In Part 1 of this series, I covered some of the hikes trails in the Coachella Valley. In this part, I will cover some of the hiking trails within a reasonably short drive of the Palm Springs area. Again, I will make the caveat that I am not providing a detailed description of these hikes, rather I am sharing some of the photos taken on these hikes. Hopefully these photos will give some sense of some of the beautiful scenery on these trails.
As mentioned in Part 1, the only camera I carry on these hikes is my iPhone. With maybe one or two exceptions. all photos are “straight out of the camera” with no editing.
I will cover these trails by geographical area. Click on any photo in the following galleries to enlarge it.
Joshua Tree National Park
Near the Cottonwood entrance, just off of the I-10 at the East end of the Park, is the Lost Palms Oasis Trail. This is an out-and-back moderate hike of about 5 miles. As this is in the lower desert (Colorado Desert) of the park, you will not find any Joshua Trees along the trail, but there are lots of other desert plants present. The higher elevation parts of the trail offer some great views.
In the high desert (Mohave Desert) part of the park is the Lost Horse Mine Trail. This 7-mile loop is a great hike that includes an old abandoned mine site.
Closer to the West Entrance to Joshua Tree National Park is the Maze Window Trail. Actually there are various trails here that can be linked together to form hikes of different lengths. Along the Window Trail is, not surprisingly, an opening in one pile of rocks known as the window. Throughout these trails are amazing rock formations and desert views.
The trailhead for the Black Rock Canyon Trail is actually outside the Park in Yucca Valley. The hike does go into the park though. The day we did the hike, it was cold, windy and, at higher elevations, foggy. Actually the fog was caused by hiking into the clouds. From all reports, the views from the summit of this trail are spectacular, however, when we did it the visibility was very limited. The loop trail is about 6 miles in length.
Highway 74 and Vicinity
For a change from desert hikes, just travel up Highway 74 from Palm Desert. The highway is also known as the Palms to Pines Highway as it takes you up out of the desert to the pine forests of the Santa Rosa Mountains. Temperatures at the higher elevations are typically somewhat cooler than in Coachella Valley, so this area is popular for summertime hikes when the temperatures in the Valley make hiking potentially dangerous.
The PCT North of Hwy 74 Trail follows the Pacific Crest Trail. We hiked out about 3 miles then returned the same way. The trail takes you through a pine forest and is absolutely beautiful.
Right across Highway 74 is the PCT South of Hwy 74 Trail. Not surprisingly, this hike follows the PCT Trail south of the highway for a distance. Again, we followed the trail for about 3 miles then returned. Like its counterpart north of the highway, the views are spectacular.
I am including the final hike under the broad heading above as you start by driving up Highway 74 then turning off to continue on to the town of Idyllwild. On the edge of town is the Ernie Maxwell Trail. We hiked this trail in late March. There were still some remnants of snow around but the trail itself was in great shape. This was the last hike of the season for our hiking club and it was a spectacular finale. The trail crosses a small stream several times. Winter runoff generated lots of water in the stream and a number of little waterfalls.
If you enjoy my photography, check out my gallery site at neilmillerphotography.com – just click the “Photo Gallery” tab at the top of this page.
Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley in Southern California is an area well known for great hiking trails. After a hiatus of several years (since before Covid) I got back into hiking over this past year with my local hiking club.
Hiking and fine art photography don’t really go hand-in-hand. Hikers are there to hike, not to stand around waiting while I set up the perfect composition. As a result, I have been using my iPhone camera to capture memories during pauses in the hikes. Over the past months I’ve come to really appreciate the capabilities of my camera phone.
The photos in this post were all taken with my iPhone 15. With only 2 or 3 exceptions, all are straight out of the camera with no post processing involved.
Rather than reviewing the hikes in chronological order, I will group them somewhat geographically. I will also begin with a caveat that this post, and the next one, are not intended as detailed descriptions of these trails. There are other resources for that. Rather, my intent is, using a collection of iPhone photos, to portray some of the beauty of some of the hikes in this part of Southern California.
