Hey everyone,

Better late than never, our January PSP trip is finally happening. I hear the desert is lovely this time of year. I'm the guy who rented the condo that burned down a few weeks ago. Thanks to a friendly Redditor, we have a place in a better location now, and we're excited for the visit. This will be our first longer-than-a-weekend trip.

We're flying into LA and renting a car, we'll arrive Saturday night around 730PM. Given that it's a holiday weekend, what's probably the best time for us to drive to Palm Springs? Remembering past weekend drives, it seems like Saturday night is probably a waste of time, so I thought about getting a hotel by the airport and setting out early Sunday morning. Any opinions?

When this trip was planned for January I had 25 days of carefully-planned activities: zoo, botanical garden, flight museum, Idylwild, Bombay Beach, and several walks, hikes, and a day at Joshua Tree. Now that I see the forecast is for 46C while we're there, I'm wondering which ones should stay on the list, and which we should skip. I understand we want to be out of the...outside from noon to 5PM approx; what does everyone do during this time? Just stay home and look at their phones? Is it reasonable to think about going to the outlet mall, or the mall in Rancho Republican? I'm envisioning Palm Canyon Drive as a scorched-earth/zombie wasteland during the afternoon hours, not sure how realistic that is. I'd sure like to hear your suggestions.

Thanks!