Day Trips from Palm Springs: Drive Times and What's Actually Worth It

The map lies. Two hours on paper is three with the 10 backed up through Banning on a Saturday.

That's what this is for — the logistics of getting out of the Coachella Valley and back again. Pine forest, apple orchards, snow in January, a shrinking inland sea, all within a couple hours of a place where it's ninety degrees in November.

Which trips are a half-day and which eat a whole one. What's open in summer and what quietly isn't. Where the drive is worse than you're picturing, and the rare case where it's better.

Some of these are worth doing every single year. Some are worth one visit and a photograph. We're not going to pretend otherwise just to pad out a list.