Cabot's Pueblo Museum

Cabot's Pueblo Museum is the most eccentric house in the Coachella Valley and a perfect antidote to resort Palm Springs. It stands on a hillside in Desert Hot Springs, about twenty minutes north of downtown, and it is the life's work of Cabot Yerxa, an adventurer and homesteader who arrived in the desert early in the twentieth century and is credited with finding the hot and cold water aquifers that made Desert Hot Springs possible. From the 1940s he spent the rest of his life building a rambling, multi-story pueblo inspired by the Hopi villages he admired, using adobe, salvaged timber, old doors, bottles and whatever else the desert offered. The result is a warren of small rooms, stairways and odd windows that is part home, part museum, part folk art, and it is still full of his furnishings and collections. Visits are by tour, which keeps the fragile building in good shape. From October 1 to May 31, guided tours of about 45 minutes run Tuesday through Friday at 9:30am, 11:30am and 1:30pm, and self-guided audio tours run Tuesday to Friday at set times plus Saturday and Sunday windows; bring a charged phone with data for the audio version. Check in at the Trading Post five to ten minutes before your slot. Guided tours cost $16 for adults and $14 for seniors, active military and children 6 to 12; self-guided tours are $13 and $11; children under 5 are free. A $5 grounds ticket lets you walk the property, take in the views across the valley and visit the Water Gallery and Exhibition Gallery without entering the pueblo. Summer brings a much shorter Thursday-to-Sunday schedule.

Yerxa's story is as interesting as his house. He tried his hand at gold prospecting in Alaska, trading and art before homesteading in the desert, and he lived among and wrote about the Cahuilla people with unusual respect for his era. The pueblo reflects those enthusiasms: Native American artifacts, his own paintings, and the improvised engineering of a man who had to make everything himself. Guides are good at pointing out details you would miss alone, from recycled materials in the walls to the ways he managed heat and light, and they tell the story of the town's founding along the way. On the grounds, look for Waokiye, the towering carved head by the sculptor Peter Toth, one of a series he created to honor Native Americans.

Choose the guided tour if you can. The building rewards explanation, the group sizes are small, and you can ask questions; the self-guided audio tour suits those who arrive outside guided times. Wear comfortable shoes for stairs and uneven floors, and note that the pueblo is not fully accessible because of its age and construction. Ticket sales for each guided tour close an hour and a half beforehand, so book online rather than turning up. Seasonal events, such as a Halloween haunted house in late October, add to the calendar.

Desert Hot Springs is the valley's spa town, built on the same aquifer Yerxa found, so the museum fits beautifully into a wellness day: a morning tour, lunch, then an afternoon soak at Two Bunch Palms or another mineral-water spa. It also suits a drive that continues up Highway 62 toward Pioneertown or Joshua Tree. For anyone who loves offbeat architecture, folk art or the history of the American desert, it is one of the most rewarding hours in the region.