Palm Springs and Palm Canyon

My day started early with a trip down to the Subaru dealership in Cathedral City, south of Palm Springs. I've had a couple odd experiences with my car this last week, the battery dying for seemingly no reason. Luckily I have a convenient little rechargeable battery pack that I can hook up to jump start the car, it is super easy and takes about a minute to do. So much faster than finding someone to help, and so nice to be self sufficient on such things. Nonetheless, I'm not comfortable driving out into the more remote parts of the park I wish to visit with a car I can't trust to start. I have to offer a huge thanks to Subaru here. I called Parker Subaru, my dealership at home, for some advice, and was offered that they would gladly replace my battery for no charge, even though my car is well over the mileage of the factory warranty. The hitch is that I'm over 1300 miles away. They suggested I try the local dealership to explain and see if they could help. Long story short, I now have a new battery for no cost. In the 2.5 years I've owned my car, Subaru has been amazing, and the service department at Parker is stellar. Thank you!

Once the battery was taken care of, I found myself sitting in Palm Springs, realizing that there are all kinds of things here that intrigue me but I have not explored. I decided to take part of the day to check out some things here before driving back to the park, planning a few hours in the city and a drive back into the park from the southeast side for a change, an area I haven't seen before. Thinking about the options I'm aware of, I decided on a hike and drove up Indian Canyon. Something many people don't realize is that the land in and around Palm Springs is a checkerboard of ownership, much of it belonging to the Agua Caliente tribe or tribal members. The tribe manages the Indian Canyons area, which has several canyons with many miles of trails.

I drove to Palm Canyon to hike in the world's largest stand of desert fan palms. At the parking area is a small trading post, where a ranger asked me where I was wanting to hike. Palm Canyon is 15 miles long, and the tribe requires all vehicles to exit Indian Canyons by 5pm, so I knew there was no way I was going to hike the entire trail. The ranger suggested I hike out about a mile into the canyon, then take a branching trail, Victor, up to the ridge line and follow that back for views of the area, and hopefully sightings of the many bighorn sheep here. I struck out on the sheep, but saw an abundance of lizards birds, even three Red Tailed Hawks. The hike was incredible. Walking among the palms in the shade near running water was cool and comfortable, with the immense palms towering far over head. I had no idea how tall they grow, how tiny I would feel. There were very few people out on the trail, so for the most part I had it all to myself. The wind in the palms is a great sound, but there was also some snapping and crackling that was a little disconcerting, so far up above me. Taking Victor Trail added some steep incline to the ridge, but oh, the views. I'll let the photos speak for themselves. What should have been about a two hour hike took me over three hours, mostly for the time to take photographs, but also listening to the wind, the birds, and the water.

On the drive back to Joshua Tree, I stopped at the Palm Springs Visitors Center, located in the historic Tramway Gas Station, a fantastic example of mid-century modern architecture, of which I am an immense fan. My drive north up the Coachella Valley before cutting over to Morongo Pass offered spectacular views of the last light of day on the San Jacinto mountains. I wanted nothing more than to have a place to pull over and take photographs, but those freeways are insane, and there is no reasonable place to stop. Suffice to say it was some of the more glorious colors and lighting on dramatic land forms that I've ever seen. The mountain ranges around here are just so attractive.

Back at my temporary home just after sunset, it was very cold compared to the temperature in Palm Springs. I took a hot, and much needed, shower, made dinner, and started sorting through the photos of the day. I had thought I would get to more in Palm Springs, but as great as that hike was, I'm not at all disappointed.

This is what was waiting in the canyon after hiking down from the parking area and trading post on the ridge above.

I'm not sure how to even guess at the height of these trees. It was dizzying. I felt like an ant.

For scale, if you look close, you can see the bottom half of a person standing under the green leaves just to the right of center.

I was fascinated by looking up at the fruit hanging from the palms. Coyotes eat these and help disperse the seeds.

An enormous sentinel along the trail. Those palms on the left are ridiculously tall.

Some palm seeds on the ground. From all the strange noises overhead I kept expecting something, seeds or fronds most likely, to fall and hit me on the head.

The trunks of most of the trees along my hike were blackened or partially blackened by past fires. Palms do survive fire.

Closeup of the fire scarring.

Partway up to the ridge along Victor Trail, looking down on the palms.

Looking toward the mouth of the canyon, where I hiked from, far down below.

Looking further up the canyon, which continues another 14 miles or so.

The San Jacinto moutains.

Those specks are two of the red tailed hawks I saw. I stood for a long time, listening to them call as they rode thermals through and across different canyons. They really have an incredible screechy call, raspy and yearning. Suits the desert landscape well.