CALIFORNIA — The desert isn’t for everyone, especially as a record-breaking heat wave grips southern California, causing some people to rethink their summer road trips.

But not everyone. Some people crave heat. For them, Palm Springs, located in the Colorado Desert’s Coachella Valley, and Joshua Tree National Park, located along the border of the Colorado and Mojave deserts, are perfect road trip destinations.

To escape triple-digit temperatures, head to northern California. In the San Francisco area, temperatures right now are 40 to 45 degrees lower than in desert areas of the state.

As always at this time of year and into the fall, stay abreast of where wildfires are occurring before you take off on a road trip. The U.S. Geological Survey offers one of multiple wildfire trackers available on the web.

Here are five classic California road trips:

Go from hot to cool in minutes: The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway is the world’s largest rotating tram car. It travels more than 2½ miles in about 10 minutes, taking passengers from the hot desert floor, along the breathtaking cliffs of Chino Canyon and to the pristine wilderness of Mount San Jacinto State Park, where temperatures average 30 to 40 degrees cooler. The car rotates slowly, offering picturesque and spectacular vistas of the desert below. At the top are two restaurants, observation decks, a natural history museum, a couple of documentary theaters, a gift shop and more than 50 miles of hiking trails.

Experience the stark but bewitching beauty of Joshua Tree National Park: Some highlights of Joshua Tree National Park — a haven for artists, hipsters and climbers — include a walking trail at Indian Cove, one of the best places to see the namesake flora of the park, Yucca brevifolia, better known as the Joshua tree. The 0.6-mile trail is surrounded by boulder formations, and you may get a glimpse of bighorn sheep or tortoises. Climbers may prefer Echo Cove, with more than 8,000 known climbs and 400 unique formations formed by millennia of whipping winds and rushing water. One of the best examples is Arch Rock. Also, don’t miss the naturally occurring cacti grove. Whenever you go, but especially now, make sure you have plenty of water and that people know where you are. Cellular service isn’t available in some parts of the park.

Drive the California Highway 1, the Pacific Coast Highway: You’ll want to take more than a couple of days to take in all the jaw-dropping vistas, seaside villages and remote, untouched coastlines along this 656-mile route. It begins just south of Dana Point in Orange County and ends at U.S. 101 in Mendocino County. Suggested road trip stops from AAA include Crescent, Humboldt Redwoods State Park and the Avenue of the Giants, San Francisco, Half Moon Bay, Monterey and Carmel-by-the-Sea, Santa Cruz, Big Sur, San Simeon, Pismo Beach, Santa Barbara and Montecito, Los Angeles and San Diego. Don’t miss the Mystery Spot, a gravitational anomaly discovered by surveyors in 1939 and opened a year later as a tourist attraction. The experiences of visitors — including walking and standing on walls, walking up stairs that lead to nowhere and the sensation of spinning while standing still — seem to defy the laws of physics and have been explained as optical illusions.

Discover southern California’s hidden coastal gem: Crystal Cove State Park is one of Orange County’s largest remaining examples of open space and natural seashore. The park has 3.2 miles of beach and 2,400 acres of backcountry wilderness. It is a paradise for outdoor enthusiasts of all kinds — mountain bikers and hikers, scuba divers, swimmers and surfers — drawn to the tide pools and sandy beaches, rocky reefs, ridges and canyons. Temperatures are typically moderate, with highs in the 70s and lows in the 50s holding through October. The 12.3-acre coastal portion of the 2,791-acre park includes the federally listed Crystal Cove Historic District. The enclave of 46 vintage rustic coastal cottages built in the seaside colony in the 1930s and ’40s, the seaside colony is one of the last remaining examples of early 20th-century southern California coastal development. The park offers year-round guided tours by park staff and docents, including hikes, tide pool walks and geology talks.

Tour the Napa and Sonoma wine country: Head north out of San Francisco for the best of California wine country — Sonoma County and, a little farther north, Napa Valley. Though different, both are beautiful regions dotted with picturesque wineries and vineyards, and both have vibrant culinary and entertainment scenes, along with charming shops and stores. If you don’t like wine, take a side trip to Santa Rosa, known as the “mircrobrew capital of the United States.” Fun fact: Portland, Oregon, has the most craft breweries in the country, and the top craft beer is produced in Decorah, Iowa, but Santa Rosa gets the title under a measure that takes into consideration the quality of beer produced in a community and the number of craft brewers it supports, according to The Pudding, an online journal of data visualizations.