Desert trail heads to Salton Sea’s only caves

Waves tunneled out caves in a butte when the Salton Sea formed.

Day hikers can explore the only caves in the Salton Sea area at Bat Caves Buttes.

The 3-mile lollipop trail runs through the Salton Sea State Recreation Area. January is an excellent time to hike to the caves as daytime highs along the Salton Sea usually only hit the high 60s.

To reach the trailhead, from the Coachella Valley take Calif. Hwy. 111 south. After passing the Salt Creek Beach Campground, watch for Crooker Drive on the right/west. A cell tower stands next to the road. Park off of Crooker Road.

The trail’s stem starts in a ghost town named Durmid, which sits at 197 feet below sea level. Nothing other than dirt roads remain there today, but during the 1950s through the early 1960s, this was a hoppin’ place. Developers marketed the Salton Sea as a resort destination, and vacation homes, hotels, yacht clubs and golf courses were built along its shores. A cafe used to sit where the cell tower now stands, and older guidebooks describing the trail often will tell you to park at the "abandoned cafe."

To begin the hike, walk across Hwy. 111 and the railroad tracks. Straight ahead, you’ll see buttes rising from the desert floor. Those are the Bat Caves Buttes. There’s no marked trail; just head straight ahead across the sandy wash. Sometimes off-road vehicle tracks can be followed to the butte.

Buttes
At one time, the entire area was a plateau as high as those buttes. Water erosion has washed away the landscape, but a hard caprock atop the Bat Caves Buttes have prevented them from entirely disappearing. Much of the erosion has occurred because the buttes sit just south of the San Andreas Fault, where uplift encourages the water to run southwest into what is now the sink forming the Salton Sea.

Seashells can be found along the ascending trail. This part of the world was at the bottom of an ancient sea about 3.1 million to 3.2 million years ago. At that time, the Gulf of California extended into the Coachella Valley with the warm shallow waters running about 30 to 98 feet deep. Fossils for at least four kinds of sharks and rays as well as three kinds of fish from that era have been found farther north in the valley.

Though fairly barren today, after a good rainfall the wash can brighten with greenery. Lilies often pop up in February amid the green-leaved desert scrub.

At 0.75 miles, you’ll reach the buttes’ base at exactly sea level. Go left/northwest around the buttes. You’ll spot footpaths cutting through and atop the rock formation. Follow the trails to the various caves in the butte.

Caves
The caves didn’t exist until a man-made accident created the Salton Sea in 1905. That year, heavy snowmelt and rainfall caused the Colorado River to swell. The five-year-old Alamo Canal, which was heavy with silt, couldn’t handle the overflow and broke. For two years, water poured from the Colorado down the canal, two riverbeds, and two dry arroyos into the Salton Sink.

In what is often labeled as California’s greatest environmental disaster, more than 350 square miles of land was submerged under several feet of water.

The Bat Caves were created during the initial flooding with waves tunneling into the butte. As the water level dropped – the Salton Sea is evaporating and one day will disappear - the caves were exposed. Because of the limited time the waves had to drill into the buttes, most of the caves are shallow with the deepest one only about 90 feet long.

The caves do have bats, which are harmless to people. Avoid disturbing the bats, however, by going no further than the cave entrances.

Vista
At the buttes’ top is a park bench overlooking the Salton Sea and the Peninsular Ranges beyond. During January, the mountains usually are snow-capped.

Upon looping the buttes, go left/southwest on the stem back to your vehicle.

At times, irresponsible people leave their trash and write graffiti on the rocks. To ensure a positive experience for other hikers, always carry out what you carry in, and don’t vandalize the formation.

The trail is entirely open to the sun, so be sure to don sunscreen, sunglasses and sunhat. Also bring plenty of water, a minimum of three quarts per person. Leashed dogs are allowed on the trail.

Bat Caves Buttes topo map. Click for larger version.

Learn more about national park day hiking trails in my Best Sights to See at America’s National Parks series.

Trail runs through oasis below sea level

Springs created when action on the San Andreas Fault brought water to the
surface created oases of hundreds of fan palms.

Aerial photo of San Andreas Trail

Day hikers can enjoy a massive desert oasis that hosts some of California's rarest flora and fauna at the Dos Palmas Preserve.

