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Palm Springs itself is pretty much a ritzy resort town, complete
with choreographed environments and golf courses with grass
unnaturally green for a desert. Where you want to be is on the
outskirts.
Mountain Roads
Drive up Route 74, then take Route 243
through the San Jacinto Mountains. This drive takes you through
San Bernardino National Forest. From here you can photograph
any standard forest scenes, along with panoramic views of the
valleys below.
Also check out just about any of the roads heading from the
Palm Springs area into the wilderness and the mountains. Route
62 is a very scenic drive, but there's nowhere to pull over
to shoot.
Windmills
At the north end of Palm Springs you'll
find windmills. Lots of them. I was impressed by the Penong
Windmills in South Australia (which I still like because
they're more rustic), but Palm Springs' windmills has in seer
number what it they lack in character.
The tough part about photographing the windmills is that they're
fenced off as private property by the power company. This makes
it difficult to work from many of the angles that would make
for the best photos. But enough roads run around the area to
give you something to work with.
Light hits the windmills all day, but the best option is to
photograph first thing in the morning on a day when clouds are
just starting to roll over the mountains. Pre-sunset light is
blocked by the mountains to the west, but sunrise light streams
straight across the Coachella Valley and hits the windmills
directly.
To get to the windmills, take Route 10. Trust me, you'll see
them.
Also …
For photographing flora and fauna, check
out Big Morongo Caynyon Preserve, which has several trails that
bring you over strams and marshes, through desert and fields.
A great bird-photography location during spring and fall migrations.
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