June 19, 2005: Palm Springs Trip Day 2
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At Greg's House

We left Dallas on an American flight Friday night. We could have flown directly to Palm Springs, but, as it turned out, we could save $200 each by flying to Ontario, California, instead. So, ever frugal, that's what we did.

I'd reserved an inexpensive car, since all we would need to do is get to Palm Springs where we would turn it in tomorrow afternoon and then use one of Greg's to get around. From the rental car center it was easy to get up to I-10, go east just one exit, and then go north to the Olive Garden Restaurant. It is adjacent to Ontario Mills, which is the same kind of huge shopping center/outlet mall that we have out at Grapevine Mills here in Dallas. We got there just in time for dinner; what with the time change, it was after midnight for us.

Once we were done with dinner, we gave Greg a call to let him know when we would be arriving, and then began the easy drive to Palm Springs. All we had to do was go back down the street to I-10 and head east. Near Palm Springs, we angled off on the highway that eventually becomes Palm Canyon Drive.

Greg's house is located west of Palm Canyon Drive in North Palm Springs. The area he is in is older than the new developments further down the Coachella Valley, and it is also more prestigious for being nestled up against the San Jacinto Mountains.

It's easy to find his house, since it is just a block west of the main highway and two blocks south of one of the major cross streets. We found his house on West Santa Elena Road with no problem. He stayed up late to greet us and show us to one of the casitas by the pool (more about his house later). Then, since we were pretty beat from the trip and the drive, we turned in.

We arose fairly early to meet Greg's other houseguests. Brad Glendenning and Will Hamilton are two friends that Greg met while he was in Austin. Brad lives in Austin and his partner, Will, lives in San Antonio. It wasn't long before we started exchanging information with them about where we lived and particularly, since Will was from San Antonio, all about Ruckman Haus. You can hear that exchange in the movie I took by using the player at left.

Greg seems to have settled in to Palm Springs (he's been here about six months now) very well. He's got everything moved in and has quite gotten in the swing of parties and activities. He has even acquired the services of a houseman, Mike who, apparently, does some cooking and cleaning for a half day four or five times a week. We never did quite figure out how Greg had run into him, or what possessed Greg to hire him (so far as I know, Greg has never seen fit to have household help before), but he was a very good cook and not hard to look at, so I guess that answers that question.

We had a nice breakfast of eggs and sausage and juice and French toast sitting out on the verandah at the back of the house. I made a movie during breakfast, and you can watch it with the player at right. I'll try to describe the house in more detail later on, when I have an opportunity to take some pictures to go along with the description.

The Tahquitz Falls Hike

Before leaving for Palm Springs, Fred and I had done a fair amount of research on the Internet regarding the various hikes and waterfalls that we might want to do and see while we are here visiting Greg. There were quite a few interesting options that we found, and we didn't want to waste any time getting to take advantage of them. So, with Greg and Will and Brad content to spend the afternoon around Greg's pool, Fred and I went off to do the first of the hikes we'd read about- the hike to the waterfall in Tahquitz Canyon.

We figured that we would need to get oriented in Palm Springs before trying to find some of the hikes that were a ways off, so we chose Tahquitz Canyon partially because it was close. To get to the visitor center for Tahquitz Canyon was easy- just a straight shot down the main drag through Palm Springs, then off to the west just a bit to the Visitor Center.

Centuries ago, ancestors of the Agua Caliente Cahuilla (pronounced Kaw-we-ah) Indians settled in the Palm Springs area and developed extensive and complex communities in Palm, Murray, Andreas, Tahquitz and Chino Canyons. Abundant water and hundreds of plants (including palm trees) and animals found throughout the area ensured stable living conditions. Crops of melons, squash, beans and corn were grown, animals were hunted, and plants and seeds were gathered for food, medicines, basketweaving etc. Many traces of these communities exist in the canyons today, including rock art, house pits and foundations, irrigation ditches, dams, reservoirs, trails, and food processing areas.

