behind me is a brilliantly painted red and orange sunset over the world-famous
Joshua Tree National Park my name is Eric Conover and this is what to do when
traveling to California part 3 I am here in the beautiful state of California in
partnership with visit California and my way nearing the end of a two-week long
road trip with my good friend Mike shepherd my mission in this three-part
video series is simple show you the top destinations to experience on the
ultimate road trip through the great state of California starting here in
Temecula Temecula is known as the hidden gem wine
country of SoCal centrally located from all SoCal major cities with over 40
wineries in the valley one of the biggest differences from Sonoma Valley
of north and Temecula is that in Temecula you can actually stay in the
vineyards right behind me is a wine vineyard you turn this way that's my
hotel room vineyard hotel you are right in the middle of the action
whereas in Sonoma you have the vineyards and then the hotels are separate in the
main town a few miles outside of the vineyards aside from all the incredible
wine my number one thing to do in Temecula is so for a sunrise hot air
balloon ride you it's one of the most majestic means of transportation with a
peace or hot air balloon ride over the rolling hills and lush vineyards of the
Temecula Valley the beautiful estates sprawling below and the incredible
scenery with a sunrise flight which are available year-round and a balloon ride
is hands-down the best way to get a bird's-eye view of the region so we just
left Temecula early in the morning driving the RV to Palm Springs
now Palm Springs fascinates me it's a sea of green walled off by massive
mountains surrounded by air desert there is nothing for miles
Palm Springs has this sort of strange nostalgic feeling for me
the hotel we're staying at looks like something out of a Wes Anderson film
every room is a different color you got the yellows you got the greens you got
the Reds the Pink's the blues palm trees morning cup of joe at sunrise known for
its stylish mid-century architecture hotels golf courses and of course
beautiful sunny skies with actually just over 300 sunny days per year
Palm Springs truly is an oasis in the middle of the desert and at fancy hotels
and swimming pools Archer thing you can always head up here to the top of this
mountain San Jacinto Peak shoots up from the
Coachella Valley floor to just shy of 11,000 feet above sea level and the
quickest way to get near the peak is on the palm springs aerial tramway which is
also the largest rotating aerial tramway in the entire world there's still an
additional 2,000 feet to the very top of the summit which is right over that way
but the tram will take you to just about 8,000 feet at the top of the tram it's a
good 40 degrees cooler than down in the city so right now it's about 60 degrees
whereas down in the valley it's right above 100 degrees looking over to the
east you see Palm Springs all the cities down there in the valley you even see
the wind blow farm over there way off in the distance highly recommend if you are
in Palm Springs take the tram up and just enjoy nature if you want to go for
a hike head on off that way to the peak of the mountain or if you just want to
hang out and enjoy the beauty points head over this way to the platform and
just take in the beautiful views from way up here you can get a crystal-clear
view of the San Andreas Fault zone we met up with our friend Phil who is an
actual living legend and took a red Jeep tour outside the city limits into an
active earthquake fault system where the North American and Pacific plates meet
through a labyrinth of geological cuts and canyons stretching for miles and
miles as far as the eye can see pulling over the Jeep in Horseshoe
Canyon now we're right outside of Palm Spring I mean we're talking how many
miles maybe about 15 20 miles from Palm Springs we're basically in the middle of
the San Andreas Fault zone all right which runs from about the Salton Sea
heads west then it makes a big turn heads up towards San Francisco around
San Francisco on its way to Japan we have a hundred earthquakes a week in
this area we don't feel virtually any of them at all but it's really really
special place in the country what looks like a solid rock is actually just
easily broken into powder this is what's called fault gouge everything in these
canyons is basically fog out so it looks like you're driving through these hard
solid granite looking canyons but actually it's all just dust the greater
Palm Springs region was pretty much built solely upon master irrigation as a
massive underwater aquifer fuels the region bringing life to the area
supporting just about everything we stopped at the source of this water a
palm Oh ASA seemingly appearing out of nowhere seven days a week 24 hours a day
water flowing right down this water comes from rain runoff as well as from
the aquifer comes right up from the aquifer just several miles away from
downtown bond springs we're out here in the Coachella Valley what a beautiful
place this is so if you want to get out of the city and just escape into the
desert this is your man desert adventures red jeep tours from Palm
Springs we packed up the RV and drove out into the desert I mean way out into
the desert
as we arrived at the final stop of this California roadtrip in Joshua Tree
National Park just about seven o'clock in the morning here in Joshua Tree Sun
is rising right behind us just for a second just listen
it is absolutely quiet in the desert in the morning not a single sound the
National Park is a vast protected area in Southern California characterized by
rugged rock formations and stark desert landscapes named for the region's
twisted bristled Joshua Tree RV but to actually head out of the National Park
and into the town to grab some coffee some breakfast the actual town of Joshua
Tree is quaint with tons of restaurants and coffee shops the best way to see
Joshua Tree in my opinion is by RVs it is a massive area of land to cover I
like being in the desert it's quiet it's warm but it's also cool at night it's
peaceful it's a good place to sort of press that reset button and just feel
centered the best times of the day are early in the morning or late in the
evening when the Sun sinks low and the temps begin to cool off and at night
with hardly any artificial lights you can see the arm of the Milky Way galaxy
with your naked eye if you enjoyed this video and you want to see more
high-quality travel films make sure to subscribe to my youtube channel and with
that I will see you in the next video