Towering over the windmill farm and the entire valley is Mt. San Jacinto, whose highest peak pokes the sky at 10,834 feet. Getting to the top is surprisingly easy, thanks to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. Rotating 80-passenger tramcars climb the mountain's nearly vertical rock face to the Mountain Station, perched on a crest at 8,516 feet. From this giddy height, the views of Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley are breathtaking. And the alpine coolness is a welcome relief from the baking heat of the desert: temperatures at the Mountain Station are usually 30 degrees lower than on the valley floor. Outside the station, hiking and cross-country skiing trails crisscross the rugged and pristine Mt. San Jacinto State Park and Wilderness Area.

Celebrity hounds and movie buffs will love Palm Springs. The Walk of Stars on Palm Canyon Drive honors entertainers such as Bob Hope, Phyllis Diller, Rudy Vallee, Cheetah the Chimp, and Sonny Bono. Stores such as Celebrity Seconds feature celebrity cast-offs such as clothing (how about a Ginger Rogers tafetta evening gown for a cool $6,000?), jewelry, and accessories. And Palm Springs Visitor Center sells a map of a self-guided driving tour of the stars' homes, many of which are in the lovely Old Las Palmas neighborhood.

To the west and south of Palm Springs, on land belonging to the Agua Caliente band of Cahuilla Indians, are the four Indian Canyons. They can be explored without a guide; maps are available at the visitors center. The most popular of the three is 15-mile-long Palm Canyon, where thousands of tall fan palms fringe a rocky stream. Tahquitz Canyon, considered by many to be the most beautiful, was closed to the public for 30 years before re-opening in 2001. Tour guides discuss the canyon's natural and human history while leading a hike to a 60-foot seasonal waterfall.

Striped hyenas, meerkats, Gila monsters, Arabian oryxes, cinereous vultures, and desert tortoises are among the 150 desert-dwellers that make a home at The Living Desert in Palm Desert. Visitors to this 1,800-acre zoo and botanical garden can ride a tram, attend naturalist talks, stroll the trails, and visit a petting kraal. And at the Tennity Wildlife Hospital & Conservation Center, they can watch medical procedures and examinations.

Groves of date palms cover much of the southern Coachella Valley and the town of Indio, the self-styled "Date Capital of the World." Shields Date Garden offers date ice cream, date milkshakes, and more than a dozen varieties of freshly picked dates. A small theatre shows a very dated (no pun intended) and unintentionally funny film called "The Romance and Sex Life of the Date." At nearby Oasis Date Gardens, shady pathways wind through 175 acres of date palms. Guided tours are available.