Part 1 will cover some of the hikes in the Coachella Valley. The next post (Part 2) will cover some hikes a short distance from the Valley.
Click on any image in the following galleries to view larger sized views.
Coachella Valley
Just on the edge of Indio is the Indio Hills Badlands Trail. This very popular hike is about 5.2 miles long with elevation gain of 780 ft. Rated as moderate, it offers some great views of the Coachella Valley.
A little further west, in the hills above Palm Desert are crisscrossed with a multitude of trails. One hike we did was a combination of the Homestead Trail, Hopalong Cassidy Trail, and Herb Jeffries Trail. This is a fairly easy trail although it has a fairly steep start and finish. It offers some great views out over Palm Desert.
Palm Springs offers numerous great hikes, many of them in the Indian Canyons area.
The Murray Canyon trailhead is not far from the entrance gate to Indian Canyon. This is a popular 5-mile loop trail rated moderate. The total elevation gain is about 500 ft. This hike takes you through a Palm oasis with a stream running through it. You need to cross the stream several times on the way up to the little waterfall at the top.
Further into Indian Canyon, there are a number of hikes that start near the Trading Post. The Victor Trail takes you up onto a ridge line with great views of Palm Springs and area, before dropping down into Palm Canyon. The final mile or so winds its way along a stream through a palm oasis. Particularly on a sunny day, the shade in the oasis is a welcome end to this hike.
The Palm Canyon to Stone Pools hike is a 6 mile out and back trail with an elevation gain of about 900 ft. After the first mile or so hiking through the palms in Palm Canyon, you begin the climb our of the canyon. At the end you are rewarded with some beautiful little stone pools and small waterfalls. It’s a great spot to relax and enjoy a snack before returning the way you came.
As one starts to climb out of the Coachella Valley from Palm Springs, there is a turnoff to the Whitewater Preserve. The original plan was to hike the Whitewater Canyon View Loop. Unfortunately, storm damage from Hurricane Hilary damaged parts of the Preserve and part of the loop is closed indefinitely. You can so part of the loop as an out-and-back, which still makes for a pretty nice hike with spectacular views. The first image below did have some post processing done on it. I would also point out that the yellow flowers image was done strictly in-camera: there was no post processing done on it.
The final hike I will cover in Part 1 is the Dos Palmas Preserve, east of the Salton Sea. A series of ponds, fed by artesian wells and leakage from the Coachella Canal form a wetland surrounded by palms and other vegetation. I have visited the Preserve several times and it is a beautiful area just to wander around. Sadly, in mid-February, a controlled burn went out of control and the resulting wildfire burned much of the Preserve. The photos below were taken just over a month before the fire. I have not been there since to see how much damage was done.
In Part 2 I will cover some of the other hikes we did outside of the Coachella Valley.
If you enjoy my photography, check out my gallery site at neilmillerphotography.com – just click the “Photo Gallery” tab at the top of this page.
Every Thursday night, a stretch, several blocks long, of downtown Palm Springs, CA is converted to an outdoor market. A wide variety of crafts, artwork, and services are offered along with a number of food concessions. With this being the height of snowbird season, the market was quite busy when I recently attended with my camera.
The following are some random shots I took during my time at Villagefest.
The early evening was also a good time to photograph a few neon signs.
Very close to the street fair is the well know Forever Marilyn sculpture.
The night I was there, the rising moon could be seen above the palm trees.
I even found a couple of opportunities to create some abstracts.
It has been several years since I last attended Villagefest and it was well worth the return visit.
Recently I went on a little hike up Andreas Canyon. The canyon is part of Indian Canyons on the edge of Palm Springs, CA. This is a short, easy hike of about 2 miles. The little stream that runs through the canyon had a greater flow than I can recall on prior visits. As a result there were lots of little waterfalls. Given that I love photographing waterfalls, it took me quite a while to hike up to the top of the canyon.
