Palm Desert's Stretch of CV Link Is Nearly a Year Old. Why Does It Still Stop at Both Ends?

"Golly, that would be amazing," Palm Desert dad Kevin Moody told KESQ in June. He and his kids ride CV Link nearly every day, and he was talking about being able to keep going into Rancho Mirage and across the valley.

Today they can't. The Coachella Valley Association of Governments cut the ribbon on Palm Desert's segment at the Bump & Grind Trail on November 10, 2025, and nearly a year later the city's piece of the 40-mile path still doesn't connect to the rest of it in either direction. Closing either gap is up to a neighboring city's voters or council. Palm Desert can only improve what happens inside its own limits.

Five and a Half Miles, Two Dead Ends

CVAG lists three open segments of CV Link, and the gaps between them fall exactly at the two cities that stayed out.

Rancho Mirage lies between the Cathedral City end and the Bump n' Grind trailhead. Indian Wells lies between Cook Street and Washington Street. When CVAG's Executive Committee certified the project's environmental impact report in May 2017, it adopted a route that left out both cities. KESQ summed it up last June: "The City of Palm Desert is isolated to the west and east from the link."

Inside those 5.44 miles, the path works the way it does everywhere else. The CV Link FAQ allows bicycles, e-bikes, electric scooters and low-speed electric vehicles like golf carts, with a 20 mph maximum and a lower 15 mph limit for electric scooters and boards. Gas-powered cars, minibikes, dirt bikes and off-road vehicles are not allowed. Dogs are welcome on a leash. There are no posted hours, and solar LED lights set into the pavement guide riders after dark. The Bump and Grind access point and Civic Center Park both have restrooms. The segment combines on-street sections with the Whitewater River corridor. CVAG's interactive map shows the exact route.

Palm Desert has the only segment with a dead end on both sides. The west and east segments each have one open end that reaches a city boundary. Palm Desert's has two.

The West End Is Up to Rancho Mirage Voters

The gap on the Rancho Mirage side has been settled the longest. CVAG's own account of the city gaps, updated in September 2026, says Rancho Mirage backed the project early on, with a 2012 letter of support. By 2015 the city opposed it, mainly over funding and future maintenance costs. In 2016, Rancho Mirage voters passed advisory measures on CV Link, along with one requiring a ballot measure if a future council ever wanted to revisit the question. CVAG says the city has made no formal request to reopen the issue.

The 2026 news coverage shows that position holding. Rancho Mirage Councilmember Steve Downs told KESQ that city leaders had not heard from any significant number of residents who want the path, and that the city would be willing to consider it again if they did. "If we visit that issue again in the future, it'll be the voters who made that decision then, and who would make the decision in the future," he said. In the same report, Rancho Mirage leaders pointed to the city's 40 miles of marked bike lanes.

So the westward gap won't close through a CVAG engineering study. It would take a request from Rancho Mirage residents to their own council, and then a vote.

The East End Moved in 2026, at Least on Paper

The Indian Wells side is where things changed this year. At CVAG's Transportation Committee meeting on April 6, 2026, Indian Wells Mayor Toper Taylor said there was interest in the city in revisiting CV Link. "I think what's changed is we have a younger population, a more active population, but with that said, some of the key issues still remain," Taylor told KESQ.

One of those issues is a 2016 vote. Indian Wells voters passed Measure H in November 2016, which requires voter approval before the council can approve "the establishment, development or installation" of CV Link within the city. Councilmember Greg Sanders described the city's position to KESQ this way: "We've put the ball into CVAG's court. Show us some alternatives, and there may not be an acceptable alternative."

CVAG responded with a staff report dated August 31, 2026 that ranked ten options for the gap between Palm Desert's Cook Street end and La Quinta, including a no-build option and one it marked not feasible. Here are the top-scoring options with their rough cost estimates:

1. Whitewater River channel, an off-street path: about $16.90 million
2. Highway 111, using the existing painted lane on Cook Street to Highway 111, then an off-street path along Highway 111 to Washington Street: about $7.09 million
3. Washington, Miles and Highway 111 combined: about $19.34 million
4. Washington, Miles, Warner and Fred Waring combined: about $22.09 million
5. No build: $0, which tied with options 3 and 4

The Indian Wells council officially opposed the two highest-ranked routes, the Whitewater River and Highway 111, in 2015. CVAG wrote that "there has been no indication from the City that there is interest in reversing that decision."

