Author: galla99

Just south of the city’s “Old Town” section, is a community known as the “La Quinta Cove”. It is a non gated community of about 5,000 homes that was developed in the late 70’s but it’s roots go back to the 1920’s or earlier when the area was known as Marshalls Cove and was used for farming. The majority of these homes are 2 – 3 bedrooms and about 1,400 – 1,800 sq ft but there are several larger homes mixed in also.

The Cove has it’s own association called the “Cove Neighborhood Association” which maintains a website that tells of the Cove’s History and list upcoming events as well as other useful information. Click here to visit the Association’s website…

The “Cove” runs from Old Town south up into the mountains and at the south end you can find the trail heads for the many hiking trails that lead you up to many scenic vistas. Click here to visit the trails and parks section of the City of Lq Quinta website

Click here to locate the Cove on our search map.

While using the map to search for properties, it is hard to know which side of a street the house is on because the icon may appear to be in the middle of the street. The house number will tell you the homes orientation. Odd house numbers are on either the west or south side while even numbers are on the north or east side.

On north-south streets, the first 2 digits are from the “Avenue” to the north. So if you were driving south on Jefferson, as you pass Avenue 48, the addresses would be 48-001 to 48-999 and then you would be at Avenue 49. So, if you saw an address of 50-123 you would know it was just south of Avenue 50 on the west side of the street.

East-west running streets are a little different in that ‘anchor’ streets have names. 78000 numbered homes start on the east side of Washington St. north of Fred Waring (Ave 44). Between Fred Waring and Hwy 111, Washington Street moves to the east so it can continue south next to the Santa Rosa Mountains so 78001 is a little west of Washington Street south of Fred Waring. 80000 is at Jefferson, 81000 is at Madison, 82000 is Monroe, Jackson is 83000 and Van Buren is 84000 etc.

One exception to this rule is when a street curves – an east/west street may continue it’s numbering system as it bends into a north/south street or vice versa.

If only Hwy 111 was parallel to anything, this valley would be really easy to find you way around in…

The Coachella Valley, one of the better places on the planet to live (in my humble opinion), makes up a large portion of the Colorado Desert, which is named after the river that is its eastern boundary. Although the Colorado Desert runs quite a way down into Mexico, the Coachella Valley is bordered by several distinct mountain ranges mostly in Riverside County and I have heard all of them referred to as the “Chocolate Mountains”

The bad news is that none of the mountains you see surrounding us are the Chocolate Mountains. The good news is that there really is a range called the Chocolate Mountains but they are mostly in Imperial County and aren’t really visible from north of the Salton Sea. The Chocolate Mountains are actually used by the Navy and Marines as an aerial and gunnery practice range and definitely off limits to people. They are east of the southern end of the Salton Sea.

The mountains most commonly referred to as the “chocolate mountains” are the mountains to our north. The same mountains that the afternoon sun paints so beautifully, are actually the “Little San Bernardino Mountains” that run east along the north side of I-10.

The Mountains that you see to our east and south of I-10 at called the Chuckwalla Mountains and they run south to the north end of the Chocolate Mountains. There aren’t any noteworthy ranges to the south of the Chocolates.

The western side of our valley is bordered by the San Jacinto mountain range. The most prominent mountain is named Mount San Jacinto and is 10,834 feet tall. It is on the south side of the San Gorgonio pass (I-10) and is snow covered most of the winter. The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway runs up the side of Mount San Jacinto to the 8,500-foot level. The San Jacinto Mountains are a relatively compact but tall range. On the north side of I-10 / San Gorgonio Pass is the tallest peak in southern California (7^th tallest in the lower 48). Mount San Gorgonio (snow covered longer than Mt San Jacinto) makes up the eastern end of the San Bernardino Mountains and rises 11,499 feet above sea level.

The smaller Santa Rosa Mountains run from just south east of Mount San Jacinto (near Rancho Mirage – Palm Desert area) in a southeasterly direction to roughly the north end of the Salton Sea (just south of La Quinta). These are the mountains you see looking south beyond PGA WEST.

So, remember, you can’t really see the Chocolate Mountains from here and the San Bernardino and Little San Bernardino mountains are two distinct ranges and along with the San Gabriel range and others to their west are the only ranges in North America that run East – West but that is another story…