Palms to Pines Scenic Byway

Palms to Pines Scenic Byway

25 stops· 51 min· 62.4 mi

Sixty-two miles from the palm-lined desert floor of Palm Desert to the pine forests of the San Jacinto Mountains and down the far side to Banning — one of Southern California's great scenic drives, and one of the most dramatic changes of scenery you can make in a single afternoon. Ranger Quinn takes you up the old Pines to Palms Highway, Route 74, as it climbs off the Coachella Valley floor through a wall of desert mountains, past the Cahuilla overlooks and the pinyon woods and the high green meadows of Garner Valley, to the mile-high mountain village of Idyllwild — then makes the one turn of the whole drive and rolls back down Route 243 to the windy pass at Banning. It's a vertical journey through five different worlds: Sonoran desert to mountain chaparral to pinyon-juniper to towering yellow pine, all in an hour's drive. Ranger Boone Merrick rides along with the tales: Tahquitz, the banished shaman the Cahuilla say still streaks across these peaks as a ball of green fire; the record-breaking masonry dam that made Lake Hemet; the hand-built road itself, and the horseback years before it; and the Ramona Pageant down in the valley, the longest-running outdoor play in America. Best from fall through spring, when the desert is cool and the mountains are clear. The high country gets snow and chain controls in winter, so check conditions before you climb — then go up.