Here are a few of my waterfall shots.
Here are a few other images from along the trail.
If you enjoy my photography, check out my gallery site at neilmillerphotography.com – just click the “Photo Gallery” tab at the top of this page.
Over the past couple of months, I’ve paid two very early morning visits to Joshua Tree National Park to capture some sunrise shots. This is my favorite time to visit the park, even though it means leaving home at about 4:30 am in order to arrive just as the sky is starting to get light. If conditions are right, the reward for the early rising is beautiful color in the sky and sometimes some very dramatic clouds.
It was quite a cold morning on my visit in January. Fortunately I was dressed for it and stayed quite comfortable as I watched the drama unfold.
About a month later, after some winter storms left the mountains surrounding Coachella Valley, I wanted to capture some images of Joshua Trees against snow-capped peaks. Another early morning visit to JTNP yielded some beautiful early morning light.
Following sunrise, I stayed around for a couple of hours to photograph some of the desert plants with my Lensbaby Composer Pro II lens.
Joshua Tree National Park is a gift that keeps on giving. It is one of my happy places.
Wow! I can’t believe it. This is the 300th post on my blog.
When I started this blog 11 years ago, it was primarily to chronicle my cycling trip across Canada in the summer of 2013. At the time, I really didn’t foresee that I would continue posting for more than a decade.
In my very first post, “New Name“, I outlined the origin of the name for my blog. Basically its an intersection between a favourite old Irish blessing and a number of activities that I loved at the time. Whether running, cycling or sailing, it’s always easier when the wind is at your back!
In this post I want to recap some of my adventures over the past 11 years and share a few photos that bring back some of those memories. To recount everything would take too long (that’s what the past 299 blog posts have done!) but I have to say that I have been very fortunate to have good health, great friends and a wonderful wife – all of these have contributed to some pretty amazing adventures. Over the years, my blog has morphed somewhat from an account of my activities to more a sharing of my journey as I grow as a photographer.
In that first blog post, I reflected upon a recent marathon I ran in Huntington Beach as well as an upcoming sailing trip. I also talked about the origin of perhaps the most challenging undertaking of my life: a cycling trip across Canada.
Huntington BeachSailing in St. Vincent & the Grenadines
Over the course of the summer, 2013, I participated in a 10-week cycling tour across Canada. My life for those weeks was essentially getting up, eating breakfast, cycling all day, setting up my tent, eating supper, sleeping, and repeating again the next day. In addition, most evenings, if the campground had internet access, I posted about my ride that day. My account starts with “Vancouver Bound” where I reveal that I left home for a 10-week camping trip without a sleeping bag (and had to return home to get it). After an amazing experience over the summer, my ride culminated with a ride up Signal Hill in St. John’s, NL on a very foggy morning at the end of August.
End of the Tour du Canada – Signal Hill, NL
In March of 2014, a last minute trip to Palm Springs, CA (our first time visit) led to a wonderful new chapter in our lives. We fell in love with the area and by that summer we had bought a second home in the area.
Later that spring we thoroughly enjoyed a 2-week river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. While I’d loved sailing for years, we never had a desire to do an ocean cruise. But we loved the river cruise!
Hungarian Parliament Building, Budapest
In the fall of 2014 we took possession of our new winter home in Southern California. In March we had driven through nearby Joshua Tree National Park and really liked it. Not long after getting settled into our home, I paid a return visit, one which started my love affair with this beautiful park. As a kid who grew up on the Alberta prairies, I’m still in awe of the beauty of the desert.
Desert Beauty
The Winter and Spring of 2015 were filled with exploration of the Coachella Valley, Salton Sea, Joshua Tree National Park, and many other areas in our vicinity. Not long after we arrived in the Fall of 2014, I joined the camera club in our community. Joining this club was really the start of my journey to improve my photography and the places visited that winter really got that journey off on the right foot.
The year continued with a visit to Boston, backpacking in the Rockies, a canoe trip on Maligne Lake and a photography workshop at Mount Assiniboine.
