a little palm springs hike
The holiday break begins with a quick trip to visit an old friend who’s vacationing in Palm Springs. I seem to bring warm weather with me: the days are in the upper 70s and the air is desert-dry. The local weather report whines about only “partially sunny” conditions, though the only clouds I see are thin white veils high in the atmosphere. Good hiking weather, I think. My friend is just a little equivocal but he finally caves. “OK, but nothing too strenuous.”
The North Lykken Trail is picked for its easy proximity to where we’re staying and its promise of nice aerial views of the Palm Springs and the rest of the Coachella Valley. The online writeup calls it “moderately strenuous,” as does Philip Ferranti’s 140 Great Hikes in and Near Palm Springs. It seems doable and fun, so off we go.
Blooming chuparosa (Justicia californica, this first image) is everywhere. And where there’s chuparosa, there are hummingbirds and buzzing clouds of bees feeding on its nectar.
Plants of brittlebush (Encelia farinosa) are everywhere too, but most are just leafing out from their long dry summertime coma. Soon they’ll be covered in bright yellow daisies. This plant usually calls dryer areas home but can be found all the way to the coast, and it’s used a lot in landscaping projects.
Here’s a barrel cactus (Ferocactus cylindraceus) with an awesome view of the city.
Maybe we’re distracted by the view or I’m too focused on the plantlife, but by about now we’re scrambling over piles of rocks, in and out of drainages, looking for the trail. If we were deep somewhere in the wilds without a map we might be getting concerned. But how can you say you’re lost when there’s a big city grid down below as a reference point? Okay, we’re not really lost, but some of this is on the strenuous side of “moderately strenous.” But not for too much longer. We find some other hikers off in the distance and get back on the trail.
With the trail securely underfoot it’s easier to take in the great rock formations and enjoy more of the views.
It’s a bit away from peak bloom but there are a few other things to see. This is one of the desert plants I’ve always found pretty interesting, whether it’s in bloom or not. Desert trumpet or pipeweed (Eriogonum inflatum) is an unmistakable buckwheat that usually has flowering stems with a fat trumpeting protuberance below the nodes of its bloom spikes. Often it’s a lot more pronounced than in these two photos.
Sometimes, though, you find a plant that produces stems that are wiry and delicate, with none of the bulging that you see here. Some botanist had some fun naming that one: Eriogonum inflatum var. deflatum.
Looking at views and plants is hard work, so we take a number of brief breaks, this one in Chino Canyon. (That’s me to the right, the slavedriver ready to move on to the next ridge.)
This is a hike that makes you hyper-aware of the edges where the desert ends and irrigated human habitation begins. Even though the plants used in this home’s landscaping may say “desert” to you, you can see that the real desert here isn’t one that stays palm-tree-green year-round.
Even a collection of dryland plants can require water to keep looking good when they’re planted closer together than you’d find them in nature. Also, some of these plants–particularly the palms–would be only found in more riparian desert habitats, not here where the homeowner wanted them. Check out the drip-irrigation octopus in the lower right corner.
But I suppose it’s hard to resist the temptation to landscape with the plant that’s in your city’s name. Now we’ll just have to work on the “springs” part to make sure all the palms have enough water to survive this challenging piece of desert.
So by now you’ve probably guessed that at least one of us survives the hike. We both do, actually, but are a little sore the next morning. That’s where the artificial springs–the burbling hot tub, in this case, in the semi-shade of the palm trees–comes in handy.
And then my liberal guilt kicks in. As a tourist am I perpetuating a double standard, expecting water and shade be provided me, when I might expect the people living here to make do with less? Okay, if I had to choose, I really could do without the hot tub. But the hike was great.
December 21 2009 06:15 am | Categories: landscape • places | Tags: desert plants • desert towns • hiking • native plants • Palm Springs
ryan on 21 Dec 2009 at 11:02 am #
I would’ve expected it to be a little greener this time of year. I was up in the San Jacinto’s right over Palm Springs for a summer, looking down on Palm Springs often.. Spooky how many golf courses you can see.
E. inflatum var. deflatum is one of the coolest latin names I’ve ever seen.
Town Mouse on 21 Dec 2009 at 9:01 pm #
Interesting plants down there! Reading other Californian blogs, I’m starting to feel like there’s so little I’ve seen in this state. One day. Maybe.
lostlandscape on 22 Dec 2009 at 8:00 pm #
Ryan, it had been dry year until recently, so there still wasn’t much green. If this low desert around Palm Springs turned bright green I’d be jumping for the color controls on my monitor–it just doesn’t do that much.
TM, there were plenty of other interesting plants out there but I’ll have to admit I didn’t feature them because they were still dormant or I had no idea what they were! 5000+ species is a lot of different plants for the state and I’m so far from even knowing a reasonable sampling of them…
Barbara E on 25 Dec 2009 at 9:34 pm #
Beautiful hike! I really love the Justicia picture — the bright red flowers on the soft gray background. Maybe I’ll get my family out to Palm Springs or Joshua Tree or Anza Borrego before the new year. Thanks for sharing.
Jeff P on 26 Dec 2009 at 9:54 am #
Nice hike! I appreciate all the flower and plant references, because I’m a great fan of the natural surroundings here in the Cascades as you are there. And thanks to Larry for sending me the link. An enjoyable outing, one that will make me get my cross-country skis on and get out there myself. Thanks for sharing!
lostlandscape on 28 Dec 2009 at 10:12 pm #
Thanks, Barbara. I hope you can make it out to the desert. I hear parts of Anza-Borrego are flowering away in response to some summer monsoon rains one day.
Jeff, thanks for stopping by. The Cascades are amazing and if I were up there I’d be out on skis right now. But I think Larry got tired of all the white stuff on the ground and decided on something a little warmer this December.
Greg on 31 Dec 2009 at 4:50 am #
I do like that lovely red flower. So he didn’t want anything too strenuous and you chose “moderately strenuous”?! I’ll rest up before if I’m ever coming to visit.
Thanks for another interesting look at a part of the world I don’t know much about.
lostlandscape on 04 Jan 2010 at 10:05 pm #
Greg, I think even I got a little more than I’d bargained for. I wore shorts, thinking we’d have more trail. But a mile cross-country in shorts looking for a trail in land populated by what they call cat-claw acacia left me a little marked up…somewhere between “fun” and “adventure.”