Last year I hiked and cached on the Pacific Crest Trail at the start of Section C (just north of the 10 freeway near Palm Springs at Whitewater). While I found 32 caches on that 13 mile hike, that was only about half of the ones hidden on the PCT in this area. This year I wanted to start from a different trailhead and try to find the rest.
Luckily it’s only about an hour drive from Riverside (where we spent the night) to the Whitewater Preserve trailhead. I say luckily because no matter how hard I try to get an early start, I fail. We parked where the road crosses the Whitewater River (there is a parking lot and facilities farther up the road) and started hiking on the loop trail. We climbed up to a ridge with good views of the canyon and then joined up with the Pacific Crest Trail right about where I had turned around last year.
We followed the PCT down to the bottom of the canyon and hiked upriver in the broad wash for a couple of miles. At some point the trail crosses the river and climbs up the ridge on the other side. Perhaps next year I’ll give that a try. Turning around and heading downriver we came to the Preserve ranger station and parking area. Apparently this area used to be a trout farm until it was purchased by the Wildlands Conservancy. There are still trout in the pools but general fishing isn’t allowed. We continued on back to our car with a total of 17 caches found.
We stayed at a Comfort Suites motel and ate at La Casita in Cathedral City (I think). Both were satisfactory. We gassed up for the next day’s drive to Phoenix at Costco and while there split a frozen yogurt.
Leave a Reply