La Quinta, California, January 26, 2017

So last night, we were hunting to find a nice walking trail. It turns out that La Quinta, near Indio, has a variety of trails, some more difficult than others. In the end, we decided to check out what appeared to be a trail in the Fred Wolff Bear Creek Nature Preserve. There was not a lot of information on it, so we determined that this was going to be a more exploratory adventure.

Map Information

First, from Google Maps, a clue about where we are, southeast of Palm Springs. We are staying at a hotel in Indio, where the green arrow points. And the general area where we spent today is where the blue arrow points.

This was one trail map that we found, at Play In La Quinta. We generally walked along the curved western edge of the residential section (in the Fred Wolff Bear Creek Nature Preserve), and then spent a short period of time in the little trails shown in the middle of this map, at the top of the trail network. Of some interest to us is that orange hike to the little lake. Perhaps another day.

Below is a Google Earth view of our trek of almost 7 kms. We started and ended at the North. For those who care about such things, the coordinates of our parking spot on the street are N33 39.905 W116 19.001. See the little lake in the lower right? It’s calling me a bit…

As we were walking, we generally felt that it was a flat walk. But on the return to the car, it was evident to my knees that we were heading downhill. Not a lot, but I sure could feel it! Here is our elevation profile.

The Walk

A greeting sign.

A dedication sign embedded in the concrete. I think I read somewhere that Fred Wolff was one of the early mayors of La Quinta – maybe even the first one.

The trail in the Nature Preserve is a wide, concrete trail. We met (and were passed by) many people: walkers, joggers, and cyclists.

The concrete path goes alongside an empty canal, which I imagine could funnel a lot of water from the surrounding mountains if there were a significant rainfall here. But California is experiencing a lengthy drought now. Although we did hear that Palm Springs had some rainfall just before we got here – and the canal did appear to have had some recent moisture.

On the opposite side of the canal is a rougher trail. At one point, we stopped to see how one walker would handle a section that involved trekking up and down a bit of a nose. He had no problem. We decided to return on the paved pathway anyway!