Coachella Valley (La Quinta, California)

 valley, invisible

The Coachella Valley is a desert valley in central Riverside County, roughly 110 miles east of Los Angeles and 90 miles north of the Mexican border. It is approximately 45 miles in length from the west end at the San Gorgonio pass, to the east end at the Salton Sea. It is about 15 miles wide in most parts. The valley is in the shadow of both Mount San Jacinto and Mount San Gorgonio, the two highest mountains in Southern California and actually part of the same mountain range, along with the Santa Rosa mountains. The valley is flanked by Mt. San Jacinto and the Santa Rosa mountains on the west, the Little San Bernardino mountains on the north, and the Orocopia and Chocolate mountains on the northeast.

The Coachella Valley sits in a somewhat geographically unique area. The valley slopes downward in a southeast direction until it reaches it's lowest point at the Salton Sea, about 250 feet below sea level. The valley is sometimes referred to by geologists as the Cahuilla Basin or the Salton Trough. It is the northernmost section of the large Sonoran Desert, which spans across the entire southeastern-most part of California, southern Arizona, and a large part of northern Mexico. The valley is also within an area known as the Lower Colorado Desert, and is sometimes colloquially known as the Low Desert.

Cahuilla Indians started to inhabit the region roughly a thousand years ago, and the Spanish later came through during the 16th century. The Southern Pacific Railroad built its Los Angeles to Yuma route through the valley in the 1870's, making a stop at the route's halfway point which later became the city of Indio, the valley's oldest city. Not long after this, agriculture became the focal industry of the eastern portion of the valley, which it remains today. For roughly a century the valley has been a favored spot for the production of dates, citrus, grapes and many other types of crops, and today along with the Imperial Valley to the south, produces a quarter of the nation's produce, a half-billion dollar a year industry.

In the 1880's, on the opposite side of the valley, the McCallum family became the first ever white settlers of the area now known as Palm Springs. The area until that time held a Cahuilla Indian village known as Agua Caliente. The McCallums became close to the Indians and farmed the land, growing citrus, grapes and alfalfa. They later built the village's first apartment house, and later its first hotel. Word of this arid secluded desert paradise spread amongst the wealthy businessmen and show business icons of the era, and by the 1920's and all the way through to about the late 1960's, Palm Springs was a true hot spot winter playground for the rich and famous, from movie stars to US Presidents to captains of industry.

In the following years the Coachella Valley came into its own as a haven for retirees seeking to live out their golden years in the dry, arid peaceful desert. It continues to be a world-famous vacation destination and many residents of New England, the Pacific Northwest, and Canada continue to have winter homes in the valley. As time goes by and the population grows, the valley has become much more of a year-round residence, and will continue to grow in such a way in the coming decades.

The valley is an amazing place of natural desert beauty that should be experienced by anyone who loves nature. The endless mountains, canyons, and deserts contain scenery that can't be experienced many other places on Earth. The valley has quite a few world-famous attractions. The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway will take you 5,000 feet to the top of Mt San Jacinto from the floor of the desert to a beautiful green mountain environment, with beautiful nature trails, breathtaking views of the Coachella Valley (on a clear day the Salton Sea can be seen nearly 50 miles away) and even a nice restaurant. And after this you can be back on the desert floor in 20 minutes. The four-decade-plus Riverside County Fair and International Date Festival draws people from all over the world. And of course in the last decade, the eastern valley has become home to the now huge and world-famous Coachella Music and Arts festival, held on the grounds of the also world-famous Empire Polo Club on the very southern boundary of the city of Indio.