The hook
A one-acre family cactus garden in Palm Springs holds three thousand kinds of desert plant and the world's first "Cactarium," a word the founders made up.
01Why it's worth it
Chester Moorten, known as "Cactus Slim," was an original Keystone Cop and a Howard Hughes stand-in who caught tuberculosis on a film set, recovered in the desert panning for gold and collecting cactus, and in 1938 started this garden with his wife Patricia. They got good enough at desert landscaping that Disney, Sinatra, and Bing Crosby hired them to build their backyards. The garden they left is packed and personal: three thousand varieties of cactus and succulent crammed onto a single acre, many of them towering old specimens, threaded by narrow paths, with a greenhouse they called the Cactarium holding the rarest ones. It's still run by the family, and it feels less like an institution than like wandering through someone's wonderfully obsessive collection.
02How to experience it
It's about a mile and a half south of downtown Palm Springs, about eight hours from the Bay, with on-street parking and a small admission. It's compact, an hour at most, and best in the cooler parts of the day. Pairs easily with the rest of a Palm Springs day.