[Setting] - Palm Springs and Coachella Valley, CA Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles (177 km) east of Los Angeles and 136 miles (225 km) northeast of San Diego. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 42,807. Golf, swimming, tennis, horseback riding and hiking in the nearby desert and mountain areas are major forms of recreation in Palm Springs. Geographically, the Coachella Valley is the agricultural and recreational desert valley in Southern California, United States (U.S.), east of Riverside and San Bernardino. Populated by nearly 600,000 people, the valley is part of the 14th largest metropolitan area in the United States, the Inland Empire.

[citation needed] The Coachella Valley is the second largest sub-region in the Inland Empire metropolitan area, after the Greater San Bernardino Area.