We just got back from a mini vacay in a place that I have never heard of. About 20 minutes southeast of Palm Springs is a city called Indio. It is located in the Coachella Valley. So maybe you have heard of it? Let me know in the comments if you have heard of it or been there because I had done neither until just last week.

It wasn’t all open but it was still nice to get away, stay at a resort, and explore a new place. Here are some of the places we visited While there.

Salvation Mountain

Salvation Mountain is about an hour south of Indio and basically it is a hillside that is painted in bible verses. It happened to be closed for renovation but I think when it’s open you can climb up it to walk from one side to the other. Don’t quote me on that though, it’s just what I’ve seen on other poeple’s instagram photos.

Bombay Beach

Right in between Salvation Mountain and Indio is Bombay Beach. It’s on the southern end of the Salton Sea, but let me just tell you now folks, it is NOT a Hawaii or typical California ocean beach. It is a salty lake and you can definitely smell it in the air. It’s in a deserted town that used to see a lot of celebrities such as The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby. In 2010, its population was 295. When we visited we saw maybe 3 people who weren’t tourists?

Still, it was a pretty cool place to visit and take some fun pictures. It has random pink furniture on the beach, a pink tv, a mailbox in the lake, and an old door frame. There’s even a swing in the middle of the lake that is a popular photo op, but the water looked kinda gross and I was afraid if I brought that stink into our car that it might not come out.

Other than the beach part we had fun exploring the abandoned parts of town.

Shields Date Garden

The next day we went to Shield’s Date Garden on the recommendation of my parents. I didn’t really want to because I’m not a fan of dates. But it was a pretty cool experience. It is basically an outdoor museum and trail combined in one. Throughout the trail you see important scenes from the life of Jesus Christ beginning at his birth all the way to his resurrection. We called that our Sunday School lesson for the day. At the end we bought a date shake and I was surprised at how good it actually was.

Lappert’s Ice Cream

The last place we visited was by pure luck and I’m so glad we found it. We were looking for an ice cream shop after dinner on our last night and were lucky enough to find a place that also served dole whip. I’m talking all the flavors of dole whip: pineapple, watermelon, mango, raspberry, and more! We tried their Sandia Picante X-Treme and their Pinada and they were amazing! Easily the best thing I had on the trip!

It was a great weekend getaway and we enjoyed being able to relax with our family. Have you been to Indio? What places do you recommend visiting?

-Janice