Ladder Canyon

On our long and ever growing list of places we want to go and trails we want to explore has been a place called Ladder Canyon.  We read about it several years ago and finally made it out there a few weeks ago.  It's a couple of hours from where we live and just south of the small desert town of Mecca or close to an hour southeast of Palm Springs in Southern California.

It's in an area called Painted Hills.  The soil colors are varied and pretty.

We followed the directions in our hiking book, out some dirt roads to a parking area.  We were surprised at how many cars were there.  This trail was a lot more popular than we had expected!  It was a chilly day but beautiful and sunny.  The start of the trail was up a wash...

After a short hike, we watched for the side canyon described in our hiking book and hiked up to the start of Ladder Canyon.  It was awesome right from the start!  This is a spot right at the top of the first little climb.  The canyon is narrow, winding, and a bit dark...

Look....a ray of sun!...

Looking up!

The trail is named Ladder Canyon because of the ladders people have brought up to climb the steep sections of the canyon.  Here's the first one...

The trail winds around through a slot canyon that's been carved from water.  Here's a spot where we climbed up above an earlier section and could look back down inside.  That's my hubby in there...

Water carved this great place and continues to do so.  Therefore, ladders sometimes get washed away and sometimes they just need to be replaced from old age.  Here's an old one...

Here's the brand new one that replaced it...

Some places are steep but don't need a ladder...

 This is my daughter climbing the last ladder out of Ladder Canyon...

A short hike took us to the top and spectacular views!

There was a series of rock piles at the top.  Each one was bigger than the last.  It was art-like and pretty cool.  We all added a rock to each pile.  It seemed like the thing to do.  

The views were amazing!  That bit of water in the center of the photo is a peek at Salton Sea...one of the world's largest inland seas.

We were surrounded by badlands.

From the top, we could look down into the canyons we had just hiked in...

Onward and upward!  We followed arrows made of rocks to go up the final hill and back down into the main wash to hike back to our car.  There were several of these arrows to point the way...

Up, up, up!

As we hiked along, we were amazed at how so much of the plant life is dead and shriveled up.  I've lived in Southern California and explored it's deserts all my life and have never seen them so dry and crispy.  Evidence of how severe our drought really is.  We first noticed how bad it is last September when we came back from our trip to Arizona and Utah.  Their deserts there were lush, green, and colorful.  But, as we entered the eastern part of California and the Mojave desert it was almost all brown and black.  The cactus, small plants, bushes and trees that are normally green (at least a little) were brown and black.  It was sad to see.  But, I know that it can all come back if we get enough rain.

Here are some examples of what's happened to the plant life that would normally be green...

Thousands and thousands of cactus were not only dead, they were dried up with only skeletons remaining.

Most of the cactus that wasn't dead was shriveling up and falling apart.

Cholla cactus usually have brown bottoms but the tops are usually green with fresh white needles.  Most of the ones we saw that day were dried up and crumbling.

As we hiked back down into the main canyon there were some plants that were green because those areas get more water from run off and the river that occasionally flows through from flash floods.

Look!  My daughter found a heart shaped rock!

There were just a couple of ladders on the way down.  Here's the last one...

On our way through the main canyon, we came upon a section with white rock...

Then, we turned a corner and there was so much of it that it looked like snow!

 The moon!

 Slot canyons are fun to explore but here's a reminder that it can be a very dangerous place to be!  I sure wouldn't want to be anywhere close by when big rocks like this fall!

Beautiful and peaceful.

The afternoon sun and bits of green and Fall-like colors in the main canyon were pretty!

The brilliant gold of this tiny tree on the side of the cliff and the sun shining through it created a breathtaking splash of color.

We had a lot of fun exploring Ladder Canyon.  And, no matter how much we explore the desert, we're constantly amazed at how much there is to see and do in these seemingly empty places.

We were also surprised on this trip to see so much agriculture in the desert! 

We saw peppers, citrus groves, and grape vineyards

And, of course, the famous date groves.  Here's one on the side of a highway.  These trees were much shorter than most of the groves.  It made me wonder how many varieties of dates there are.  So, I looked it up.  I couldn't find a definite answer but it looks like there are at least a couple dozen kinds.

The sunset on the way home was pretty!  I tried to capture it in a photo but it was quite challenging in a moving car, with hills, trees, and trucks getting in the way.  But, here's a blurry one to give you an idea of what we saw...

We capped our day off with a dinner from the famous In-N-Out and a refreshing beer!

Such a fun day!