On our last full day in Palm Springs, Steven and I drove to nearby Indian Canyons located within the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation. Since the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians has called the Palm Springs area home long ago. I read that complex communities were built in the Palm, Murray, Andreas, Tahquitz, and Chino canyons. Of the reservation's 31,500 acres, about 6,700 acres are within the Palm Springs city limits. The remaining sections stretch across the surrounding Colorado Desert and mountains in a checkerboard pattern.
We headed to Palm Canyon which was originally the ancestral home of the Atcitcem Clan and was given as a gift to the Kausiktum Clan of the Agua Caliente Board of Cahuilla Indians. For over 2,000 years, the Cahuilla people made this canyon their home. They survived by harvesting the oasis' bounty that was abundant with game, plant life, and water.
I don't recall ever seeing a sign that gave us such pause for thought before when driving.
Split Rock was near the entrance to Palm Canyon.
The Transcendence sculpture outside the Trading Post was created by the Palm Springs High School Welding Class in 2014.
We descended into the canyon on the Palm Canyon Trail to view what is considered the world's largest native California Fan Palm oasis.
Sarah: More of the spectacular California Fan Palms I promised you!
What a majestic grove of this variety of palm trees we'd never seen until the day before at Coachella Valley Nature Reserve.
Trails of varying length and difficulty led hikers to remote areas of the canyon. From the Palm Canyon Trail, we took the East Fork Trail which had an elevation gain of 850 feet as it meandered through the narrow wash of the East Fork of the Palm Canyon Creek with its towering walls on all sides.
In the distance overlooking steamy Palm Springs were the snowcapped San Jacinto Mountains.
On our return to the hotel, we made sure to make time to rest by the pool and take in as much sun as we could before returning to Denver!
Next post: Gallup, New Mexico en route to Phoenix.
Posted on March 1st, 2022, from the other Las Vegas, the one in New Mexico, as we head home to Denver after spending an incredibly relaxing month in Phoenix hiking each morning and then reading poolside each afternoon. Like people the world over, our hearts and prayers are with the people of Ukraine.
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