Hike of the Week: A Glimpse of Bob Hope's House in Palm Springs - Gardenista
Photographs via Hiking in Palm Springs except where noted. On the Road to… Bob Hope’s House. One weekend recently, I found myself in Palm Springs for a film festival, at which my friend Neil Barsky’s new documentary, Koch: The Movie, was being screened. The Araby Trail is just off East Palm Canyon Drive. The trall meanders through an old, sprawling trailer park, then starts to climb. We didn’t see any, perhaps because it’s winter time and the vipers are abed. But the terrain here, with cholla cactus growing beside the trail, looks exactly like what you’d see in the Reptile House at the zoo. Photograph by Barbee Lin via Flickr. It’s the feline of the plant world, mean and misanthropic and meant to be looked at, but not touched. Photograph by Josh Quittner. While we were waiting for Barsky to catch his breath, a skywriting airplane buzzed across the valley. I don’t know why people pay for this form of sky pollution: It was too windy up there for the letters to form. You get a great view of the Coachella Valley, almost from the start. The trail is a 5.5-mile loop that takes you back to your car; the highest elevation is at “4” and Bob Hope’s house is at “5.” Map via Ride With GPS. The filmmaker, Barsky (R) wheezing. That domed home at the top of the photo is Hope’s place. Photograph by Josh Quittner. Bob Hope s house which went on the market with an asking price of 45 million in November was... Photograph by Harold Willome via Flicker. ...designed by the modernist architect John Lautner whose space age architecture is at least one cultural benefit of southern California