Plan now to join the AISES family at the 44th National Conference, October 6–8, 2022, in Palm Springs, Calif. Beyond the opportunities for learning, networking, and meeting old and new friends that make the conference a must-do gathering, the breathtaking natural surroundings and bustling urban neighborhoods of Palm Springs have a lot to offer.
For more than 5,000 years, this land of mountains, the Coachella Valley, and Sonoran Desert that now extends around and beyond Palm Springs was home to the Cahuilla people. Over the centuries, groups separated and settled in different parts of their ancestral homeland, eventually evolving into today’s nine distinct, federally recognized Cahuilla tribes.
One of these tribes, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, invites visitors to enjoy their golf course and casino, or stop by the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum. When you’re ready to get outside they encourage exploring several Indian Canyons, including the spectacular Tahquitz Canyon with its breathtaking 60-foot waterfall (featured as Shangri-La in the classic 1937 film Lost Horizon).
The Sonoran Desert offers more than spectacular scenery. To get a literal bird’s-eye view, take a hot air balloon ride over the desert. Or opt for a ride on the largest rotating tramway in the world, the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, which will take you from the desert floor to a mountain forest near the top of San Jacinto Peak. If you’d rather keep your feet on the ground, set out on a hike to enjoy rock formations, spectacular cacti, desert-dwelling birds and animals, and oases surrounded by lush palm groves.
Back in Greater Palm Springs, you can enjoy a place that has a reputation as a year-round resort, with sports, shopping, culture, and entertainment. Also popular with visitors are the plentiful examples of pristine midcentury Desert Modernism architecture (tours are available).