After a good night’s sleep, I woke up rested, refreshed and famished. For breakfast, I took Judy’s recommendation and walked to the nearby Old Creek House before heading out to Tahquitz Canyon.
The thing I’m learning is that everyone’s idea of “a mile” here is way different. Just like New Yorkers saying, everything’s “five minutes away”, I get the feeling that folks in Palm Springs think a mile is actually a few walkable blocks. But man, are those blocks long!
By the time I got up the hill to the visitor’s centre at Tahquitz Canyon, I was debating if I even had the energy to even continue hiking its 2 mile loop.
Being “backyard” to Desert Riviera, I thought it would be a good idea to ease into all the hiking with Tahquitz Canyon, the fabled location with an incredible 60 ft waterfall used by director Frank Capra as his setting for Shangri-La in the 1937 film, Lost Horizon.
I’m not a hiking kind of girl. I’m one of the rare birds in Vancouver that have never hiked the Grouse Grind. The last time I hiked with friends was up the Chief or Lynn Canyon. They wanted everybody to charge up that hill in a personal best sorta way, that I got completely turned off by hiking. But this time would be different, I would do it at my leisure and I would only tackle trails rated “moderate”.
The Tahquitz loop would take about 1-1 1/2 hours to complete and I would be gaining 350 feet in elevation. There’s even an advisory warning hikers that there are many steep and rocky steps to climb and that they should be able to go up and down 12-15″ rock steps.
When I arrived at the visitor’s centre, I sat in with a tour group that had finished their walk with a ranger in the theatre room, to watch a video that narrated the legend of Tahquitz Canyon.
In the video, they interviewed elders of the Ague Caliente Cahuilla tribe about Tahquitz, the first shaman who abused his power and brought harm to the Cahuilla Indians. They banished Tahquitz to the canyon that would eventually bear his name. He made his home high in a secret cave in the San Jacinto mountains, now known as Tahquitz Peak.
He would kidnap young Cahuilla maidens and keep them hostage in his cave for years. When one maiden begged to be let go, he relented but only if she never told the tribe where she was kept or he would kill her. Eventually she did tell and the very next day, she was found dead.
Others have also been found dead on the trails. In unusual positions. Not fallen over, but rather sitting upright on a rock. Cross legged even.
Legend has it that Tahquitz’s spirit still lives in this canyon and that he’s seen as a large green fireball streaking across the night sky. The strange rumblings and shaking of the ground, as well as, the crashing of boulders are all attributed to him stomping about the canyon.
The interviewees seemed genuinely terrified with their encounters with Tahquitz. Even though some people might dismiss this as superstition, it gave me the heebie jeebies. I scare easily when it comes to local lore.
I know the ranger was having a bit of a laugh when he saw the hesitancy on my face and said “As long as you hike with a good intentions, you’ll be fine.” But then another hiker got into it and told me that as he and his wife were coming back from the hike, he heard this eerie sound in the wind.
That got me feeling uneasy but was encouraged by the staff to go on the hike. About five minutes into it and with no one visible in front of me, I turned back. Truth be told, what they said got to me.
Course when the ranger asked why I was back, I told him and the cashier that I was thoroughly freaked. The cashier reassured me by promising me that nothing of the sort has ever happened. And that the ranger and previous hiker were just being dumb asses.
So I took her at her word and returned onto the trail. And I’m glad I did. For eventually I would come across other hikers, either going or returning. And the canyon was amazing. As was the view of the city. And after sweating in the hot sun and climbing 350 feet, the pay-off was the breathtakingly cool Tahquitz Falls.
Definitely worth the trek and the scare. After I descended safe and sound, I did feel a little silly to be have sucked in like that.
I headed over to the air conditioned Palm Springs Art Museum downtown. I wasn’t expected much, thinking it would all be turquoise and terracotta pots, but it surprised me.
Clockwise from top left: Apart X by Anthony Gormley, Spider II by Louise Bourgeouis, Nossis by Anseml Kiefer and American Tan III by Gary Hume
Aside from the Andrew Wyeth perspective, I was able to take pictures of their permanent collection. Love it when a museum lets you do that. They even had an outdoor sculpture garden.
The museum closed at 5, which meant that it was still happy hour at Trio restaurant. Not only were they raved about on Yelp, but nightly between 4pm-6pm, they offered a prix fixe menu of a starter, an entree and dessert for $19.
I ordered the caesar salad which was one of the best caesar salads I’ve had in recent memory. Followed by fish and chips and then topped off with an ice cream sundae.
I was exhausted from walking all day and feet-weary and called on Judy for a limo pick-up. Even tipping the driver $5 for the complimentary service would’ve been way cheaper than taking a cab back to the resort. I could’ve taken the bus but I was facing a 3-4 block walk to the nearest bus stop.
Such a princess, right? Well, actually, rock star. Cuz that’s how I rolled tonight.
And then capped it off with a soak in the outdoor hot tub. With only 5 out of the 10 rooms occupied today, I had the whole outdoor courtyard all to myself. And as there’s not a lot of street lights in Palm Springs, it’s dark enough to see the stars. The purr-fect thing to see when one is having a float in the pool.
View more photos of my trip on my Flickr album.
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