Indio Hills, CA

Indio Hills is a Riverside County census-designated place on the north side of the Coachella Valley, a few miles north of Indio and between the valley floor and the Little San Bernardino Mountains. The 2020 census counted 1,048 residents. The name comes from the low hills that cut across the valley, and the community's sense of place is all desert geology: sedimentary badlands, fan palms, dry washes, and the San Andreas fault's water line. The nearby Indio Hills Badlands Trail makes that terrain legible with a 5.2-mile loop through eroded rock layers; the Coachella Valley Preserve and Indio Hills Palms Park add the palm-oasis side of the story.

Indio Hills Community Center sits between Desert Hot Springs and Indio, giving the scattered CDP one recognizable gathering spot. The desert is the neighborhood's map and its weather. Indio Hills' local scoop is a desert community where the hills are not backdrop but the thing that tells you exactly where you are.