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USA - CALIFORNIA - PALM SPRINGS : GETTING INTO THE DESERT by Toni Dabbs   Before there were lush green golf courses, before there were irrigated date farms, before there were spa hotels with their own navigable canals, the main attraction of Palm Springs was the desert.The desert’s dry and healthful climate brought the first permanent non-native settlers to Palm Springs in 1884, when Judge John Guthrie McCallum and his family, seeking better conditions for a tubercular son, arrived from San Francisco. A mere two years later, Dr. Welwood Murray built the first Palm Springs hotel. By the time the town was incorporated in 1938, it had become legendary as a winter resort for Hollywood stars, European royalty and international business tycoons who came to escape the glare of publicity and enjoy the sunshine.
Because the Coachella Valley is part of the Colorado Desert, maximum daily temperatures range between 70 F and 100 F, but extremely low humidity keeps conditions bearable. Rainfall averages about five inches per year. While the dry weather sometimes creates a drought, it never results in a water shortage. Natural aquifers beneath the sand contain enough water to supply the valley for at least another 200 years. The hidden water source is only one of the desert’s secrets. Visitors can learn others during several pleasant excursions. Desert Adventures (888-440-5337 or 760-340-2345) takes tourists by the Jeep load into the rugged Santa Rosa Mountains for a first-hand experience of the high desert. Knowledgeable guides explain characteristics of the environment and how they affected the lives of the area’s natives, the Agua Caliente Band of the Cahuilla Tribe. Several stops provide opportunities for short walks among the jojoba and creosote bushes. The oldest living thing known on earth, creosote was the wonder drug of the Agua Caliente, who had many medicinal uses for it. It even has been tested as a cancer treatment. Throughout the three-hour tour, guides identify the different varieties of cactus and any wildlife encountered. Animals indigenous to the area include bighorn sheep, coyotes, mountain lions, jack rabbits, road runners, Steller’s jays and an assortment of snakes, lizards and tarantulas. Desert Adventures offers other nature oriented tours, including one to Indian Canyons, ancestral home of the Agua Caliente. The canyons form North America’s largest natural palm oasis. More than 5,000 Washingtonia filifera palms, the only palms native to this continent, grow along the canyons’ streams. Stops permit discoveries of sparkling pools and waterfalls, Indian grinding holes, and some of the canyons’ 150 species of plants. The plentiful barrel cactus served as a crock pot for the Indians. They would cut off the top, add meat and vegetables to the cactus juice, toss in hot rocks, then replace the top while the contents cooked. At the top of Palm Canyon Drive, the Agua Caliente operate a trading post and snack bar, where visitors can relax on a deck and watch ruby-throated hummingbirds flit and hover among the shrubbery. Covered Wagon Tours (800-367-2161 or 760-347-2161) shows visitors the Coachella Valley Preserve from the pioneers’ perspective. The rig is pulled by a pair of mules, but it has two important advantages over the original desert schooners: rubber tires and padded seats, making the ride more comfortable for modern day greenhorns. A guide accompanies the passengers, relating the history and geology of the preserve, which sits along the San Andreas Fault, and describing some of the plants and animals that it was established to protect. The tour itself takes two hours, but it can be extended to include a chuck wagon-style dinner and entertainment around a campfire. The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway (888-515-8726 or 760-325-1391) offers an overview of the desert setting. As the cable operated gondolas ascend 8,500 feet up Mount San Jacinto, passengers witness changes in the flora and fauna as dramatic as those between Mexico and the Arctic Circle. The cars rise between steep granite cliffs hung with shreds of burrow brush, scrub oaks and wild grapes, where bobcats prowl. Near the upper station, the mountainside transforms into a wooded haven for gray squirrels, with junipers, white firs and big cone pines.
The tramway was completed in 1963, but it has been continuously modernized to incorporate the latest safety features. The Living Desert (760-346-5694) is a 1,200-acre combination wildlife park and botanical garden, where visitors can compare exotic creatures and vegetation from around the world to those found in the Colorado Desert. Animals on view include Arabian oryx, gazelles, meerkats, tortoises and birds of prey. Plantings enhance animal habitats throughout the grounds, and carefully cultivated plots give visitors a chance to see desert plants in bloom. A visitors’ center features interpretive exhibits, a book store and a nursery. Photo courtesy Toni Dabbs
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