03-03-2025 More About Our Second Week at Catalina Spa and RV Resort

This time of year, the weather in Desert Hot Springs can be very cold, very hot, sometimes windy, and just about anything in between.  After our friends left for Anza Borrego, Mo and I settled into what we thought might be a quiet week of taking care of the Tracker's electrical issues and then enjoying the simple life of morning swims, walking the dog, writing, reading, and enjoying the warmth of winter sun.

A Google Earth shot of the Coachella Valley from the North with Palm Springs on the right side of the image and Desert Hot Springs just out of view at the bottom of the image

It wasn’t quite as simple as all that because taking care of “things” required driving to “town”. Town means the long strip of cities that line the strip of the Coachella Valley from Palm Springs at the far western edge at the base of Mt. San Jacinto through Indio at the far eastern edge as the valley reaches the open spaces near the Salton Sea.   In addition to Palm Springs, there are Coachella, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage, and Cathedral City.  It is sometimes referred to as “Greater Palm Springs”.

Each of these communities has its own personality, and there are slight differences between the opulence of the huge country clubs and golf courses that line the boulevards and the type of architecture that prevails.  When searching for anything, you first need to figure out in which town it is located and then decide which route you will take to cross the dusty open desert to the south side of Interstate 10 and then to your destination.  As many years as we have visited Desert Hot Springs, Mo and I are pretty good at navigating the valley and making our way to Costco or Trader Joe's, or maybe the quilt shops in La Quinta or the zoo in Palm Desert.  It takes a bit of getting used to, but we manage.

When we were finally alone with no big social agenda on Tuesday, we knew it was time to find a place to help with the electrical connection between the rig and the car.  The best place we could find that could look at the problem was the U-Haul store in Cathedral City.  We spent the better part of a morning there with some kind men, looking at all the possibilities and making the final determination that we would have to return on Saturday for a formal appointment to rewire the Tracker connection where the electrical cord connecting it to the MoHo was plugged in.  Mo, of course being Mo, went home and spent some time fiddling with the thing and continued to check fuses in the MoHo and sure enough she found the problem on her own,  It was a simple fuse and when we hooked up to leave the following Monday, she had saved us over $150 and a wasted Saturday.

We took time to relax after that visit to town and didn’t leave the park again until the next afternoon when we traveled back to Palm Springs to enjoy a good traditional Mexican meal at a traditional Mexican restaurant.  The Las Casuelas restaurants in Palm Springs, California, are a family-owned business that began in 1958. The restaurants are known for their authentic Mexican food and hospitality. 

We chose the Las Casuelas Original Restaurant just up the road from the Las Casuelas Terraza, where we ate with our blogger friends Rick and Paulette back in 2011 during one of our first visits to Palm Springs.  The food was good, traditional, and satisfying, with few of the flourishes that make California cuisine Mexican food considerably different than this traditional meal.  

I even loved the rice and beans with a flavor good enough to actually eat instead of pushing them around on the plate to get to the enchiladas.  On that day, we had no trouble returning to the RV park with the winds still high but not so high that the roads were closed by dust storms. 

late afternoon sunlight on the windmills lining Indian Canyon Road on the way back to the RV Park

On Thursday afternoon, we decided it was time to visit the historic Cabot’s Pueblo Museum on the north side of Desert Hot Springs. The Pueblo Museum is fascinating in itself, but the story of the man who built it is rather incredible. 

Cabot Yerxa began building the pueblo in 1941 when he was 58 years old. The pueblo was to be a museum and home for Cabot and his second wife, Portia. Cabot Yerxa was a man who took risks, traveled, and was one of the founders of Desert Hot Springs. What we learned about in our visit is Cabot Yerxa’s legacy as community visionary, artist, humanitarian, and environmentalist.

In 1913, at the age of 30, Cabot homesteaded 160 acres in what is now Desert Hot Springs. In need of water, he dug a well with a pick and shovel near his home and rediscovered the now famous hot minerals the area is renowned for. He dug another well 600 yards away from his home and located the pure cold water of the Mission Springs Aquifer. The two wells, one hot and one cold, led Cabot to name his homestead Miracle Hill.

a totem carved from a complete redwood tree with the feather done with incense cedar

After proving his homestead, he relocated to Washington, was drafted into the U. S. Army, and traveled to South America and Europe. Eventually, he returned to the area in the late 1930s to make Desert Hot Springs his home. 

