Upper Palm Canyon

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND NINETY NINE

Anyone who has been to Palm Springs knows Palm Canyon Drive. It is the main drag in downtown and attracts more tourist traffic than any other street in the desert. Far fewer people are familiar with the canyon that gave that street its name and even fewer know the upper reaches of the canyon.

Visitors to the Indian Canyons, south of Palm Springs, can visit the largest palm oasis in North America for which the canyon was named. There are over three thousand palms and this section of Palm Canyon boasts many hiking opportunities. But this is only a small part of Palm Canyon. Palm Canyon is over eighteen miles long and reaches well into the mountains of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto National Monument.

To get to the section of Palm Canyon that I explored today, you have to drive about twenty miles up Highway 74 to Ribbonwood and start there.

The Pines to Palms Trail is no misnomer. While there are no pines at the beginning of the trail, there are quite a few along the way.

From up here, at the 4000 foot level, you can see all the way down into the desert.

I think what I'll do today is go down to the canyon bottom, hike to Omstott Canyon and then come back up the ridge route.

The canyon bottom, like most things this time of year in the desert, is bone dry. Of course, that makes travel a little easier.

Along the trail is this gate since the upper reaches of this canyon are used as a grazing area for free range cattle. The Wellman Family has run cattle in this area going back generations.

I find a lot of odds things on my hike but I have no idea how this got way down here. There is no road even remotely close to where I am.

I check my time and determine that I really don't have time to make it down to Omstott Canyon and back before dark. I decide to take this ridge up to met the Ridge Trail instead. Hopefully, it's not too tough.

But first I have to make it through some of the brush down in the canyon. At this point I'm wishing I wore long pants.

From the ridge I am able to look down the canyon and I wish I had just a bit more time. I'll have to come back when I have the whole day. I think that might be sometime in 2015.

This section of the ridge worried my a bit when I was looking up at it but I'm able to go around it on the left. There even appears to be a bit of a trail up this ridge.

Maybe there was a trail here because this branch was sawn by someone. It just didn't break like this, in a perfect line.

Kahlua the Tracker also thinks there's a trail here somewhere.

There's no doubt about this trail.

We head out the cattle gate up here and wish we'd had more time to explore. There is a lot of terrain and history in this area and very few people go here other than just passing through.

It's so beautiful here so I'd like to come back sometime when we can stay a while.

Community Clean Up

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND NINETY EIGHT

Graffiti is an annoying form of vandalism that costs hundreds of millions of dollars each year in the US to irradiate. It is annoying enough to see it on walls and buildings when one drives around town but it is doubly irritating to see it when out hiking. Why someone would pack a couple of cans or aerosol paint in lieu of water bottles in their backpack is beyond any rationale. There are a few places I've been hiking to this year where someone has done just that and each time I've thought that I've got to come back and paint over that. Well, today I finally got around to doing it.

I was going to go down to the local hardware store but the wife pointed out that we had some leftover paint from a home repair that matched the local rocks pretty well so I decided to take that. The only problem was that I couldn't find a brush or roller. The wife came to the rescue again with a little brush out of her art supplies and off I went.

The most egregious example of graffiti on the hikes I've done this year is right here in La Quinta. It's on a hike I've done many times so it's bothered me all year .

That's not the rock we're looking for, Kahlua.

THAT'S the rock we want to paint over.

Uh oh, when we get to the rock I discover that the paint brush the wife gave me lost the spongy part. What to do?

I look around and think that maybe this creosote bush might make a good brush.

It seems to be working OK--for about a minute. Then the creosote just falls apart.

I always did love finger painting when I was a kid.

The coverage is actually pretty good considering I don't have the proper tools to do the job. Maybe I'll come back with some brushes for some touch up work.

I think once the paint dries the color will be OK. It's certainly better than white.

The power of the palm! I wonder how a palm frond would do as a brush? Better than a creosote, that's for sure.

Can you tell which rock it was that got a paint job? No? Good.

Boo Hoff Bear Creek Loop

DAY TWO HUNDRED NINETY SEVEN

People ask me about hiking all the time and sometimes they even ask if they can come along. They don't often go beyond asking but on occasion we even make plans. Today I was expecting to get a call from a guy at work to go hiking with me down in the Mecca Hills. I'm still waiting for that call.

