Located southeast of Los Angeles, the Coachella Valley is a hiking paradise. Trails abound in the surrounding three mountain ranges – the Little San Bernardinos on the northeast, the San Jacintos on the northwest, and the Santa Rosas on the southwest – and around the Salton Sea at its southeastern end. Almost all of the mountains and their foothills and a good part of the sea and valley floor are protected.
But where to hike in this vast area? Here are maps for 10 great trails in or near the Coachella Valley (right click and hit "Open link in new tab" for a large version of the map).
Canyon View Trail
Desert Hot Springs
Day hikers can walk alongside the only river that runs the Coachella Valley’s entire length.The 3.75-miles looping Canyon View Trail sits in the 2851-acre Whitewater Preserve, managed by the Wildlands Conservancy. A section of the route is part of the Pacific Crest Trail and sports a 650-foot elevation gain. The main river that flows through the Coachella Valley, the Whitewater runs 54 miles. Its North Fork starts at more than 10,000 feet high on San Gorgonio Mountain, with the meltwater flowing out of the San Bernardino Mountains making for a cold stream and a lush canyon.
Murray Canyon Trail
Palm Springs
Day hikers can head to a waterfall in the San Jacinto Mountains just outside of Palm Springs on the Murray Canyon Trail. The secluded walk to Seven Sister Falls is a 4.1-mile out-and-back. One of four canyons in the Agua Caliente Indian Canyons, this trail goes deeper and higher into the San Jacintos than the neighboring Andreas Canyon Trail. A great winter hike, it sports a 450-foot elevation gain. This verdant canyon boasts California fan palms, cottonwoods and desert willows, and this shaded canopy and the stream helps cool the desert temperatures. Grasses and flowers – California fuchsia, desert sunflowers, and desert lavender – fill the understory and open spots. Fascinating rock outcroppings rise along the stream and the canyon’s sides. With the sound of running water and chirping songbirds, you’ll think you’re on a tropical island rather than in a desert.
Garstin Trail
Palm Springs
Day hikers can explore one end of Palm Canyon Creek and enjoy great views of Palm Springs on the Garstin Trail. The 3.7-mile lollipop trail mostly sits in the Santa Rosa-San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. It overlooks Palm Canyon Creek the entire way. Historically, the creek served as the center of Cahuilla culture for more than 2000 years. Its water supported farming and brought to the area animals that could be hunted. The creek was about more than food and drinking water, however; it also played a role in their spiritual beliefs.
Cathedral City Foothills Trail
Cathedral City
Day hikers can traipse across the metaphorical coals that make the Coachella Valley such a pleasant place to be via the Cathedral City Foothills Trail. While many trails crisscross the foothills surrounding the valley floor, a moderately challenging hike that’s easy to reach is this 1.5-mile round trip path that leaves from the cove at the end of Cathedral Canyon. There’s no official name for well-worn path, so it has been christened the Foothills Trail here for convenience sake. The ridgeline offers increasingly great views of the Coachella Valley below and the Little San Bernardino Mountains beyond. You also get a good sense of the crumpled landscape that makes up the foothills, which can appear monolithic from the valley floor. If hiking in the morning, you might even feel heat rising off the surface.
Homestead Trail/ Hopalong Cassidy Trail
Palm Desert
Day hikers can head to the Palm Desert Cross on an easy hike into the foothills. Though short at 2.6 miles round trip, it’s uphill much of the way to the cross with an elevation gain of 643 feet. The hike starts on the Homestead Trail then includes a segment of the Hopalong Cassidy Trail. A Palm Desert icon, the cross at night can be seen from miles away thanks to its 39 6-watt LED bulbs powered by photocells. St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Palm Desert and the Stone Eagle Golf Course – which sits to the west on the ridge’s other side – maintain the cross.
Pushawalla Palms Loop
Palm Desert
Day hikers can head to a desert oasis, with a good chance of spotting the endangered fringe-toed lizard, on the Pushawalla Palms Loop. The trail runs 3.25-miles round trip through the Coachella Valley Preserve, which protects 17,000 acres in the Indio Hills. Several palms groves can be found in the preserve, including the well-known Thousand Palms Oasis. Beige in color, fringe-toed lizards blend in almost perfectly with the sand and may not be seen unless one moves or you’re almost on top of it. They are so named because elongated scales on the sides of their hind toes allow them to maintain traction on the loose sand and to run at a fast clip rather than sink.
Eisenhower Mountain Trail
Palm Desert/Indian Wells
Day hikers can head to the base of one of Indian Wells’ iconic peaks on the Eisenhower Mountain Trail. The 4.3-miles round trip actually is a collection of three trails – a stem and two stacked loops – that sits in both the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens’ 360-acre nature preserve and the San Jacinto-Santa Rosa Mountains National Monument. Storm damage temporarily closed the trail in winter 2018-19, but it since has reopened. While a mountain by Minnesota or Maine standards, in California it’s really just a steep foothill. Still, it’s a prominent peak in the foothills above Indian Wells, dominating the southern skyline beyond the Eldorado Country Club.
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East Indio Hills Trail
Indio
Hikers can explore the Indio Hills on a trail heading through two badlands and a desert plain. The 4.4 miles round-trip lollipop trail sits north of Indio and east of the Coachella Valley Preserve-Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve. Informally known as the East Indio Hills Trail, it sports a 3 degrees average grade, with a high point of 529 feet. The Indio Hills formed during the past 6 million years in much the same way as the nearby Mecca Hills. As the North American and Pacific tectonic plates slide against one another along the nearby San Andreas Fault, they cause land on either side of the meeting line to rise. Rain falling across the largely barren hills, as well as wind, then rushes through the soft rock.
Salton Sea Geothermal Field
Salton Sea’s southern shore
Ancient volcano flows and still active geothermal area sit at the south end of the Salton Sea, the largest lake in California, in a trio of short day hikes. First stop on the hike is Obsidian Butte, a 16,000-year-old volcanic dome that largely consists of pumice and black obsidian. Shards of the black glass still can be found a couple of hundred yards away from the dome, which sits at the sea's edge. Next is Red Island, where two domes consists of pumice boulders and rhyolite with a smattering of obsidian. Some of the obsidian rocks are about the size of two fists. East of the Salton volcanic buttes sits a series of mudpots on a clay field. Water bubbles up from multiple sinkholes and gurgles out of fumaroles.
Mount San Gorgonio Trail
San Bernardino National Forest
Hikers can ascend to the highest peak in Southern California from a trailhead that’s just a short jaunt from the Coachella Valley. Standing 11,503 feet high, San Gorgonio Mountain towers over all peaks in the Transverse Ranges and can be seen from a number of vantage points in the Coachella Valley. It’s a full 67 stories higher than San Jacinto Peak. A sign marks San Gorgonio summit. The 360 degrees view are incredible to say the least. You’re also just high enough that you can make out the earth’s curvature.
