Mecca Hills & San Jacinto July 22

Sara and I had our good friend Luke visiting us from New Zealand. I hoped to be able to take a bit of time off to give him a proper tour but with only a day available I switched to plan B: we'd give him the one-day variety pack. We started the day out 200ft below sea level at the Salton Sea and drove through the small town of Mecca. We turned onto a washboarded dirt road, crossed the San Andreas Fault onto the North American Plate, and headed up Painted Canyon wash surrounded by fascinatingly faulted, fractured and folded rocks. Luke seemed to be appropriately stimulated by the excellent geology. At the end of the road we piled out of the car, the blast of heat assaulting us (particularly Luke!) as we emerged from the air conditioning and into the furnace.

We walked up the vertical-walled main wash and then turned off onto the unassuming tributary with large collapse blocks at its mouth. It quickly went into deep and sinuous slot canyon-mode, much to the delight of all three of us. We encountered several dryfalls, necessitating the use of the ladders that had been left in place. At the right turns, golden canyon light filtered down into the slot, illuminating the textures alluvial walls. Once out of the slot we cross-countried the badlands over and into the next canyon over. I had planned to use this to loop back down to the main wash, so was rather surprised when we abruptly encountered a chossy, vertical 50ft dryfall- no way down. Taking a slightly different route, we followed trails across some ridges and then over back into the ladder slot canyon. Once back at the car there was only one thing on my mind: date shake! We found a place a little north of Mecca and all had a tasty date shake, followed by an interesting history of the date palm's introduction to the area. I hoped we would have more time to head towards the bottom of Salton Sea for mud volcanoes and the random hippy art of Salvation Mountain, but the day was getting on and we wanted to get Luke up a mountain still.

 

En route we made a quick detour for the Thousand Palm Oasis so we could give Luke a quick stroll through a fascinating palm oasis courtesy of the San Andreas Fault. Being a weekday we had the entire place to ourselves which was excellent.

We drove up the long, steep and rocky alluvial fan to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, something I had not done in over fifteen years. The tram ride was better than I remembered. In 15 short minutes we passed from the low desert of Palm Springs and up to the fresh smelling forests of San Jacinto (from -200ft to over 10000ft!). As we stepped out of the top tram building I think Luke was impressed. Real forest and meadow, a cool 60 degrees to contrast with the 100 degrees below. Not wanting to be limited to the trails, I sought out a point on the topo that seemed to jut out a bit more than anything else and we scrambled our way over the granite out to it. Sara and Luke both seemed skeptical but admitted I found a good spot on arrival: panoramic views of the Salton Sea, San Andreas Fault, San Gorgonio, Palm Springs, etc.

We couldn't resist a beer and sunset at the tram station before heading back down. And once down Sara couldn't resist a detour to Native Foods Cafe in Palm Springs. It was a full day but we were all satisfied! It was good to remember what numerous, diverse and amazing places we have within a short drive of us.