Ready for another hike and some beautiful Southern California scenery? Well, if not, skip this blog and go on to March 5. We’ve interspersing some new hikes with some old ones that we’ve always enjoyed. Today it was a new hike in an entirely new area of Palm Springs. We got there and found lots of cars in the parking lot and lots of people gearing up for hikes. Groups of 4, groups of 10, groups of 20. Whoo-eee. usually we are the only car in the parking lot at the trail head and the only ones we see on the trails. This is a whole new experience and it’s not even the weekend. Oh, oh. We’ve forgotten out phone. No problem but the phone has our hiking GPS which not only tracks our hikes but also tells us about the trails. We have a park map but - are there any other trails?
We got in line at the trail head register to sign in and took off after the group of 26 and ahead the group of 6. Across the Whitewater wash,
and up the side of the nearest hill in switchbacks. Ah, the group of 26 turned off to another trail. Up and around the curve in the trail. Lush, much greener than the desert trails we have usually hiked in this area. There were even cattle lying around.
Narrow trail through tall grasses. Around cliffs, down into washes only to hike up over new cliffs. Great views up to the mountains around us and down into the washes below them. Peninsulas of green grasses.
But there were yuccas coming into bloom.
We spoke with a local who has hiked in this area before and told us that we could circle around Yucca Mt and get down to the trail head in another way. We should have shown him our map and asked him more about this.
We followed the trail up and down and finally reached Yucca Saddle. Oh, wow - looking across the saddle, we could see these wind turbines. What a view!!
And, the last of the snow on San Jacinto across the pass.
Hmmm, we could hike down there, onto the roads between them and up and over the hills there and get back to the road we drove in on. Yep, that’s our plan and we started down into the valley. Downhill. Whew.
But, as you can guess, we found no way over the turbine hills and, in the end, no way of knowing what was on the other side of the hills. If we had our GPS, we could have seen that the road was pretty far away and that there were no trails and that the turbine roads led only to turbines, not to the other side of the hills. We got to the bottom, climbed a bit through the turbines and decided our choices were:
try to bushwhack through the turbines and down the other side of the hills. But, what’s on the other side?
continue hiking down this trail to the trail head and see if we can hitch a ride to our trail head. But, will we find anyone there?
turn around and hike back up the hill and return to our own trail head the way we hiked in - the only sure bet.
And, we turned around, hiked back up the valley, over the saddle, down on the other side and back around the cliffs and valleys to our car. Made it. But, I ain’t gonna hike tomorrow.
Here’s Big Gar at the end of the hike? Doesn’t he look fresh? Doesn’t he look ready to hike the next trail? Me - I ain’t gonna hike tomorrow.
So, what did I like so much about this hike? Well, the challenge, the views from the cliffs we walked, the lush greenery, the length. But, this preserve had more to offer. When we were done, we walked through the grounds at the Visitor’s Center and around this trout pond and this garden, examples of other ponds and gardens at the VC, places for families to picnic, play, walk and enjoy nature.
Possibly this is why President Obama has chosen this as one of the new National Monuments.
A cool hike and we’ll do it again but I ain’t gonna hike tomorrow.
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