Warm Winter Bike Tour—California Desert Escape
Take a vacation from the Winter blues on a road bike tour in the California Desert
Consider the ingredients necessary for the perfect Winter bicycle tour. The weather has to be warm and dry. The roads have to be great for cycling. And to make it an Undiscovered Country tour, the location has to be, essentially, undiscovered—but not so undiscovered as to be without the comforts of civilization.
Amazingly, there is a region on the map that has the right mix of ingredients for the ideal Winter bike tour. Just a short distance away from the major urban areas of Southern California lies the Anza-Borrego Desert, a great dry basin ringed by high mountains. In the center of this large desert park is Borrego Springs, a “quaint desert resort town with no traffic and clean air”. Wide and empty roads stretch across the valley floor with mountain vistas in every direction. Warm weather, a quiet town, empty biking roads, great lodging and dining: these are the ingredients that make up an ideal Undiscovered Country trip.
And while cycling and relaxing daily through quaint desert resort towns makes for a wonderful winter tour, this trip also includes a healthy dose of adventure. Starting in Palm Springs, known as "the ultimate desert playground for outdoor adventure, arts and culture, gaming and entertainment", the route skirts the edge of the Joshua Tree National Park to the luxurious outdoor adventure destinations Palm Desert and Indian Wells, cruises through the Coachella Valley to the Salton Sea—California's largest lake (and one of lowest places on the continent at 227 feet below sea level), rolls through the Badlands of Anza-Borrego Desert to quaint Borrego Springs. For an exhilirating challenge with a spectacular view, the tour climbs out of the desert on a road known for its vistas as "the glass elevator". We return back along the Salton Sea to Indian Wells, where our tour finishes.
If you like cycling rides in Winter without multiple layers of fleece and Gore-Tex, touring on our California Desert Escape may be just the trip you’ve been looking for.
