VOL · ISUMMER 2026
stay cool
HOW IT WORKSCOVERAGEFIELD NOTESSee the demo →
← FROM THE FIELD · VOL. I, N° 77PLATE B · ELEVATION · SUN ALT 24°MORNING · DOWNTOWN · TAHQUITZ
PLATE · ELEVATION · INSTALLED SHADEDOWNTOWN PHOENIX · TENSILE CANOPIES · 106°F → 88°F UNDER
PALM SPRINGS · FIELD NOTES · 5 MIN

Tahquitz, before the day starts.

Palm Springs in July is two weather systems: 6 AM and 6 PM. Three walks for the cool half, all under the date palms the city was named for.

By

There is no walking Palm Springs between 10 AM and 5 PM in July. The numbers don’t work; the pavement gets to 145°F and the wash air is 117°F. What works is the early window — 5:30 to 8 — when the eastern San Jacintos still throw the entire downtown into shadow and the palms are functional shade.

These three are picked for that pre-shadow grace period: under the palms, against the mountain, finishing at a patio before the sun crests the ridge. Stay Cool refuses to route you outdoors past 9 in July; tap a pick after that and we surface a covered route instead.

The picks · 3.Graded JUN 12, 2026
  1. 01
    Movie Colony to Koffi N. Palm Canyon

    Down Tahquitz under the imported palms, then south past the bungalow walls.

    Shade
    78%
    Walk
    12 min
    Best at
    7 am
  2. 02
    Ace Hotel to the Art Museum

    Through the residential alleys behind Belardo. Cinderblock walls cast deep early-morning shadow.

    Shade
    74%
    Walk
    20 min
    Best at
    6:30 am
  3. 03
    Sunmor to Frank Sinatra’s house (Twin Palms)

    Mid-Century blocks under the original palm grid. The setback walls cover both sides until 9.

    Shade
    72%
    Walk
    8 min
    Best at
    7:30 am

Related dispatches

About the author
Amar Braithwaite is the founder of Stay Cool. He builds shade-aware navigation tools and writes the Field Notes corpus on urban shade infrastructure. Read the why →

Walk in the shade.

Stay Cool computes a shadow-aware route for any city we map.

Open the app →← More dispatches