The hook
The San Andreas Fault pushes groundwater to the surface in the middle of the desert here, and native fan palms have grown up around it into shady green oases you cross on a boardwalk.
01Why it's worth it
The Coachella Valley Preserve protects one of the strangest things about this desert: where the San Andreas Fault runs, it squeezes water up out of the ground, and California's only native palm, the fan palm, clusters around the seeps into thick, cool oases. You walk out of bare sand into deep palm shade, over a boardwalk at the visitor-center grove and then along the McCallum Trail to a spring-fed pond, one of the few places the endangered desert pupfish still survives, with a short climb to a vista where you can trace the fault line across the valley. It's the same geology that makes the famous Palm Springs canyons, but quieter and stranger, out on the valley floor where almost no one goes.
02How to experience it
It's near Thousand Palms off Interstate 10, about eight hours from the Bay. Start at the visitor center and its palm grove, then take the McCallum Trail out to the pond and the fault overlook. It's easy walking but exposed, so go in the cool months and carry water. Pairs with the Palm Springs canyons for a full day of desert oases.