, flown south out of a gray Portland March, and wanted two things: water to sit in and desert to walk in. From Two Bunch Palms we could do Palm Springs for breakfast and Joshua Tree by lunch, then come back and soak.
Why Two Bunch Palms
Let's be clear about Desert Hot Springs: there isn't much to it. It's a quiet, spread-out town with little to eat and less to do. The reason to come is the hot mineral water under it, and the one property that makes the most of it.
Two Bunch Palms feels like a world of its own. It's 77 acres of old palms and tamarisk, adults-only, with mineral pools you can drift between all day. Nobody is performing a pool party. People float, read and go quiet. Once you're inside the gate, you don't want to leave, and you don't need to. The resort has its own restaurant, which is just as well, since there's nothing comparable nearby.
The location works in its favor anyway. Palm Springs is 25 minutes south for breakfast and dinner, and the town of Joshua Tree is about 45 minutes up Highway 62. You get both halves of the trip from one base, and every day ends back in hot water.
If you can't stay the night, Two Bunch sells day passes. Book ahead in spring, when numbers are limited.
Palm Springs, Morning and Night
We used Palm Springs the way you'd use a nearby city: a morning in it, a dinner in it, and back to the springs to sleep.
Breakfast was poolside at ARRIVE, in the Uptown Design District, at its restaurant Palm Canyon Swim & Social. It's all-day brunch, a mid-century pool deck and the San Jacinto mountains filling the view. It's the easiest way to get a taste of the Palm Springs pool scene without staying in it.
Dinner was at Workshop Kitchen + Bar on Palm Canyon Drive. It's a concrete, cathedral-tall dining room built inside a 1920s building, and it won a James Beard Award for its design. The food holds up to the room: seasonal, much of it from the Coachella Valley, which is one of the most productive farming regions in the country. Book ahead.
Up Highway 62 to Joshua Tree
The drive is part of it. Highway 62 climbs out of the valley through Morongo and Yucca Valley into the high desert, where the air cools and the Joshua trees start.
Our first stop in the town of Joshua Tree was Más o Menos, a coffee shop by day and a cocktail and natural wine bar by night, with a back patio under a mesquite tree. It works at either end of a park day.
In the park, go early or late. Midday light is flat and the heat is real, even in March. Hidden Valley is an easy one-mile loop through a ring of boulders, and Arch Rock, a half-mile walk to a natural arch that glows at golden hour. Bring more water than seems reasonable, because there's almost none inside the park.
We came out the North Entrance for dinner at Kitchen in the Desert in Twentynine Palms. It's New American cooking with Caribbean influences, served on a leafy patio of palms, umbrellas and old mining equipment. Reserve on weekends.
That's also where I had my first T'MARO, in a cocktail. It's an amaro made in California and sweetened only with Coachella Valley dates: herbal, citrusy and unlike anything else in my home bar now. I bought a bottle at Perry's Fine Wine & Liquor in Palm Springs, and it's the best thing I brought home.
With the Kids
This was a trip for two, but I'd bring ours next time with a few swaps. Two Bunch Palms and ARRIVE are both adults-only, so the base changes.
In Palm Springs, Casa Cody takes families. It's the town's oldest hotel, with gardens, two pools and a walk into downtown. Up near the park, AutoCamp Joshua Tree puts you in an Airstream with a pool, campfires and kids' activities, about 10 minutes from the entrance. Hidden Valley's short loop through the boulders is a natural playground.
Keep the Joshua Tree day the same, just start earlier. Más o Menos keeps its indoor bar 21-and-over, but the patio works for everyone.
The Short Version
Stay · Two Bunch Palms (with kids: Casa Cody or AutoCamp Joshua Tree)
Eat · breakfast at ARRIVE's Palm Canyon Swim & Social, dinner at Workshop Kitchen + Bar and Kitchen in the Desert
Drink · Más o Menos, and a T'MARO cocktail wherever you see one
Do · the mineral pools, Highway 62, Joshua Tree early or late
Bring home · a bottle of T'MARO from Perry's
When · February to April. March is warm days and cool nights, and wildflowers if the winter was wet.
Getting there · fly into Palm Springs (PSP)
Getting around · a rental car is needed.
Next time · Pappy & Harriet's in Pioneertown, the Indian Canyons, Moorten Botanical Garden, a mid-century architecture drive
Two or three nights was enough to come home rested, which is not something I can say about most trips. The desert does most of the work. You just have to get in the water.
Planning a desert escape? Book with me.
