To Car Wreck Canyon and Back Again

Spring Blooms in December!

We start in the wash below Pushawalla Ridge and find it alive with colorful wildflowers blooming.

Below spindly Spanish Needle buds start to pop open in a natural arrangement of rocks, creosote, and primrose leaves… priceless!

Sandpaper Bush so aptly named for its unmistakable rough texture…

The fragrance tells all! Desert Lavender blooms pale but it’s smell vibrantly bursts out loud…

Lavendar and Desert Trumpet strike a beautiful pose.

This Desert Trumpet shows off from head to toe… tiny yellow flowers, skinny green stems, thicker red spines, swells of carbon dioxide, and a bouquet of lacy leaves.

Glancing up, I capture this surreal view of a dead palm and some desert mistletoe against a winter sky.

Purple Phacelia brighten the day.

Desert daisies rock!

But wait, there’s more!

Curly pods of Cat’s Claw…

Surrounded by the Indio Hills, the valley is awash with wildflowers.

The trail leads us up and out of the wash and onto a plateau.

Yellow creosote flowers fade into white fuzzy pom-poms.

We follow the trail signs and head down, in a  counter-clockwise loop, to  Pushawalla Palms and “Car-Wreck Canyon.”

Water still trickles through the grove of palms. But here’s where it gets interesting… Notice how the clear runoff suddenly turns orange.

Nestled in its own private canyon, Pushawalla Palms is off the beaten path.

We even encounter a dead coyote.

As we leave the palm groves a bright green bush with yellow flowers captures my attention.

I quickly identify this shrub as creosote with its yellow flowers. However, upon closer inspection, Jeff points out the pine tree-like leaves. Later we learn that, indeed, this is not a creosote bush but a Pygmy Cedar.

And here’s the old rusted car…

Someday we’ll follow the canyon instead of taking the loop.

As we climb back up onto the plateau a new flower greets us.

Usually the desert wildflowers don’t start blooming until March. What a fantastic time to be in the Southern California desert!