Best Walking Trails & Routes in Desert Hot Springs

This trail is fairly beautiful, but offers little to no shade. I reccomend that if you go, try to get there as soon as you can and don't wear lots of clothes!! When you get to the actual preserve, there is a gate. You can call ahead to the Mission Creek Ranger Station, and get a gate code to open it up so you can drive through. We usually just hike from the gate about 1.6 miles to the Stonehouse/Campground. If you do get the gate opened, you can drive to the Stonehouse, and skip the walking. If you walk past the Stonehouse there is a sign telling you the mileage to certain places from that point. From there, it is 2 miles to the start of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). Be prepared; most of it is really deep sugarsand. You will definitely be sore the next couple days! Again, there is little to no shade, so put on some sunscreen, and bring lots of water. From the start of the PCT, it is 4 miles to Whitewater Preserve. Now, when you get to the sign at the start of the PCT, you can go either right or left. We went left for about 20-30 minutes, about a half mile of mildly strenuous climbing, and came to a beautiful overlook, really great picture spot. After that we just turned around and went back the way we came, stopping to eat lunch at the Stonehouse. All in all, we walked about 8 miles, and got a really good workout in 4 miles of sugarsand. So this is a pretty good trail if Whitewater is closed or you just want to get away from crowds. The creek is really special and holds a certain energy that you know automatically to respect. The path to the PCT crosses right over the creek, and sometimes there are little tadpoles in the water. Again, little or no shade, especially in the summer, I cannot stress this enough, but overall, really great trail.