I waited as long as I possibly could and then headed out near home instead of driving to the Mecca Hills. It actually ended up OK because I did a very enjoyable hike that I'd never done before although I've walked past it a hundred time, at least.

I headed up to the Boo Hoff Trail but instead of continuing up the trail I turned right and headed toward Bear Creek Canyon.

I should have taken one of two trails that left the canyon I was in before I hit the Boo Hoff Trail but this is my first time. I'll know better next time.

This is looking back toward the Boo Hoff Trail. You want to head to the right well before that dark brown outcropping.

There is actually a trail that encircles the mountain that separates the Bear Creek Wash and the Boo Hoff Wash. It's faint and no one's been on it for a while but it's there.

I'm very excited when I get to the point where I can see the Cove in La Quinta. I feel like I've discovered yet another new hike in my own backyard.

From the trail you can look right into Bear Creek.

Now that I've hiked around this little mountain I think the only thing left to do is climb it.

Just not today; I want to do that when I haven't spent my best daylight hours waiting around on some flake who never calls.

Cat Canyon Ridge

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND NINETY SIX

The days are getting shorter, the sun is going down earlier and soon after the time change I will have start either hiking in the morning or in the dark. The dark is tempting because I don't like waking up early but I think the pictures might be somewhat lacking if I only go at night. I fear these next two months are going to kill me. Sleep deprivation will do that.

I head up Cat Canyon in Palm Desert fully intending to hike straight up the canyon but sometimes I get distracted.

I get to a split in the canyon and wonder if I should go explore to the right up this unnamed canyon.

Or if I should go to the left and head up Cat Canyon.

For some unknown reason I decide to choose none of the above and go straight up the ridge between this. I wonder if there might be some kind of trail heading up between these two canyons. As far as I can tell the answer is NO.

I look down into Cat Canyon but decide that this is definitely not the way to go down.

I look across to the Hopalong Cassidy Trail and think how nice and easy it would be to have a trail over here instead of endless loose rocks. I don't know if it would be as interesting but it would be easier.

I really want to explore a bit but, more than that, I want to get down off this rocky slope before dark. There are few things scarier than traveling down this type of terrain in the dark.

I get down in time and walk out of the sandy wash just before it turns pitch black. I guess there's one positive thing about going out in the morning: I won't need to carry a headlamp.

Carrizo Canyon, Palm Desert

DAY TWO HUNDRED AND NINETY FIVE

This week I have gone to Dead Indian Canyon and Magnesia Spring Canyon, both of which are only open for three months of the year, from October-December. Today I went to another canyon with limited access, Carrizo Canyon.

You pick up the canyon by heading south from the Art Smith Trailhead. Nine months out of the year this gate is locked but it's unlocked for now.

If there were any doubt which way to go this sign is here to help the directionally challenged.

The canyon is wide and sandy at the bottom but will quickly narrow and get rocky.

As you enter the canyon the sides quickly become steep. I looked to see if there might be an Indian Trail leaving the canyon but there's no way anything leaves here. It's too loose and steep. I still think there might be a trail leaving somewhere near here and heading south but it'll take a little more detective work to find it.

When you get to into the canyon there's this BBQ in the middle of nowhere. It's crazy and I cannot figure out why it's here. Of course, in the "old days" people used to be able to drive here so maybe this was Party Central back then.

This is a good place to possibly spot a Bighorn but I don't have any luck doing so today.

There is one lone palm in the entire canyon. You know there's water here although none is on the surface. There are numerous barrel cacti in the canyon that have been eaten, a sure sign that Bighorn are present. Maybe I'll try the canyon some morning to see if my luck is better.

At a split in canyon, there are these directions. Too bad they're wrong. Dead Indian Creek is in a completely different canyon and Carrizo is misspelled.

When you turn right into CARRIZO Canyon, you come to a dry waterfall rather quickly. In the spring, this fall often flows and is covered with ferns; it's very beautiful. The fall is easy to climb over to continue up the canyon but daylight is going goodnight and I want to get home to root on my Angels.

Short but sweet says it all.