Mount Assiniboine
In mid-October I ran my 16th, and last, marathon in Chicago. While the route in Chicago was spectacular, I just found that the pounding my body took through 16 weeks of training and the 26 miles of the marathon itself just wasn’t any fun any more. After crossing the finish line, I didn’t run again for a year. When I did try a few short runs again, I just found that my love of running had “run away”.
Chicago
A short time later, after returning to the desert, I went on the first of many photo trips with a group of friends from the camera club. On this trip, we spent several days exploring and photographing Zion National Park.
The Watchman
A highlight in early 2016 was an evening trip to Keys Ranch in Joshua Tree National Park. This was a special visit arranged for members of our camera club and was a fun chance to enjoy some late afternoon/early evening photography at this historic site.
Keys Dwelling
Another highlight, a short time later, was trying my hand at some astrophotography at Joshua Tree NP.
Milky Way
Of course, the biggest highlight of the year was the arrival of our furbaby Alie. Here she is experiencing her first snowfall, not long before we left for our winter in California.
Early in 2017, I embarked on my first photo trip to the Big Sur Coast area of California. I have been back several times since and look forward to future trips. One of my favourite images from this trip was a night shot of Cayucos Pier. It has an almost film noire look to it, evoking thoughts of meeting up with Philip Marlowe or perhaps a Humphrey Bogart character.
Waiting for Marlowe
One of our biggest adventures that year was spending a month in France. We visited many vineyards, even staying at one, and sampled a glass or two of wine!
Vineyard
2018 started off with capturing one of my favourite images of Joshua Tree NP: Sunrise at Barker Dam.
In February, 2018 we travelled to South America for a wine tour of Chile and Argentina with a wine club to which we belong. We have many fond memories of the people we met, the scenery we experienced, and the many wines we sampled. Oh, the wine!
Lunch at Villard Vineyard
2018 continued with a trip to Monument Valley with camera club friends, backpacking in the Rockies, another canoe trip, and a late Fall return to Southern California.
Monument Valley
Without doubt, a highlight of 2019 was a month-long trip to northern England culminating in a 10-day narrowboating trip on some of the canals. Maneuvering a 70 foot narrowboat and dealing with locks was very different from my experiences on sailboats. However, it didn’t take long to adjust and we had a lot of fun motoring along the canals (with, naturally, the odd visit to a pub along the way).
Narrowboat
2019 wrapped up with a 5-day trip along a portion of Route 66 from San Antonio, TX to Needles, CA.
Cadillac Ranch, San Antonio, TX
2020 started off innocently enough, but soon descended into chaos. In early March, while on a photo trip to Death Valley with my camera club friends, we were starting to hear some serious news about something called the Corona Virus and Covid 19. Just a couple of weeks later, we were “fleeing” the US for home, facing 14 days of quarantine when we arrived.
Death Valley
After several months of lock down, it was nice to be able to get out photographing a local botanical park.
With continued concerns over Covid, we did not return to the US for the 2020-2021 winter. This created a reminder of why we like going south for the winter, although we did luck out with it being one of the milder winters in several years. One fun activity I experienced that winter was photographing soap bubbles as they froze. This is definitely one activity I can’t do in the desert of Southern California.
Soap Bubble
In the Fall of 2021 we could finally return to Southern California and as soon as I could, after our return, I made a trip up to Joshua Tree NP. It was still as beautiful as ever!
Joshua Tree Sunrise
2022 started off with a return trip to Death Valley. This was a bit different from my last trip, just before Covid. For one thing, a lot of Covid protection measures were in place. Secondly, this trip was a photography workshop that not only changed how I saw Death Valley but also had an impact on how I approached photography. It really got me going down the road of photographing small scenes and abstracts. One of my favourite images was taken at a location pretty much obliterated by Hurricane Hillary a little over a year later.
Sunrise at Salt Creek
This was followed by further photo trips including Moab, UT and another workshop in Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island, BC.
