Coachella Valley Preserve

Thousand Palms, California.
A protected natural refuge in the burgeoning urban desert
features Washingtonia filifera, otherwise known as the
California fan palm.

Along the edges of the San Andreas Fault, impermeable
soil acts as a water trap and sustains these rare oases.

The six-mile Pushwalla trail ends at a large, thriving grove
of America's only native palm. It follows a steep climb along
the uplift of the Mission Creek fault, a fragment of the San
Andreas Fault System that cuts a diagonal line from Southern California toward San Francisco and beyond.

Click on the photograph to follow in sequence a late-afternoon hike.