Byron Hicks lives in Gig Harbor, near Tacoma, Washington. But he can’t wait to arrive at his park model cottage at Sky Valley Resort in Desert Hot Springs, California, each winter.
“I start my day with a 15-mile bicycle ride with my friends,” said Byron, 68. “Then after that I play pickleball for a couple of hours. Then I go and have lunch with my wife, Nancy.”
His activities don’t stop there.
“Once a week we hike and once a week we play golf, and we swim every chance we get,” Hicks said. “It’s a very active lifestyle.”
And Sky Valley Resort is loaded with amenities that are conducive to being healthy and fit.
The 891-site resort, located two hours east of Los Angeles in California’s scenic Coachella Valley, has four swimming pools and eight spas, which are fed by natural hot springs. The pools are maintained at temperatures ranging from 80 to 104 degrees to accommodate a variety of activities and guest needs. Additional amenities include an exercise room as well as pickleball, tennis and shuffleboard courts and horseshoe pits.
Sky Valley Resort, like its neighboring sister property, the 700-site Caliente Springs Resort in Desert Hot Springs, also offers a full range of exercise classes, including Zumba, yoga, tai chi, water aerobics and deep water exercise.
Nighttime activities include Friday night dances and karaoke, while special events include monthly craft fairs and dinner dance parties.
The two resorts also offer weekly classes in dichroic glass crafting, card making, water and acrylic painting and computers as well as hiking, photography and book clubs. The resorts also offer onsite chapel ministries and related social activities. Caliente Springs also has a nine-hole golf course.
“There are plenty of things to do,” Hicks said, adding that the resorts are also making constant improvements, the latest being the installation of enough solar panels to cover both resorts’ energy needs.
Hicks and his wife have spent the past 15 winters at Sky Valley Resort. But while they enjoy the resort’s amenities and low desert location with views of the snowcapped San Jacinto and San Bernardino Mountain ranges, what they like most are the people at the resort.
“Everyone is ready to play with you right away,” Byron Hicks said, adding that he and Nancy often participate in happy hours and other social gatherings that complement their daily activities.
In addition to renting RV sites for towable or motorized RVs, both Sky Valley Resort and Caliente Springs offers park model cottages for rent and for sale.
Special events for the winter of 2015 include a free health fair from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. January 10 that will feature more than 30 health oriented vendors, including representatives from Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs and Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. Seminars will also be provided on a variety of topics, including how to help a spouse with Alzheimer’s or dementia; skin cancer; elder abuse; glaucoma, and senior citizen first aid.
For more information, visit skyvalleyresort.com and calientesprings.com.
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