Rose
2023 kicked off with a return (my third) visit to the Big Sur coast. In the Spring I attended a 3-day photography conference in Pincher Creek, AB which allowed me to explore a part of the province I’ve never really spent time in. Along with Pincher Creek, I spent a bit of time in Waterton Lakes National Park. I continued my exploration with a 3-day tour, with a photographer friend, of small towns in central Alberta, photographing old buildings.
San Simeon Pier
Of course, the biggest highlight of the year was a month-long trip to Scotland to celebrate my wife’s and my 50th wedding anniversary. It was truly spectacular, staying for a week in each of four different locations. Scotland is truly a photographer’s paradise!
Waterfall in Scotland
As I write this post, the rain is gently falling in the Coachella Valley, bringing a promise of Spring flowers. I will wrap this post up with an image I took in Joshua Tree earlier this month, on a blustery morning.
Stormy Joshua Tree
I hope you have enjoyed this brief reflection on the past 11 years and a repost of a few photos that bring back some of those memories. As always, I welcome any comments.
And please, if you enjoy my photography, check out my gallery site at neilmillerphotography.com – just click the “Photo Gallery” tab at the top of this page.
If you are visiting the Coachella Valley in Southern California this winter, and looking for something to do, consider a visit to Cabot’s Pueblo Museum in Desert Hotsprings. It provides a very interesting glimpse into the history of the area starting in the early 1900’s.
In 1913, a young (age 30) Cabot Yerxa homesteaded in what is now Desert Hotsprings. Eventually getting tired of travelling 7 miles each way to obtain water, he dug a well on his property and hit a hot water aquifer. Digging a second well a short distance away, he hit cold water. He now had hot and cold water for his home.
Upon a suggestion from Yerxa, a friend of his, who was a bit of an entrepreneur, capitalized on the hot springs by establishing the first spa in the area.
In 1941, Cabot built the pueblo pictured above, as both a home and a museum. Over subsequent years he added onto the pueblo as new needs arose.
Cabot Yerxa’s story is a fascinating one. The museum offers both guided and self-guided tours of the pueblo which tell this story. (Click any image to open a larger version.)
I managed to use a barrel cactus on the grounds to create an abstract using ICM (intentional camera movement).
Could this be a map of Alberta built into the wall?
If you enjoy my photography, please visit my gallery website at neilmillerphotography.com – just click on the Photo Gallery tab at the top of this page. While there, be sure to sign up for my newsletter to be notified when my website is updated.
Back in November, I visited Yosemite National Park with a group of photographer friends. I think we were past the peak of the Fall colors, but they were still pretty good. Even better, the forecasted risk of snow when we were there never materialized.
I start off this post with some of the better known peaks in Yosemite. (Click any image to see a larger version).
El CapitanHalf DomeEl CapitanThree BrothersHalf Dome
Much of the time, conditions weren’t ideal for taking the “iconic shot” of many of the better known landscapes in the Park. However, that just gave us more time to concentrate on the Fall colors. The following gallery shows those colors on full display. (Click any image to see a larger version).
Fog can create perfect conditions for some incredible photographs. We were lucky to wake up one morning to fog in the valley. While the fog kind of rolled in and out throughout the morning, we enjoyed a wonderful time capturing scenes taking full advantage of whatever fog was there at the moment.
Fog can often enhance monochrome (Black & White) images by adding atmosphere. The thing I really like about monochrome photographs is that they really make us concentrate on tonalities, texture and atmosphere without being distracted by color.
Throughout the time we were in Yosemite, I had fun creating some abstract images. I know these aren’t necessarily everyone’s cup of tea, but I like them.
Yosemite has some huge waterfalls. As dramatic as they are, I prefer finding the smaller waterfalls that I often think are far more picturesque. I will conclude this post with a few of those waterfall images.
Anytime is a good time to visit Yosemite. But Fall colors definitely add to the experience!
