The drive to and from Palm Springs from San Diego is not a particularly pleasant one. One thing you can always count on is traffic–especially through the Riverside area. It is one of the reasons we decided to extend the trip and not drive home on Friday evening.
So today we spent the day in Joshua Tree National Park (more on that tomorrow) and got lucky enough to escape most of the weather (high winds and rain) forecasted for Palm Springs today midday.
Anticipating a not-so-fun drive home today, we decided that we HAD to stop at the quirky roadside attraction not far from Palm Springs–the Cabazon Dinosaurs. We have visited the attraction before, but who wouldn’t want to stop and take photos of a 150 foot long hot pink apatosaurus (formerly known as brontosaurus) and a 65 foot tall T-Rex dressed in a tux?
We’ve learned through the grapevine (and now through personal experience) that the dinosaurs are palnted differently during different seasons. The last time we saw the dinosaurs T-Rex was wearing a bunny suit (in anticipation of Easter, I think) and our son reported them decked out in Christmas colors when they visited Palm Springs in December.
We had relished the 85 degree days during my conference in Palm Springs and enjoyed the day in the mid-60s and sunny up in the high desert of Joshua Tree. As we drove back down from 5000 feet toward sea level we noticed the clouds gathered in a huge pile over the mountains that surround Palm Springs and water splatters began to hit the car window. Suddenly the winds increased and the rain poured as we turned off onto the 10 freeway.
Should we stop to the see the dinos in the pouring rain?
We decided we’d at least pull off the freeway and take a look. Maybe the rain would stop in a couple of minutes.
Instead of being pelted by rain, we were treated to a rainbow. Definitely made that drive home a little bit better! Moral of the story: make time for silly fun–the rewards will be many!
What quirky roadside attractions have you visited? Any that you would recommend to others?
Thinking Through My Lens 
The rainbow was an extra special bonus.
Once we were driving through Illinois and stopped to see a 30′ tall Gemini Giant. It was once a giant muffler man that was repurposed as an astronaut during the Gemini space rocket program.
Ha! That sounds like a fun (and quirky) sight to see!
yes, it was quirky and our 8 year old son enjoyed seeing it!
Kim, what a fun post. I’m glad you missed most of the bad weather, and got to see the rainbow. We like to stop at quirky places too on roadtrips. I can’t think of any specific ones, except Wall Drug in South Dakota. And I can’t believe that you probably drove within a mile of our home today! We live in Yucca Valley.
We drove through Yucca valley twice yesterday! Lucky you to be so close to the national park. It’s such a beautiful place.
I’ve christened myself queen of roadside Americana kitsch. I love the quirky and go out of my way to find those things one only on U.S. roads. I shared several in one of my slices this month and will be sharing g more later. Some of the strangest ones are the world’s largest ball of twine, which is in Kansas, and the world’s largest Czech egg, also in Kansas. Kansas is not known for tourist attractions. One of my favorite weird places is Carhenge in Nebraska, also not a tourist destination. Did you know Denise Krebs lives right next to Joshua Tree? I love that park and am very fond of the trees.
A post (and a road trip) with a hot pink dinosaur and a rainbow. What could be better? Great to be so open to adventure.