January again and time to head south in the RV. Mom & Dad again joined me in traveling south to warmer climates. This year my Uncle Lonnie & Lorna and my friend Mark joined us to make a regular traveling party starting with ten days in Palm Springs.
Palm Springs, often referred to as Hollywood’s Desert Playground, is well known for its exceptional weather. With more than 350 days of sunshine and under 5 inches of annual rainfall Palm Springs has been a tourist destination since 1909.
Palm Springs was discovered by a government survey team sent out to find a railroad route to the Pacific in 1853, for what would come to be, Southern Pacific Railroad. They saw a hot springs oasis with Palm Trees, where the Spa Hotel stands today, and from that, it was the beginning of a birth of a village.
Long before that survey team visited the area, it was the Cahuilla Indians who made the Palm Springs area their home for over 2000 years. They were direct descendants to the Agua Caliente tribe that remain in Palm Springs today.
As with many related stories of white settlers taking over land that had been peacefully lived on by the Indians, it was a rough ride for the Indians after Palm Springs was discovered. After the railroad route was cleared as a safe passage, in 1877 the government gave Southern Pacific Railroad title to odd numbered parcels of land reaching 10 miles on either side of the tracks running through the Southern California desert, as a bonus to complete the railroad project; land that was historically “owned” by the tribe.
“One does not sell the land people walk on.” – Crazy Horse, Oglala Lakota Sioux
The even numbered parcels were given to the Agua Caliente Indians, but they were bound by the government on what they could do with their land, which at the time wasn’t much. And although the government gave the Indians some headway in realizing and benefitting from their rightful land, it took until 1959 when President Eisenhower signed the Equalization Law, which allowed the tribes to profit from their land and establish the 99-year lease.
And in 1987 is when it really happened for the tribes, as the Supreme Court ruled that the Indians finally would have sovereignty over their land and could do as they pleased with it, which led to the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act and all the Casinos that sprinkle the area today. And as a result, the Aqua Caliente Indians are the second wealthiest Tribe in the nation, only second to the oil rich Tribes in Oklahoma.
“The ground on which we stand is sacred ground. It is the dust and blood of our ancestors.” – Chief Plenty Coups, Crow
Although there’s only one city in California named Palm Springs, the city’s unusual combination of themes and personalities seems unique in the country. Palm Springs doesn’t present just one face to the world; it has several distinct faces, attracting many different categories of visitor. And like many cases of Multiple Personality Syndrome, each of those faces might not even know the others exist. So what were we there for? Luxury, nostalgia, relaxation, golf, nature? Or something else?
Most of this visit for me was to enjoy the outdoor opportunities of this beautiful location. Hardcore nature-lovers drive an hour to Joshua Tree National Park (just north of the Coachella Valley), over a thousand square miles of stark high-desert wilderness. So of course this was a destination but one that I will write about in my next blog post.
Mark and I made one of our first adventures the steep, 11-minute ascent from Sonoran Desert to alpine wilderness aboard a rotating car crammed with about 65 other tourists – otherwise known as the Palm Springs Tram. The temperature drops about 30 degrees from valley floor to mountain peak, so an important addition to our packs was jackets, boots, hats and gloves.
The 14,000-acre Mt. San Jacinto State Park and Wilderness Area features more than 50 miles of hiking trails many of which are only accessible in the summer months but covered in snow during the winter. The deeply weathered summit of Mount San Jacinto stands 10,834 feet above sea level, and is the second highest mountain range in Southern California. The mountain’s magnificent granite peaks, subalpine forests, and fern-bordered mountain meadows offer a unique opportunity to explore and enjoy a scenic, high-country wilderness area. Most of the park is a designated wilderness area enjoyed by hikers and backpackers.
Mount San Jacinto is located at a high altitude where the growing season is short. Plant life has little opportunity to recover from overuse from one season to the next so to ensure the preservation of the natural environment State Parks has instituted a Wilderness Permit system; everyone entering the wilderness area for the day or for camping must have a permit in their possession. A good plan for managing both the many visitors and the natural environment.
Once on the top of the mountain we obtained our permit and hiked partway along Long Valley over compacted snow and then up the Desert View Trail to what the map called the “notches,” short climbs to overlooks with gorgeous views back down to the Coachella Valley and along the mountain ridge tops before taking off on the Round Valley/High Trail loop. The trail was covered with snow and with the addition of “Yak Tracks” to my boots for better traction on the snow and ice the hike was a wonderful way to escape the tram crowds and enjoy the mountaintop.
We continued our hiking adventures with a visit to the Whitewater Preserve, 2,851 acres surrounded by the Bureau of Land Management’s San Gorgonio Wilderness, including the year-round Whitewater River and a section of the Pacific Crest Trail.