If you enjoy my photography, please visit my gallery website at neilmillerphotography.com – just click on the Photo Gallery tab at the top of this page. While there, be sure to sign up for my newsletter to be notified when my website is updated.
Our final week in Scotland started with a drive over the bridge from the Isle of Skye to the mainland and on to Fort Augustus, at the end of Loch Ness. Along the way we stopped briefly at Eilean Donan Castle. This well known landmark on an island dates back to the 13th Century, although it has been rebuilt many times over the years.
Eilean Donan Castle
Fort Augustus is located at the southwest end of Loch Ness where the Caledonian Canal enters the famous loch. The canal connects Inverness on the east coast of Scotland with the west coast through Corpach near Fort William.
Clicking on any image will open a larger version.
Lock on Caledonian CanalCaledonian CanalFort Augustus and Caledonian Canal looking towards Loch Ness
Our apartment in Fort Augustus was located in an old abbey. The beautiful old building is a prominent landmark in the town.
Near Fort Augustus is the town of Invermoriston. At the edge of the town is an old bridge over a river just downstream from a waterfall.
Over the week staying in Fort Augustus I photographed various views of the Scottish Highlands around Loch Ness.
Fort AugustusPlodda Falls
My final image is representative of our experiences in the Highlands over the month we spent in Scotland. Mountains, lochs, trees, green grass, sheep, and bracken. Shades of green, gold and blue, under often cloudy skies dominated our days in in this beautiful country. We absolutely loved our time in Scotland and look forward to returning one day.
If you enjoy my photography, please visit my gallery website at neilmillerphotography.com – just click on the Photo Gallery tab at the top of this page. As I will soon be updating my galleries with my favourite images from Scotland, be sure to sign up for my newsletter to be notified when my website is updated.
All too soon our week on Lewis & Harris was over. We caught the ferry in Tarbert for our voyage to the Isle of Skye, arriving in Uig. It was dark when we checked into our lovely little cottage near Portree.
After the relative quiet of the Isle of Lewis & Harris, we found Skye quite busy with tourists. The Isle of Skye is connected to the mainland by a bridge which makes it quite easy and convenient to visit. As a result, many of the iconic locations were teaming with tourists. Nevertheless, the scenery was beautiful and we still found lots of relatively quiet locations.
Over the years, the wine club I belong to has occasionally offered Scotch, supplied by Praban Na Linne on the Isle of Skye. So naturally, one of our first trips on Sky was to visit their shop. It was quite a scenic location. In addition to fine Gaelic whiskeys, they offer fine gins. After a tasting, we came away with several purchases.
After lunch in a nearby village, we visited Armadale Castle. Once the seat of Clan Donald on the Isle of Skye, the ruins of the castle are surrounded by beautiful gardens. (Click on any image in the galleries below to open full-sized versions.)
Another castle we visited during our week on Skye was Dunvegan Castle. This ancestral home of the Chiefs of Clan MacLeod has been continuously inhabited for 800 years. The current chief does live at the castle part-time but is based in London. The castle and the expansive gardens that surround it are well worth a visit.
On two mornings during the week, I got up before dawn to photograph a loch with a wee island in it. While I did get a decent image the first morning, the second morning provided a much better result. The towering pinnacle of The Old Man of Storr in the distance is reflected in the water below the island.
Following my early morning shoot, I drove the short distance to the parking lot for the hike up to The Old Man of Storr. The climb was quite strenuous so by the time I got to one of the main view points I didn’t have the energy to continue to further vantage points.
Old Man of Storr
Skye has lots of beautiful waterfalls, and I managed to photograph a few of them.
I’ll finish up this post with various other views around the Isle of Skye.
Sligachan BridgeUig Harbor
Stay tuned for the final week of our Scotland adventure.
If you enjoy my photography, please visit my gallery website at neilmillerphotography.com – just click on the Photo Gallery tab at the top of this page. As I will soon be updating my galleries with my favourite images from Scotland, be sure to sign up for my newsletter to be notified when my website is updated.
Wind At Your Back 