The Hopi-inspired building is hand-made and created from reclaimed and found materials from throughout the Coachella Valley. Cabot used recovered lumber from his original homestead. Additionally, he purchased abandoned cabins and dismantled them to use the materials for the pueblo, going so far as to straighten out used nails. Much of the pueblo is made from adobe-style and sun-dried bricks.

a cupboard filled with Cabots collected antiquities

Filled with Native American art and artifacts, souvenirs of Cabot’s travels around the world, and Cabot’s own works of art, the museum officially opened to the public in 1950. The Pueblo has four stories, is 5,000 square feet, and includes 35 rooms, 150 windows, 30 rooflines, and 65 doors.

Mo delighted in seeing many of the same collectibles she has at our home in Grants Pass

When Cabot died in 1965, it seemed that his pueblo legacy would deteriorate into ruin.  This article (linked here)  in Palm Springs Life explains how one man worked to save the Pueblo and how various donors and the City of Desert Hot Springs stepped in to save this amazing piece of Desert Hot Springs History.

Portia Cabot was a beautiful woman

It only took about 45 minutes for us to complete the self-guided tour narrated by our phone, but it was a fascinating place to see.  I was especially intrigued by the story of Cabot and his second wife, Portia, a woman of grace and beauty, well educated in the arts and familiar with esoteric arts and religions of the world.  It was hard to imagine her walking up the tiny staircases to the rooms Cabot built for her and living this kind of desert life. 

This was the largest, most lovely example of an old palo verde tree I have seen recently

It was a lovely day once again, beginning with our swims and our walks, a bit of culture with the museum visit, and a good dinner back at home before we settled into our evening TV watching.

Cat Spa has a pretty nice workout room if one doesn't feel like walking the desert like we do

Just a little side note: when we are traveling, we try to watch a couple of episodes of whatever Netflix show has caught our fancy by mirror casting the program that is playing on our phone to the bigger TV in the RV.  At Catalina Spa, the phone signal is just weak enough or has enough competition that the casting app doesn’t work well.  Of course, watching on the phone uses free data, according to my phone plan, but using the hotspot to make things work on other devices uses data that will eventually reach a limit and begin to cost us.  We watched our shows on the larger screen tablet using the hotspot on the phone, which worked fine.  I will let you know just how fine when I get home to the Verizon bill for extra data used.  Ah well, another cost of traveling with the luxury of staying connected.

It was a good thing that Saturday wasn’t wasted, thanks to Mo's efforts, because it also happened to be her birthday.  The winds at Desert Hot Springs had picked up, something that often happens this time of year, but the heat was unusual.  The last few days we were there, the winds were blowing between 30 and 35 miles per hour with gusts to 50 mph.  Before leaving for Palm Springs on the pretty, sunny, and very windy morning, we made sure the awning was put away, the chairs were lying flat on the ground, the fans were going, and the windows were open to keep Mattie comfortable in our absence.

Lobby of the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum

Our Birthday celebration in Palm Springs was a highlight of our time in the desert,  We visited the beautiful and informative Aqua Caliente Cultural Museum (link here) in downtown Palm Springs located in the Agua Caliente Plaza that houses the museum, the Sec-He Spa operated by the tribe at the location of their sacred springs and a lovely, meandering pathway that is lined with native plants, waterfalls, and a babbling stream.

Projected image of the floor of the sacred sprins that moved and rippled

The museum is a treasure.  It was originally founded in 1991 and created to share the history and culture of the Agua aliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, which include 9 individual groups.  Master planning for the Agua Caliente Cultural Plaza that encompasses the Museum and the Spa at Sec-He began in 2015.  In 2017, JCJ Architecture was recruited to design both buildings and the surrounding outdoor spaces.  Based on a conceptual design by the architect, the inspiration for the museum's curved shape comes from traditional Cahuilla basketmaking.  The footprint of the building represents a basket start, the first few coils of a new basket.  The construction of the cultural plaza began in 2018 and was completed in 2023,

Mo and I have a little bit of a story for this special piece of Palm Springs.  The entire plaza area used to be a big free parking lot, where Mo and I would park every year when visiting the Thursday night street market in Palm Springs.  We were a bit daunted when we returned in early 2019 to find the entire lot fenced off with big signs touting the coming cultural plaza.  I was delighted to see our parking lot transformed so amazingly.