It is always fun to have two cars as it means you can arrange a through-hike by leaving one vehicle and starting at a totally different location. For us this meant hiking from the Whitewater Preserve to Mission Creek Preserve eight miles along the Pacific Crest and Mission Creek trails.
Mission Creek Preserve is located in a transition zone between the Sonoran and Mojave deserts with some very unique landscapes located just on the edge of the Coachella Valley very close to where we were staying in Desert Hot Springs.
Mission Creek and Whitewater preserves are managed by The Wildlands Conservancy (TWC). Founded in 1995 TWC is dedicated to preserving the beauty and biodiversity of the earth and to providing programs so that children may know the wonder and joy of nature.
This organization has established the largest nonprofit nature preserve system in California, comprised of fifteen preserves encompassing 143,000 acres of diverse mountain, valley, desert, river, and oceanfront landscapes. It truly does take a village – at least a wide variety of agencies, non-profits and dedicated individuals to preserve important places for future generations.
“We rich nations, for that is what we are, have an obligation not only to the poor nations, but to all the grandchildren of the world, rich and poor. We have not inherited this earth from our parents to do with it what we will. We have borrowed it from our children and we must be careful to use it in their interests as well as our own. Anyone who fails to recognize the basic validity of the proposition put in different ways by increasing numbers of writers, from Malthus to The Club of Rome, is either ignorant, a fool, or evil.” ― Moss Cass
Representing another of Palm Springs’ personalities is the Palm Springs Air Museum. Located right on the other side of the Palm Springs airport, the museum is full of beautifully preserved planes, has volunteers that actually flew them to answer your questions and is overloaded with information for you to learn about the wars and the planes that were a part of them.
Named in 2014 as one of the top 14 aviation museums in the world by CNN Travel, the museum has over 100,000 visitors annually enjoying 59 vintage flyable and static planes on display in climate-controlled hangars totaling 86,000 square feet inside with more outside on the tarmac.
Then there’s the Palm Springs that most people think of, concerts and street fairs, golf and polo fields. Of course the visit had to include walking the Thursday night street fair and a trip to enjoy one of the weekend polo matches.
“Polo is a great thing to do with your kids and your family – it is a great day out. And to me, horses are amazing creatures that give you this cable to Earth and put you in contact with nature.” – Nacho Figueras
Wrapped up the week by joining my friend Kim for a round of golf and an afternoon of catching up on old times as well as planning other opportunities to get together.
Another great visit to Palm Springs and as usual not enough time to see and do many of the interesting things in the area. For more ideas check out last year’s blog post: “Palm Springs – A Desert Playground”
Before heading up toward Phoenix for 10 days at Lost Dutchman State Park we made a couple day stop in Quartzite. If you are an RV’er you have probably heard about the massive yearly RV gathering located in this otherwise small Arizona town just over the California border. Last year I wrote about some of our adventures in “Back in Arizona – The Quartzite Experience” and this year there seemed to be even more RV’s scattered across the desert in and around this otherwise small town.
As you enter the town of Quartzite you might wonder about the camel silhouettes on the city sign. Well Quartzite has an interesting camel history. During the mid-1800’s when much of the southwest of America was still uninhabited desert, the government decided they would deal with the terrain like the desert dwellers of the Middle East and bring in camels and hire camel drivers to carry their goods across the arid terrain.
“A camel is a horse designed by committee.” – Alec Issigonis
One of the first camel drivers ever hired by the US Army to lead the camel driver experiment in the Southwest was Hadji Ali, but the soldiers had trouble pronouncing that moniker so they shortened it to Hi Jolly. He served with the Army until the camel experiment was abandoned and the camels were either sold off to private enterprises or turned loose on the desert. Hi Jolly is by far the most colorful of the camel drivers because he remained in the desert southwest and became a prospector, scout and was a courier for what was called the Jackass Mail. Hi Jolly died in December of 1902, in Quartzsite but the history does not stop there. In 1934 the Arizona Department of Transportation erected a monument over his grave. His grave became the beginning of the pioneer cemetery and a place every visitor to the area should see.
It is great to be back in Arizona and from Quartzite we are heading north-east to the Superstition Mountains, but that’s another post……
Very interesting information. Is the first picture a motel from the past? Any info on it?
The pic of the abandoned stone cabins was taken at Mission Creek Preserve just outside of Desert Hot Springs. They called it the Mission Creek Stone House and from what little I have been able to discover they were the guest cabins of the T Cross K Guest Ranch. They have been repurposed into picnic shelters and would certainly make a nice place to get out of the sun in the summer. Here is a link to the preserve:
http://www.wildlandsconservancy.org/preserve_missioncreek.html