In recent years, particularly during the "hippie period" in the late 1960s, non-Indians misused the ancient tribal lands by camping indiscriminately, fouling the landscape and the water courses and ignoring sacred Indian traditions. The result has been that the Agua Caliente have had to restrict access to some sites, enforcing the land claims granted them by the US Government. Tahquitz Canyon was one of those most affected, and for many years, access to the waterfall was by guided tour only. Just recently, a new Visitor Center has been built offering guided tours as well as individually-guided walks. Access to the lands used to be free, but now there is a charge for Tahquitz Canyon and the other major canyons on Agua Caliente lands.

Because of the time of year and time of day that the aerial views of the canyon area that are available to me were taken, I could not get a good view of the falls themselves- the destination of this hike. Even had the sun been directly overhead and the season been spring or summer, it still would have been tricky to make out since viewed from above it would be hidden in rocks and trees. But based on the direction we walked and some of the ridge features that you will see in the pictures we took, I have marked the approximate path the trail took and the approximate location of the waterfall.

In the Visitor Center, we paid our fees, watched a short movie, put on our little blue plastic bracelets that meant we'd paid our fee, and headed out the back of the building. The hike began right outside the building where the small stream that flows down from the waterfall comes right by the building itself. Fred stopped to take a picture of the little stream and the trail ahead. Then we crossed a wood footbridge and started up the trail.

The hike up to the Tahquitz Canyon Waterfall was an interesting one, made more pleasant by the fact that we were usually right alongside the stream coming down out of the canyon. We took a lot of pictures along the way, and I've included thumbnails for the best of them below. To view the full-size image, of course, just click on the thumbnail for it.

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

As we slowly climbed along the trail, we were never far from the small stream that we knew was coming from up by the Tahquitz Canyon waterfall and flowing down to the valley. Watch a movie of this stream using the player at right. Climbing up a little further, we reached a plateau and ahead of us we could see that the stream had formed a quiet pool. As we got closer, we got to a point where I could film a movie of the stream and pool, and you can watch it with the player below:

As we came up to the pool, we found that the trail ran beside the pool and then continued up the watercourse through Tahquitz Canyon.

The last water feature that we encountered before arriving at the falls was this small waterfall, which came from an upper pool that had formed in the stream. There was some sort of measurement device in that pool, probably to keep track of the flow level in the stream. In any event, we paused beside this small waterfall to enjoy its sound and motion. You can, too, if you watch my movie with the player at right.

About a half mile further on along the trail and stream, we began to hear the Tahquitz Canyon waterfall and then, as we rounded the edge of a ridge, we were there. The movie that you can watch with the player below was the first picture I took when we arrived at the falls.

Fred also took a really good movie when we arrived at Tahquitz Canyon Falls, and you can watch it with the player at right.

The Tahquitz Canyon Falls were not the highest we'd ever seen, by far, nor did they have a great volume of water flowing over them. I guess what made them so special is that they were so totally unexpected (well, I mean we knew they were there and all)- I mean totally unexpected for the desert terrain of Palm Springs. We expect waterfalls and streams in mountainous areas that get a fair amount of rainfall, or might have melting snow, but it is already pushing a hundred degrees in Palm Springs at this time of year, and it seems as if waterfalls and streams would be the last things you'd find. But that is part of the beauty of Palm Springs. Although it is hot and dry in the valley, the San Jacinto mountains right behind the city offer a stark contrast, providing water flows like this in the spring and into the middle of the summer. Even in the late summer, though, there is plenty of water underneath the valley, which is why there are so many artificial lakes and ponds throughout the city, and why so many fountains and other water features are routinely constructed.

The falls offered a quiet beauty, dropping off a sheer rock precipice in an unbroken 100-foot drop. The fallen boulder at the bottom added additional interest to the falls, as the water flows over and then forms a pool at its base. The pool was wading depth except right at the base of the falls where it was four or five feet deep. About half of the pool was shaded by some large trees, and a rock morraine (natural or artificial I couldn't tell) formed a porous dam that kept the pool full before the overflow left the pool to form the stream that we'd followed on the way up.