The 0.9-mile San Andreas Trail weaves through an oasis and wetlands that sit atop expansive alkali flats. Much of this lollipop trail is below sea level; in fact, the entire preserve at the base of the Orocopia Mountains is an average -112 feet elevation.

To reach the trailhead, from the Coachella Valley take Calif. Hwy. 111 south of Mecca to along the Salton Sea. Once past North Shore, turn left/northeast onto Parkside Drive. Go right/southeast onto the dirt Power Line Road. Then turn left/east onto the dirt Dos Palmas Road (some maps show this as Sea Breeze Drive). In about 1.5 miles, you'll reach a metal gate. The parking lot is on the right. At the lot, look for the "San Andreas Trail" sign and follow the sand path, bordered with rocks, toward the oasis.

The stem of the trail heads across the flat dotted with scrub and mesquite bush common to the Colorado Desert. It nicely gives the feeling of desolation as the hope of a hazy green oasis grows on the horizon.

The gradually gradually descends. Several times during and since the last ice age, the preserve sat beneath a freshwater lake, most recently about 600-1100 years ago when Native Americans fished the shores of what geologists call Ancient Lake Cahuilla.

At 0.3 miles, the trail crosses a service road and reaches the wetlands portion of the oasis. It is one of at least three oases in the preserve with the larger ones to the east.

Artesian springs and seepage from the nearby Coachella Canal feed the oases. A shift in the San Andreas Fault during the 1800s allowed underground water to reach the surface as springs; during the mid 1800s, only two fan palms grew at the oasis; by 1900, there were 40 palms at the site, and by 1940 several hundred were counted in three distinct locations.

Endangered species
Three rare and endangered species make the oases home.

The Yuma clapper rail will be the easiest to spot. Building its nest in the oases’ cattails, the large footed brown clapper eats crayfish, clams, isopods, fish and various insects. It can be found in isolated spots across the Southwest – the Gila River in Arizona, the Virgin and Muddy rivers from Utah to Las Vegas, and here. It is disappearing in large part because its wetland habitats have been eliminated.

Kneel next to the oases’ warm pools and see if you can spot the desert pupfish, which was far more common in the Pleistocene era when ice covered much of North America and lakes much of the California desert. Less than three inches in length, during the breeding season males turn bright blue with a lemon yellow tail. They exist in remnants of former Salton Sea and Colorado River habitats that are disappearing due to evaporation and by man’s heavy use of the Colorado. Unlike other Ice Age creatures that have gone extinct, the pup fish has hung on thanks to its ability to tolerate extreme environments.

If the air smells a bit like lavender, you’re probably near the rare and endangered orocopia sage plant. A low, rounded shrub that tops out at about three feet high, it usually can be seen in floodplains and along washes. It’s found only in California and then only in the area between the Salton Sea and the Little San Bernardino Mountains.

A common sight at the oases but rarely seen across the rest of the Coachella Valley are damsel and dragonflies, which flit over the ponds and wetlands. The Blue Dasher, Western Pondhawk, and Marl Pennant are the most common.

Much rarer but still worth keeping an eye out for is the Rambur's Forktail, whose colors seem to glow in the desert sun. Also watch for the Red-tailed Pennant; the males with their aptly named tail are quite striking.

Jungle-like environment
The trail soon winds through hundreds of fan palms swaying in the desert. Thick dead leaves surround their trunks, helping protect the tree from the desert heat.

Once the trail reaches the service road, turn left. In 0.1 mile, the road intersects the stem trail you walked in on; turn right onto it and retrace your steps back to the parking lot. As doing so, keep an eye to the sky for various birds. Both osprey and the snowy egret use the oases while the northern harrier and prairie falcon hunt in the surrounding desert.

Because of the desert heat, the trail is best done October through May and then only in the mornings during late spring. Always bring and drink plenty of water, even in the oases. As part of the hike is unshaded, wear sunscreen, sunglasses and a hat.

The preserve is administered by the Bureau of Land Management and sits within the Salt Creek Area of Critical Environmental Concern.

Learn more about national park day hiking trails in my Best Sights to See at America’s National Parks series.