Where El Paseo leaves Highway 74, you are at the head of a mile-long run east to Portola Avenue. This is the spine of Palm Desert and the reason the city took the shape it did. Cliff Henderson, who managed the National Air Races from 1928 through 1939 and was called the Barnum of aviation for it, came out of the war looking for somewhere to build something of his own.
In 1946 he and his brothers bought desert land here and laid out a town, and he set El Paseo one block south of Highway 111 rather than on it — a shopping street for people on foot, held back from the through traffic. That single decision is the reason you can walk this at all. The comparison everyone reaches for is Rodeo Drive, but the more useful comparison is the road you just left: Highway 74 carries you past, and El Paseo asks you to stop.
Look east and the whole mile of it runs out ahead of you.