My Springtime Visit to Smoke Tree Ranch in Palm Springs

After living here in the Coachella Valley for 14 years, I was finally able to cross off an item on my to-see list—Smoke Tree Ranch in Palm Springs.

The illustrious history of this iconic resort ensures its permanent place among California’s storied resort properties. Founded way back in 1925 on almost 400 acres of untouched desert in a curve of the San Jacinto Mountains, this enclave of homes and guest cottages became a retreat for the world’s foremost families, among them Walt Disney’s. Homes are passed down through the generations. An MLS search pulled up only two sales within the past five years, each over two million.


Tucked inconspicuously off busy East Palm Canyon Road, Smoke Tree Ranch’s entrance is lined with the eponymous tree, named for its resemblnce to a puff of smoke.

Native to dry desert washes, Smoke Trees aren’t showstoppers with their leafless limbs and half-dead appearance but are compelling in the spring when silver-gray leaves appear and then bloom with tiny purple flowers. They’re late to the spring-blossom cavalcade so the show hasn’t yet begun.

Rustic simplicity and low-key hospitality define this special retreat that hasn’t changed all that much in its eight decades.

This early quote about the first residents amplifies the resort's laid-back philosophy and decidedly camplike ambiance: "Most who have come here have been every place, seen everything, and done most things."

The resort landscape is scrubby and replete with desert flora, punctuated by the explosion of yellow-flowered Brittlebush. Private homes bear the family names and painted stones serve as property addresses.

Wooden joists and pillars accentuate the clubhouse’s warm ambiance and most of the cottages scattered throughout the community retain their simple ‘30s and ‘40s architecture.

There are 85 private homes and 53 guest cottages under the hotel’s auspices. Prices start at $305 and meal plans are offered.  Traditional activities range from croquet and lawn bowling to tennis and horseback riding, courtesy of the resort's own stables.

 

While circumnavigating the ranch, I spy this lifelike wooden horse, hitched and awaiting some attention. I oblige with a snapshot.

 

I’m tootling around the resort on this gorgeous spring day in a top-down vintage BMW convertible, jumping in and out of the car to snap photos, courtesy of my friend, Lou Armentrout. A docent with the Palm Springs Museum and member of its Western Arts Council, he has invited me as a guest to a lecture by Jean Stern, curator of The Irvine Museum, on The California Origins of the Great American Cowboy.

Stern himself has a colorful background, born in Casabanca to a father who served in the French Foreign Legion (and sternly advised his sons against imitating him) and emigrating to the states after WWII where he became a noted art dealer.

 

The lecture takes place in Walt Disney Hall, a smallish venue replete with his studio’s artwork and adjacent to the resort’s pool, a very Palm Springs-like venue with its yellow canvas curtains and prim rows of deck chairs, all framed by soaring vistas of the snow-topped San Jacintos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was expecting an artwork slide show. Instead, we heard a fascinating history of the first cowboys—the vaqueros—and the role of the Missions and Mexican ranchos in indelibly forming the state’s unique culture. As a native Californian with a predilection for history, I happily emerged with lots of new tidbits.

Afterwards, Lou and I strolled through the clubhouse and ogled the lavish buffet in the dining room, now full of vacationing families spilling out onto the inviting patio and croquet lawn beyond.

Since bragging rights to lunch at the Ranch cost a pricey $60, we instead examined some of the vintage photos memorializing the resort’s fabled past. One dated 1949 showed a gaggle of youngsters enjoying a wilderness outing; Diane Disney was among the happy campers. Among the old-fashioned mailbox slots in the lobby was her own family’s name, attesting to the longevity of ownership.

Turns out that several of the cottages were designed by Disney Studios in the early ‘60s and have been refurbished to their original mid-century aesthetic. Disney was actually vacationing with his family at the Ranch in 1966 when he succumbed to the lung cancer that took his life prematurely. As a Disney afficionado who worked in the Park during the mid '70s, I’ve often reflected on what other amazing feats he would have accomplished had he lived just a little longer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a birds-eye view of Smoke Tree Ranch, looking north from atop the Garstin Trail in south Palm Springs. I took this shot May 25 during a final spring hike.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reluctantly leaving this one-of-a-kind place, Lou treated me to lunch at the brand new Escena Golf Club  clubhouse, part of the jazzy, retro-themed development that debuted in mid 2006, faltered in late 2007, and then reopened last fall. The swanky clubhouse overlooks the Jack Nicklaus championship course and boasts stellar views.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lou and I concurred that Escena Grill might own the most beautiful view in the desert—and that’s no small feat in this vista-rich valley.

 

 

After a superb, and relatively inexpensive, lunch (anything under $60 now seems a veritable deal!) we ambled out. Not surprisingly, Lou recognized a friend in the parking lot. He and partner, Michael Welch—both retired Ohio school teachers—have woven themselves into the woof and warp of their adopted city's social fabric and are constantly running into acquaintances. I’m both bemused and slightly envious.

Back at the guys’ hacienda-style compound—with its xeriscape front yard now bursting with spring color and recently featured in the local paper—I pick ripe grapefruit and head home with my loot…and memories of a wonderful day.