Willis Palm Loop Trail and Herman's Hike Trail, Palm Springs California

Our goal was to hike the McCallum Oasis Trail in the Coachella Preserve today.  We did not know that the McCallum Trail and all of the Coachella Preserve are closed on Monday and Tuesday.  It was a 20-minute drive so we were a little ticked that we did not know about the closure of days.  So we started our drive back down the mountain and saw a trail marker and stopped to check it out.  It turned out that there was a whole array of trails just down the hill to hike to a smaller Oasis.  










We chose the Willis Palm Loop Trail to hike.  We ended up not only walking the Willis Palm Loop Trail but also walked the Herman's Hike Trail which together according to Darren's phone was just under 10 km.  This walk took us just under 3 hours and it was well worth it.




The different colours in the hills are very interesting if you ponder how this actually occurred??







The trail takes you right past the small palm tree Oasis and up the mountain through an old creek bed.  We saw only two people on this whole entire trail in the 3 hours that we were out there.  We had the place to ourselves which was really quite neat.  It is out in the middle of nowhere but when you get up to higher elevations you can see the city.




The oasis is on the side of the hill.  This must have been where the fault lines collided.






















The rocks along the way are really quite interesting.  Some of the rocks that we picked up looked quite solid but you could break them apart with your hands.


















After the trail winds through the dry creek bed area, it takes you up the mountain in a curvy path so it's not super strenuous.  



The views are very good at the top of the mountain and it is extremely windy.  
















You stay on top of the mountain area working your way back towards the Oasis and then you take a fairly steep decline back down into and through the Palm Oasis which is surreal because it is literally in the middle of the desert.  This is caused by the different fault lines coming together and forcing water up to the surface creating an oasis of beauty against a stark desert.





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