A Week in Palm Springs - Part 3 - Indian Canyons

The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians have opened several of the canyons on their land to the public, with some very nicely maintained hiking trails known as the Indian Canyons.  Much of this area was badly burned in the 2013 fire, and you can still see the scorched bark on the palm trees.

On Tuesday morning we did the easy one-mile Andreas Canyon loop trail.  This trail follows a year-round stream that flows down from the mountains, and which creates a very lush grove of fan palms.  

Apparently we were not alone on the trail.

The first half of the route follows the stream bed at the base of the rocks; on the way back we were up higher on the top of the canyon as we walked back downhill.

From Andreas Canyon we drove over to Palm Canyon to check out the Trading Post and walked about a mile of the Palm Canyon Trail.  On the way to Palm Canyon we passed the ruins of what looked like an old gas station.

Here are a few images from Palm Canyon.

We liked the Andreas and Palm Canyon Trails so much that on Thursday we went back hiked the 4-mile out and back route along Murray Canyon to the Seven Sisters Waterfall.  This is more of a moderate trail compared to the easy Andreas Canyon, mostly due to a few rather steep sections where you sort of scramble up the rock, but for the most part it was an easy walk.  Take lots of water for this one.  The first section makes you wonder if there really is going to be a creek with water in it.

But then you come around a corner and see this.

It's a bit hard to tell from these pictures, but there really is a trail through here.  There was not much water in the waterfall or stream bed here right now, perhaps in the Spring when the snow in the mountains starts to melt.

There is a link at the end of Palm Springs Week - Part 2 with more images from the Indian Canyons and the rest of our week in Palm Springs.