With mid-pandemic access beginning to open in southern California, I was keen to try to chase some desert water in places others might not think to go. I assumed Joshua Tree would be a madhouse. I had an idea of a place I thought might be worth checking out. We brought some rappelling gear and some rope just in case. We hiked out from the trailhead at 8:20am, shortly passing our canyon exit point. We continued on enjoying the cool shade of the palms a bit longer until our trail branched off up the hillside. We got great views of San Jacinto and Palm Springs along the way, as well as passing by an interesting palm exploited hillside travertine spring. We made good time across the rolling flats, but the day was rapidly heating up and I was soon drenched in sweat. A short deviation down a dry wash and we were back at our trickling bedrock creek, 1.5 miles above our exit. Everything looked promising with pleasant water temperatures and sculpted mylonites.
The mylonitic foliation had a dramatic effect on the canyon such that canyon left was a smooth tilted slab and canyon right was generally cliff-forming. The creek bottom alternated between narrow polished bedrock-lined pooled sections and more open stretches with shallow sediment channels. Tadpoles were everywhere. Palms were spaced at intervals. Initially travel was quick, with some waterfalls bypassed with downclimbs.
Soon we reached the confluence with the larger creek where we were presented with beautiful green pools, sculpted rock, and converging waterfalls. It was probably the most beautiful part of the canyon. It was also a major frog hangout. We bypassed the first falls with an easy downclimb then I rigged a rope for Heather to descend the second falls. I downclimbed, then slid in. This long swimming pool was delightfully refreshing.
The next stretch was primarily easy going, which finally allowed us to make some good time. Soon enough we reach the first of two considerable boulder jams requiring creative downclimbing and quite a bit of scouting. Eventually I found the best route and we worked our way down, obstacle by obstacle, through the formidable maze. At the end was a neat boulder cave we hung out in for a while, and then a swimming exit.
The second boulder jam we ended up doing what might be the only mandatory rappel in this portion of the canyon. Below was a neat water snake. We encountered two no-exit sieves but fortunately both had bypasses. At the end of this section I spotted a lazy horny toad half sitting in the water. Very relaxed!
Time was getting away from us with all the downclimbing but we had one last long finale rockpile to contend with that included a dramatic house-sized "gatekeeper rock" stuck on end that blocked the canyon and forced us high up the canyon side. Eventually we found a way to bypass it through a rock pile and down into another neat boulder cave. More downclimbing, then finally footprints!
We relaxed in the creek for a full 5 minutes before walking the trail back to the car. All in all a great day out with some fantastic scenery and a complete lack of people. Tasty takeout rounded the day off. Crazy traffic and a four hour wait to get into the Morongo Casino seemed to form the ultimate contrast to our day's activities.
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