There are also a number of social clubs scattered along the main drag, and off in the desert a bit there's an 18-hole sand golf course. Come to think of it, this might not be a bad place to hang out for longer than just a long weekend.
Fun Roads (and some reasons not to dodge the "Big Oops")
While I wouldn't specifically advise against it, I'm not really trying to get a wave of bike tourists out to the Salton Sea for long vacations. Really. But there are so many fabulous roads and sights around, it would be a shame to dodge this monument to man's folly and gritty survival instinct. No, the 200+ miles of straight roads surrounding the Sea are not exciting in themselves, but if you use them to string together a couple of other ones it works.
State Route 78 west off the south edge of the Sea is entertaining enough on its own once it hits the mountains, but even better is Montezuma Valley Road out of Borrego Springs (just a short jog north from 78, or straight west from Salton City on Borrego-Salton Seaway). Borrego has decent food, hotels and gas, and Montezuma Valley Road has great sightlines, smooth pavement, and sweeping vistas of the Coachella Valley. It also links up with a bunch more entertaining roads that wind through the Cleveland National Forest... but that's a whole other story.
As stated earlier, taking 78 East out of Brawley will get you into the Imperial Sand Dunes. Not only are they a sight on their own, sometimes you can watch he high-powered sand toys rip up the sides of the dunes as well. Farther on the road climbs out of the valley and up to the Colorado River, not a bad option if your travels are taking you east.
Mike Calabro photographs our...
Mike Calabro photographs our April 2009 Table of Contents
To the north of the Valley is Joshua Tree National Park. Again, I'm not a big desert guy, but this is another happy exception. If you're touring Salton Sea anyhow there's a cool little backdoor route out of Mecca on the north side of the Sea. If you take 66th Ave east out of town, it turns into Box Canyon Road, which in turn crosses Interstate 10 and continues up Cottonwood Canyon to the Park. It's much better way to go than slogging it out through Yucca Valley.
On both of our first two trips we made a point of heading up State Route 74 out of Palm Desert, in the more touristy part of the valley. The Pines to Palms Highway is also known as Seven-Layer Road both for its numerous switchbacks, as well as the various microclimates you'll go through. If you go in the winter like us, it's a crapshoot just how far you can get up towards the mountain resort of Idyllwild. The passes are a minimum of 4500 feet, so dress in your most versatile outfit if you're planning on doing pines and palms in the same afternoon. On our second trip we were lucky enough to come after a snowstorm but not right after a snowstorm, so we got clean roads, and piles of snow to gawk at. Temps were a very reasonable 50ish degrees.
Heck, just coming in on I-10 from Los Angeles during the day surrounded by miles and miles of wind farms covered with thousands of windmill generators is a thrill for many. Getting pushed around by gusts from the sky and blasts from the fronts of semi trucks is another kind of thrill. If you are coming in this way, an interesting detour is to take the Whitewater exit and go North. You can't get lost, as there's only one road, which goes to the Whitewater Nature Preserve. Even if you don't stop at the preserve, the view of the San Bernardino Mountains covered with snow and the snowmelt river rushing alongside (and over) the road is pretty thrilling as well.