The route Indian Wells city leaders seemed to agree on would loop around the city along Hovley Lane and Washington Street. CVAG ruled it out early. Parts of Washington Street between Palm Royale and Hovley don't have enough right-of-way for bike lanes without removing a traffic lane, which CVAG considered infeasible at current and projected traffic levels. The report's conclusion: "the only effective way to close the gap between La Quinta and Palm Desert would be to create a route that traverses Indian Wells for at least some portion."

The Smallest Fix Is a Strip of Stormwater Channel

Before any full route, CVAG is pushing a much smaller first step at the La Quinta end. The East Valley segment currently starts at street level on the east side of Washington Street near the ARCO station. CVAG describes that spot as one of the region's busiest roadways, with many turning movements. The plan was an underpass that would carry the path along the Whitewater River and under Washington Street. It was never built because the west side of Washington and the south side of the stormwater channel at that point are inside Indian Wells.

In 2019, La Quinta asked Indian Wells to support a minor boundary change so the undercrossing could go in. Indian Wells' city attorney found that approving it would not violate Measure H. The council voted 3-2 to deny it anyway. Councilmember Kimberly Muzik said at the time, "I didn't even know that property was in Indian Wells... My vote would be to give it to (La Quinta)."

The issue came back in 2026. According to CVAG, the Indian Wells city manager decided in late May not to bring the boundary adjustment to the council for a vote. CVAG's agenda for its September 28, 2026 Executive Committee meeting proposed asking Indian Wells to move forward on the Washington Street undercrossing and to give direction on the Highway 111 and Whitewater River routes. This piece matters to Palm Desert riders even though it's in La Quinta. Anyone heading east from Cook Street toward the East Valley segment finishes at that Washington Street crossing.

What Palm Desert Controls Inside Its Own Limits

Within its own borders, Palm Desert is working on getting people onto the path. The city's capital projects list includes a CV Link Hovley Connector budgeted at $3.5 million and paid for with New Construction Tax, plus $350,000 for Bump & Grind Trailhead Improvements. CVAG's planning has identified more than 40 "community connector" corridors across the valley to link neighborhoods, shopping centers and public facilities to the path. Erica Felci, CVAG's deputy executive director, put the question behind that work plainly to The Palm Springs Post at the November 2025 openings: "How do you get to the link?"

At the Cook Street end, CVAG's report shows what riders find today if they keep going east. Cook Street from the path to Highway 111 has an existing painted bike lane. Highway 111 from Cook Street to Washington Street has no bike facility. Indian Wells leaders told KESQ they know about people in golf carts, on bikes and on foot who reach the city limits from both La Quinta and Palm Desert and then have to ride in traffic.

So most of what Palm Desert can do is about how people ride. The Riverside County Sheriff's Department has started an e-bike patrol program in Palm Desert after deputies completed operational and safety training. The city and the Sheriff's Office also scheduled a free e-bike safety course for Saturday, November 7, 2026, at Civic Center Park. Sessions were set for 8 a.m., 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m., covering emergency braking, helmet use, battery safety, sharing the road and California e-bike law. Participants sign a waiver and receive a completion certificate. Civic Center Park is also one of the segment's two restroom stops, so the course location sits right beside the path. This post is general information, not legal advice. Check the posted path rules and current state e-bike law for your own riding.

In Palm Desert's first year on CV Link, the 5.44 miles from the Bump n' Grind trailhead to Cook Street are open, lit and connected to Civic Center Park. Extending them in either direction depends on a ballot in Rancho Mirage or a council vote in Indian Wells.

Curious how close a home sits to a CV Link access point, or which Palm Desert neighborhoods could connect once the Hovley Connector is built? Terry and Deborah at Homes in the Desert can help you look at specific properties in light of where the path goes today and where it may go next. Schedule a Free Consultation and we'll go over it together.