After The Flood

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY ONE

The weather had not quite gotten cool enough for any longer hikes down here in the desert so I'm relegated to either traveling up to the mountains or limiting my time out in the sun. Today I did the latter.

I headed down toward the area I went to on Saturday when I got caught in a huge thunderstorm to check out the aftermath.

I went down to the area where the hike to Rabbit Peak starts but it was too far from the mountains for the small amount of time I had this afternoon. Also, for some reason I didn't think this would be a very good place to park.

I drive around and find an area to go up some of the washes that got dumped on during the big thunderstorm. There are some section where the water was about six feet deep. Here it was probably only about three feet deep.

Heading out across the alluvial fan I come across a couple of these big white poles sticking out of the ground. I'm not sure what they're here for but they may be a marker of the right of way for the continuation of various roads.

This is a more typical desert marker.

Amazingly, the ocotillo have started to come back to life. The rain here Saturday will probably cause a lot of desert plants to start to bloom again, at least briefly.

From where I am I can look up into Sheep Canyon. When the weather starts to cool down a bit this is one of the canyons in the Southern Santa Rosas that I'd like to explore.

I get quite a distance from where I started but don't have time to make it to the mountains. This area holds a lot of interest to me because it is seldom visited and there are lots of things to discover. Below me is the Salton Sea with the Mecca Hills in the background.

One reason this area is seldom visited is that the terrain is rocky and rough going and there are a lot of cacti to look out for. Also, except when there's a thunderstorm, there is no water.

While the water from the storm on Saturday was up to six feet in places, there is indication of even greater amounts of water coming out of these mountains. Some of the banks, like this one, are over fifteen feet high. I would not want to be anywhere near here in an event like that.

I also wouldn't want to be out here in this rocky landscape laden with cacti after dark so I've got to go.

But on the way back I come upon a few areas that are still wet even after a couple of days of 100º plus weather. I know that somewhere up in the canyons there are places where water may stay for weeks and once the weather cools down a bit I hope to go out and find some.

There Goes the Neighborhood

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY NINE

The higher than usual humidity is still with us but at least the temperature is lower. Today when I went out to hike after work there were no clouds to chase so I decided to keep close to home and take the dog on a little walk. Poor thing gets depressed every time I go without her.

Today I really didn't feel like chasing anything I just walked out of my front door and started walking. It's a good thing there are several trails nearby.

I've gone up this alluvial fan a couple of times this year, once alone and once with local kids. Today I brought Kahlua for company and plan to go further than either of the previous times.

I get toward the top of the bajada and am amazed at how much the banks of this wash have been scoured by water. In the twenty-plus years that I've lived here I don't think we've ever had a storm big enough to do this kind of damage.

But the water has had enough power to move this HUGE boulder into the center of the wash.

I get into where the canyon narrows and find this large, heavily varnished rock. I could make this my turnaround point but want to see what lies beyond it.

It's readily apparent that someone else has been up this canyon and decided to stay a while.

They even had time to make this little stone throne. But I don't have time to just hang out. I've got more to explore.

Up the canyon a little further I find a couple of little dens on the side of a hill.

No critters in here now but it's obvious this is used as a resting spot for something that flies or that is very nimble. This is a hard place to reach.

Today I can't go any further but there is more to see up the canyon. I'll return once it starts to cool down some more. I decide that on the way back I'll try a shortcut through this pass.

It's tougher than it looks. Several hundred feet of loose crumbling rock awaits me. Great.

At the bottom I find another sign that someone's been this way before. Rocks don't just end up on boulders like this by themselves.

There are a couple of post modern petroglyphs up here, too. These certainly aren't ancient because there are too few and they're just a little too neat.

I appreciate finding new sights but I prefer authenticity to some modern facsimile. There are some many places to find real petroglyphs so I don't think we need to start making our own. Nobody likes a phony.

A Trail For the Future

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE

As I mentioned yesterday, due to work I am stuck in town for the next few days and won't be able to do something out of town until the weekend. So I figured I'd just head up to the top of the La Quinta Cove and do a lap around the trail up there.

At the top of the cove are lots of signs. This one for some vigilante group is adjacent to the trailhead.

I decide to walk toward this mountain to start my lap on some trail I've hiked before. Where the trail abuts the mountain there is a concrete water diversion that is covered with graffiti. Maybe I should report it to the Top of the Cove people although I wonder why they don't know about it already.

As I get to where the trail heads up I see this wash over on the right and decide to go this way instead. Since I have to go to a place I've already been, at least I can go a way I've never gone.

The wash doesn't go very far so I decide to head up to the alluvial fan above it.

There is no trail here but someone's been here. This is perfect for Kahlua even though the locking mechanism doesn't work. I take it with me.

I go up toward the mountain and hang a right. This would be a nice place to a trail for people to walk their dogs. There's a little elevation gain, there's a nice view and there aren't any sheep here.

There's a nice view looking down toward the wash that leads to the Boo Hoff trail.

Here's where it could connect with the existing trail.

I don't know if this "new" trail would get as much use as this trail but it wasn't that long ago that this trail didn't exist, either.

So this is where the next trail in La Quinta should go, up along the base of this hill. It would make for a nice loop and be a great addition to the trails here. Next time I have to do a lap here near home I know where I'm going.