We took many more pictures of Tahquitz Canyon Falls than I want to include here, but below are thumbnails for some of the best ones. Take a look at the full-size images by clicking on the thumbnails:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

As usual, I wanted to do some more climbing around the falls; I was actually hoping that I could find a way up to the top of the falls so I could get some views looking down into the pool. To the left of the pool, there was a crevasse where the rock face was not sheer, and where you could indeed climb up, and so off I went. I had gotten most of the way up when Fred snapped this picture where, if you look carefully, you can see me in the center of the picture. As I got higher, it became apparent that there was no easy way to work myself around to the top of the falls themselves, so I had to content myself with the view I could get from where I was. And they were spectacular, particularly this view out into the Coachella Valley. I could also look down on the Tahquitz Falls pool in the trees below and, with my zoom, I could get a picture of Fred waving up at me.

I climbed back down to the pool to find that some other hikers had arrived and had gone wading in the pool. One of them pointed out the flecks of pyrite (at least we assumed it wasn't really gold) that littered the bottom of the clear water, and so I went wading to see if I could find some.

We stayed at the pool for quite a while, just enjoying the view and the natural air-conditioning. Eventually, the other hikers left to return down the trail and we were left by ourselves. It was a perfect time to capture one more picture of Fred at Tahquitz Canyon Falls.

The trail back led us in a different direction; it was nice that we didn't just retrace our path so that we could see something new. From the pool, the trail ascended a ways up the canyon wall to the left of the falls, and reached a natural rock overlook that afforded a really great view back down the canyon and out into the valley. From here, the trail ran around the canyon wall, with the valley almost always in view. We could look down on the stream and out to the valley- all very pretty. Just before descending back down to the level of the stream, we found a huge flat tablerock right beside the trail. We climbed up on it to see what the view from the table rock was like, and it was a great one.

There were a lot of amazing views along the trail back to the Visitor Center, and I've included the best of them here in this album. To view the full-size pictures, just click on the thumbnails below:

(Click on Thumbnails to View)

When we got back to the Visitor Center, we looked at some more of the exhibits, and got some information about some of the other hikes on Indian lands here in the valley and nearby- information that we would use in planning some more outings. Then we headed back to Greg's house for a dip in the pool and some lunch.

The Araby Trail (Bob Hope House)

Saturday afternoon, Fred and I went on a shopping trip to buy some things for the two casitas at Greg's house. In the nature of a housewarming gift, we wanted to outfit both casitas with all the things that a visitor might require- cosmetics, hair dryers, bath accessories and the like. We found a Target a ways down Palm Canyon and we spent some time there getting everything together.

I also took Fred by the Cheesecake Factory that Greg and I had visited last November when I was out here touring homes with he and his Realtor; I wanted Fred to see the architecture. As we were driving along Palm Canyon, Fred pointed out Bob Hope's uniquely-designed home perched on one of the low hills between Palm Canyon and the San Jacinto mountains. So before we went on back to Greg's, we thought we'd try to drive up to the home to look at it.

What we found out was that the area where the home is located is a gated community, and so we wouldn't be able to simply drive by the house. But we did see in one of the guidebooks we had with us that there was a trail, the Araby Trail, that began at the foot of the set of hills where the Hope house is located and wound its way up through the hills to meet up with the other trails through the San Jacinto mountains. The guidebook mentioned that we'd be able to get a view of the Hope house from the trail, so we settled on that.

We parked the car down at the foot of Southridge Road, and then followed the marked trail along an area of trailer homes, below an apartment complex, and then up into the hills, generally following the route shown at the left.

The hike was easy, but we needed to hurry as we were losing our light. After about an hour we reached a point just opposite from the Hope house where we stopped to take some pictures. Here is a view of Palm Springs from the Araby Trail and, from the same spot, a view of the Hope house.

With some help from Fred, I tried to describe the Hope house in a movie, and you can watch that movie using the player below:

For his part, Fred took a picture of me and the Hope house; you can see about where he was standing when the picture was taken by matching up the water tanks in the picture with those in the aerial view at right.

To get back to the car, it seemed logical that we simply walk down Southridge Road, instead of following the trail back. It was getting dark, and hiking would have been an iffy proposition. Besides, if the guard gate was actually occupied, they would be unlikely to stop someone walking OUT the gate. So that's what we did, reaching the car in just about fifteen minutes. Then it was back to Greg's and then out to dinner with him and Brad and Will.

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	June 19, 2005: Palm Springs Trip Day 2
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