Hidden In Plain Sight

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY NINE

With work and kids taking most of my time, my dream of traveling around the country and doing hikes in America's most beautiful places has been put on hold. Probably forever. Oh well. At least I live in a place with seemingly unending options for place to hike.

I headed up to the top of the La Quinta Cove, a place I've hiked about a half a million times this year so far.

This trail up to the Bear Creek Oasis is widely traveled. When I first moved to La Quinta over twenty years ago very few people hiked back here. Of course, that was because you could drive your 4WD most of the way back into the wash so what was the point of walking?

As I hit the wash I take an immediate right turn and head to a wash heading up toward Coyote Mountain. Since I almost always have headed straight up the wash, I have never hiked up this canyon. This is yet another first for me.

The canyon gets narrow and rocky fairly quickly. Up beyond are steep cliffs and canyons. I wonder how far I can actually get.

There are some very deep clefts in the mountain that may possibly house tinajas, tanks that hold water for months.

But it looks like I maybe not be able to get too much further due to dry falls and loose rocks.

This dry fall may be passable but I'm not going to try it alone just in case I fall. No one knows where I am and it's getting warm. If I fall off and break my leg I don't want to sit here and bake. I'll have to come back and try another time.

There is another canyon that may also be passable and which will also have to wait for another day. Maybe later in the year if we have some summer rainstorms I'd like to come up here and see if I can find some water holes.

Standing deep in the canyon I hear a shrieking overhead. Two Red Tail hawks circle around the steep cliffs above. I imagine they probably have a nest way up on the mountainside. They are too high, however, for me to get a good picture of them so I just sit back and enjoy their aerial dance. The canyon is not far from the main trail but it seems far away. I hike back on the upper ridges above the canyon hoping to find a trail but I don't have any luck with that. If Indians came up here they followed the canyon itself. I'll have to come and explore further to see if I can find any evidence of that possibility.

No Man's Land

DAY ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY TWO

I never run out of places to hike because my home is surrounded by wilderness areas, National Parks and Monuments, Forests and BLM lands. If only I had more time.

This afternoon I went out exploring south of La Quinta between the Martinez Landslide and Devil Canyon. I want to explore this area more but it is getting hot and that allows for me to only go for a couple of hours at a time. The reason I want to explore here more is because I know that one day this land will be developed. Once it is developed it will be a sea of homes, streets, fairways and cart paths surrounded by walls and guarded gates, inaccessible. Right now it's just rugged desert awaiting exploration.

I want to make it out to the big canyon in the distance and back before dark. It shouldn't be too hard because while the terrain is fairly rocky at least it's flat.

Or so I thought. The alluvial fan that I thought was somewhat flat is pocked with lots of little canyons where the substantial runoff from the slopes of Martinez Mountain heads toward the Salton Sea.

This solitary Ocotillo should be a good marker for me on the way back. Notice the Salton Sea in the background and the water line of the ancient Lake Cahuilla on the mountainside to the right.

Judging by these survey markers, I am not the first person here and I would assume that preparations to destroy this pristine desert land are well underway.

I try to stay in the shade but will head for the hill where the light still shines.

A nice little dry waterfall greets me. This is along a wide wash and the rock here was just too hard to be washed away.

I walk along the top of the ridges looking for remnants of an Indian trail but I don't have much luck. I find a number of little rock piles along the way and a few traces of trail but nothing substantial enough to even take a picture of.

I also find more survey markers well up near the entrance to the canyon. I wouldn't think there would be any development up this far but judging from some of the desecration of the mountains in South Palm Desert you never know. Of course, these may be archeological survey markers as there are a large number of those rock piles in this area.

Looking up the canyon only increases my curiosity but it's getting late and I don't want to walk through that rocky landscape after dark.

I could go down to the wash but it's about a hundred feet down loose, rocky soil and I don't want to risk it. I'll stay high for a while.

I get to a place where I have to go down and it's only about forty feet. Luckily, I only slip on loose rocks a couple of times and manage to keep my balance. Whew!

I'll just follow the wash out and see where it takes me. I hope I don't step on a snake but the going is good and I make it to my Jeep with about fifteen minutes to spare.

I know this canyon and some of the others around here will be on my fall list to explore. I've got to get it done while I still can. Who knows how long until this No Man's Land is no more?