As we toured the state-of-the-art museum, I was impressed with the fact that the tribe has learned to adapt and thrive despite the centuries of invasion by whites into their lands.  The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians is a federally recognized Native American Tribe with 31,500 acres of Reservation lands that spread across Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, and into the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains. The Tribe currently owns and operates the Indian Canyons Golf Resort; the Agua Caliente casinos in Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, and Cathedral City; the Indian Canyons, including Tahquitz Canyon and Tahquitz Visitor Center; the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum; and the Spa at Séc-he. By the way, I did finally learn how to say this word: Tahquitz is pronounced  "Tahk-a-which".

The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum (ACCM) Collections are mostly comprised of objects that represent the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians (ACBCI) and, more broadly, Cahuilla culture and history. Collection items are divided into three major areas: Objects and Artifacts, Archives, and the Library.

The Objects and Artifacts Collection contains a wide range of formats, including baskets, pottery, textiles, beaded items, fine art, archaeological materials, and memorabilia. The extensive collection of Southern California Indian baskets contains examples attributed to Cahuilla, Chemehuevi, Serrano, Luiseño, Cupeño, and Kumeyaay makers. Pottery items in the collection consist of both historic and contemporary vessels from Southern California and the Southwest.

The Archives Collection contains primary and secondary source items, including printed materials, rare books, newsletters, photographs, government documents, newspapers, postcards, oral histories, and audiovisual materials.

The Library Collection largely consists of reference books and reports that discuss American Indian and international Indigenous cultures. The Library also contains many standard titles on Cahuilla culture and history.

Mo and I hiked to this waterfall in 2017

We learned so much about this group of people who have retained their unique identity within the urban melee that fills their once-sacred lands in the Coachella Valley.  I especially loved the special effects that illustrated the development and movement of the changing landscape with a great earthquake in the 1850s, and the coming of the stage line and the railroads, the highways, and the cities.  The animated depictions of the sacred pools and waterfalls of the Indian Canyons in the vicinity were spectacular, almost like being there.  I appreciated that the animals depicted were sculptures and not stuffed creatures. I especially loved the beautiful animated creation story shown in the theater in the round.

Mo and I left the museum plaza with a leisurely walk along the river, listening to the waterfalls and watching the sun glistening on the palm fronds in the wind. We were both very impressed with what the tribe has done with this sacred patch of land in downtown urban Palm Springs.

We left the plaza feeling energized and yet rested by the presence and sounds of water everywhere around us before driving the short distance from the museum to the other cultural center of Palm Springs on Palm Canyon Drive, the heart of the city.  Here, we had an unlimited choice of restaurants of every possible type to choose from for Mo’s birthday meal.

We decided on the Tuscan Grille, a restaurant set back in a sunny courtyard with outdoor seating that was shaded and protected from the wind.  The restaurant is old-school Tuscan, much like the popular kitchens from a decade ago that are now considered a bit dated, but I do love the look.  

The menu was especially enticing during the weekend brunch and happy hours from 11 to 3.  Everything we ordered was truly delicious. 

Mo had a chicken salad caesar wrap that was so good, and I enjoyed pasta Roma with one big fat prawn added for extra delight.  

My cocktail was a lime basil cucumber martini, which was incredibly yummy.  We sat there feeling pampered and happy with our choice for Mo’s day. No cake or candles appeared, just the way Mo likes it.

Traveling west on old hwy 111 about 20 mile out of our way to get home

The day didn’t shift from all the loveliness until we started back home by way of Indian Canyon Road across the valley back to the north.  Every attempt we made to cross the freeway led to closed roads and detours and finally I just gave up and followed the Google Map suggestions for getting around the roads that had been closed due to the high winds.  It was quite dramatic, with dust clouds rising to hundreds of feet and winds blowing at 40 miles an hour. 

Almost back to Dillon Road

After a bit of a delay, we did finally get home to our little house, and a little dog happy to see us and get her bit of Mo’s chicken as a treat.  Mo decided that the birthday was perfect.

We ended our week at Catalina spa with morning swims, afternoon reading and writing, and mentally preparing for the next chapter in our desert sojourn as we planned our southern route to the “real” desert where we would again meet Phil and Joanne for a couple of days boondocking in the wilds of Ogilby Road. 

Departing Catalina Sp and RV Resort on a sunny windy morning heading east to Ogilby Road

As I write this morning, the sweet emptiness of Ogilby Road is just a memory, and we are settled into the clean and open space dry camping in the overflow area of the Boneyard Vista Family Camp at Davis Monthan Air Force Base.  Despite being within hearing distance of a busy road, it is a quiet place to be.

The week to come will include time with our friends here in Tucson before we depart for Southeastern Arizona and another visit to a place I have never seen, the Chiricahua Mountains.