Palm Springs 15 



now proposed to set aside as a National Park, and 

 a striking addition it will be to the splendid list of 

 American Wonderlands. This bay, or pocket, 

 enclosed on three sides by mountains, forms, as it 

 were, a neat little compendium or miniature of the 

 greater desert, while Santa Rosa's fine bulk, over- 

 looking it in the background, gives it even an extra 

 touch of pictorial completeness. And when, in 

 winter and spring, the snowy maltese cross shines 

 on the mountain's forehead, we of Palm Springs 

 may be excused for indulging the fancy that our 

 particular bit of desert is distinguished and in a 

 way hallowed by the sacred emblem. 



So wholly distinctive is the locality I speak of 

 that an effort is needed to realize that so slight a 

 distance separates it from the familiar landscapes 

 of the coast regions. As a matter of fact, the differ- 

 ence between the desert and coast regions takes 

 effect almost instantaneously, so to speak, at the 

 summit of the San Gorgonio Pass. Thus it occurs 

 that from Palm Springs, well out on the desert, to 

 Riverside and Redlands, the center of California's 

 finest cultivation, is but a matter of fifty-five miles, 

 while Pasadena and Los Angeles are but fifty miles 

 farther away, with the Pacific only a trifle more. 

 This operates not only to make the journey from 

 one to the other perfectly easy but also to render 

 the change spectacular and interesting in a high 

 degree. To breakfast late at the beach, or "in 

 town," to lunch leisurely at the Mission Inn at 

 Riverside (which is strictly the comme il faut thing 



