36 - Sunday, January 26, 1992 —- North Shore News

TRAVEL

Snowbirds flock to the Palm Springs desert

WHEN THE snow flies, so do the ‘snowbirds’,

the 30,000

to 40,000 northerners, most of them Canadian, who almost
double the population of the narrow, lush Palm Springs-

Indio corridor every winter.

Even at highway-level, it’s ob-
vious that this long, artificially
enhanced oasis is completely out-
flanked by .bleak deserts to the
east and sun-blasted hills to the
west.

Withia this verdant enclave,
there seems to be but four things
to do: swing a golf club, swing a
tennis racquet, dine out, or shop
"tit you drop in expensive bouti-
ques.

But, even if you agree with
Mark Twain that “‘golf is a hell of
@ way to spoil a good walk,’’
think tennis is a game best left to
overpaid -tempermental media-
stars, prefer not to put your GI
tract at the mercy of “California
cuisine’? or suffer VISA
meltdown, there is still. plenty to
do in this surreal part of sunny
California; you just have to be
prepared to venture beyond the
range of the sprinkler-systems and
discover the real environment: the
desert.

Do not, repeat, do not im-
pulsively swing your rented wheels
off onto the first dusty unmarked
track that looks interesting.

A five-minute drive away from

PALMS AND rock fc:maiions in Andreas Canyon, summer camp

for the Cahuilta Indians.

By John Moore
Contributing Writer

the asphalt aorta of the Interstate
is a trip back in time some 30,000
geo-ecological years into an un-
forgiving environment where the
life/death equation is writ very
Jarge and with few variables on a
bleak land.

The best place to start is a
two-minute drive from the trendy
shops and trattorias of Palm Des-
ert’s El Paseo Boulevard.

Just tura south up Portola
Drive from Highway I11, the
main artery of the corridor, and
you arrive at The Living Desert
Wildlife and Botanical Park.

Within is a series of intriguing
“gardens”? that duplicate diverse
arid environments, the Mojave,
Sonoran, Baja and Chihuahvan
deserts.

The plants and the few hardy
adapted trees like the Smoke-tree
and Joshua Tree, are labelled so
you’ll have some idea what you’re
looking at out in the hot real
world

Photo John Moore

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Desert wildlife, from the tiniest
tarantula (is there such a thing?),
and Kangaroo Rat up to the shy
Kit Fox, coyote and Bighorn
Sheep is also on display, including
a marvellous walk-through aviary
where you can meet birds like the
Gambel’s Quail and even a vulture
or two, perched ominously on
high poles.

All the animals and birds at The
Living Desert are unreleasable;
born in captivity or brought to the
on-site veterinary clinic that cares
for injured wildlife as well as the
inhabitants.

Once you have an idea what to
look for, you can venture out on-
to more than six miles of scenic
hiking trails into Deep Canyon for
a quieter, less structured en-
counter with the desert.

General admission to the Living
Desert is $6 US, $5.25 if you can
pass for 62 or better, and $3 if
you prove you’re under 16.

Shaded rest bowers, picnic facil-
ities and frequent fountains are
thoughtfully provided. For further
information cal! 619-346-5694.

One of the most interesting ex-
hibits at the Living Desert is the
“Indian Garden,’ a reconstruc-
tion of a traditional Cahuilla
(Kah-wee-ah) house, called a
“kish,”? and garden showing how
the native people lived and used
desert plants for food, medicine
and clothing in a non-wasteful
lifestyle perfectly adapted to one
of the world’s harshest climates.

Having seen it, you'll be better
prepared to appreciate the Indian
Canyons, just south of sybaritic
Palm Springs, at the end of South
Palm Canyon Drive.

These canyons, still owned and
managed by the Agua Caliente
Band of Cahuilla Indians, are
where the original inhabitants sen-
sibly spent their summers, above
the merciless heat of the valley
floor.

Having paid your $3.50 US
admission and started up the
rough paved road into the can-
yons, the view may initially seem

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disappointizg; just another not
desert arroyo full of dusty scrub.

Then you see the palms.

Palm Canyor, the largest of the
group, is a narrow, naturally
watered oasis that extends for
over 15 miles back into the sun-
savaged hills that flank it.

An afternocn walk along the
Palm Canyon trail, shaded by
towering, wasp-humming palms,
is an eerie but oddly unfrightening
stroll into pre-history.

Unlike the monumental ar-
chitecture of Stonehenge or the
Great Pyramids, this is a ‘‘people
place’’; the dust you shuffle is the
dust of countless camp-fires, the
time-pulverized remains of gener-
ations of ‘kishes,’ the bones of the
Cahuilla tuemselves.

This is sacred ground, but
without the  self-congratulatory
stelae and statues, homely as
somebody’s rec-room, 30,000
years old.

Up in nearby Andreas Canyon
there is a huge flat rceck into
which half a dozen holes, six to
eight inches deep, have been
pounded by the ‘“‘metates,’’ the
stone mortars, of groups of
women grinding seeds and gossip-
ping long before Jesus Christ was
a twinkle in the Holy Ghost’s
omniscient eye.

The Indian Canyons are a place
so magnificently haunted that
your hair should stand on end as

you enter, yet the ghosts here are
gentle welcoming spirits that invite
you to just sit-down and stay for-
ever.

There is a hypnotic seduc-
tiveness about the place that says,
“This is the Garden of Eden, just
as it was...”

No St. Michael guards the gate
with flaming sword, but there’s a
garrulous old woman with long
silver braids who runs the gift
shop at Palm Canyon.

See Tramway page 40

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hillside villages and
monasteries in the shadow of
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from Vancouver — 20 days in
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