Palms to Pines Scenic Byway
Palms to Pines Scenic Byway is a National Forest Scenic Byway in California. Within California it covers roughly 65 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along Palms to Pines Scenic Byway with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
Palms to Pines Scenic Byway is a National Forest Scenic Byway in Southern California, climbing from the desert floor near Palm Desert to pine forest high in the San Bernardino National Forest. Depending on where it's measured, the route runs 62 to 67 miles along State Route 74, sometimes called the Pines to Palms Highway, with State Route 243 south of Banning offering an alternate leg of the same designated byway. The Forest Service designated the route in 1993, recognizing a dramatic elevation change packed into a single paved drive: within an hour, the road leaves the palm groves and creosote flats of the Coachella Valley floor and climbs several thousand feet into pine and cedar forest around Idyllwild and the San Jacinto Mountains. Along the way, switchbacks open onto sweeping desert views back toward Palm Springs, while the upper stretches feel more like the Sierra Nevada than Southern California desert country. It's a popular day-trip route for desert residents looking for cooler mountain air, and a compact way to see two starkly different Southern California ecosystems in one drive.
- State Route 74 / 243
- 62-67 miles
- designated National Forest Scenic Byway (1993)
- Palm Desert to Idyllwild
- San Bernardino National Forest
- desert-to-pine elevation change
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What is a National Forest Scenic Byway?
National Forest Scenic Byways are routes designated by the U.S. Forest Service that thread through the mountains, canyons and old growth of America's national forests and grasslands.