While staying at Catalina Spa & RV Resort (look for a post about that later), we took a hike in the nearby Coachella Valley Preserve. We wanted to explore the Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve within the Coachella Valley Preserve, but were misled by their map, and ended up doing a longer hike than planned.

The Coachella Valley Preserve sign:

Entrance to the Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve:

The very inaccurate map; we thought the Hidden Palms Loop hike looked interesting, and allegedly fairly easy for us novice hikers at 1.75 miles roundtrip, according to the table in the map:

But it was full of lies; the Hidden Palms Loop was in fact more like five or six miles, and very badly marked. We went about halfway (mostly on loose sand) before we lost the trail, and turned back; a total of about three hours. Not a long hike for most people, but we’re not really in shape for such a journey, especially not in the heat of the desert. (Yes, we did have hiking boots, hats, suitable clothing, water, and snacks; we weren’t totally unprepared. But there’s definitely improvements we could make.)

We better know our limits now, that’s for sure:

Palm trees in the oasis at the start:

Following the trail; a nice path to start:

More palm trees:

The path crossed the road:

The trail continues:

Inside of a cactus:

Birds circling; we’re not dead yet:

The trail became soft sand, and less clearly defined:

A stream:

A wash from heavy rains:

Interesting texture:

Me with a trail marker, but not much of a trail:

So much desert:

The less-clearly-defined trail:

We saw several of the lizards that are a focus of the preserve:

More desert:

Not the most interesting hike, and the hidden palms were so well hidden that we didn’t find them. We looked at a better map when we got home (there wasn’t enough cell signal to see much while out there), and found where it went. But it definitely wasn’t what we were expecting.

We turned around once we lost the path, and got some tasty breakfast for dinner on the way home (i.e. back to our coach), then headed to the thermal pool for a couple hours soak for our tired muscles.

We also bought the AllTrails app, so will have better access to maps for our next hike.