Tahquitz Canyon

Palm Springs, California: Today we drove to Tahquitz Canyon (pronounced TAW-keys) and hiked up the canyon to the waterfall at the end. It was a beautiful day with no wind (in the canyon, we understand it was blowing a gale back at the RV park). The canyon is on the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indian reservation. You must enter through the visitor center and pay $12.50 to enter the canyon. For years, the canyon was in terrible shape. Homeless people and "hippies" had made semi-permanent camps amongst ancient native terrace and cave dwelling and grinding stones. In 1995 the Agua Caliente (Hot Water) tribe opened a nearby casino and in two years they had cleared enough revenue to clean-out the canyon, restore the trails and a few years ago, built a beautiful visitor center and opened the trails to the paying public.

It was a nice, easy hike. However, there are few hazards on the reservation. Just as we were entering the mouth of the canyon, hubby nearly stepped on a Diamondback Rattlesnake! One of us (hint: it's not me) hates snakes. The snake was on the trail, sunning himself, but ran under a rock when we arrived. DT jumped ten feet, then kept peeking over the top of the rock to see if the evil slitherer had moved on. Nope. The Diamondback remained, ready to pounce on us - with this tail shaking and his fangs bared. The brave DT climbed up on a boulder to snap photos. Finally, we had to "boulder" around the snake to continue on our track. Let's just say we tread very carefully the rest of the afternoon! (Back at the Visitor Center, the native ranger told us the make and model of the snake from our photo.)

Diamondback Rattle snake


Starting up Tahquitz Canyon

The most amazing thing about Tahquitz Canyon hike is that is basically downtown Palm Springs. Two blocks off the main drag through town, you suddenly enter a (now) pristine wilderness. No traffic, no palm trees. No Starbucks. Not a golf cart in sight. The only thing you can hear is the roar of the water and the cries from the ravens. We saw only a few other hikers all afternoon. We did see many birds, insects and bees, one snake and many, many lizards. The lizards blend-in with the rocks so well, they are very difficult to see!

Gorgeous Fellow: Taquitz Canyon lizard

We could hear the waterfall long before we could see it. Arriving at the end of the canyon, the temperature dropped about 10 degrees from the cooling mist. It was very, very refreshing! The waterfall is especially full this year because of all the rain and snow in the San Jacinto Mountains. The Ranger told us the water volume has actually increased this month over last months rate.

80-foot waterfall

 
Unbelievably, the canyon is filled with volcanic rock of all type.
I know this because my Live-In Geologist told me it is so.


Here I am in Tahquitz Canyon.
I am not wearing snake-proof footwear!


A grinding stone - one of many in the canyon.
Native people have lived in Tahquitz Canyon for 3,000 years.

RV Park: Outdoor Resorts Motorcoach Country Club