Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. All are part of Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument, jointly run by the tribe, the U.S. The Agua Caliente tribe manages Palm, Andreas and Murray canyons as one unit known as Indian Canyons, Tahquitz Canyon as another. If you’re hiking the canyons of Palm Springs “Woooowwwww,” said Geyorg Baker, age 9, who was hiking with his father, Brenden Baker and grandfather John Hermansen, all from Lompoc. Then we rounded a corner and there was Tahquitz Falls, 60 feet tall and burbling between boulders into a deep, dark pool.

In summer, Castro said, “I’ve measured temperatures as high as 183 degrees” on the ground.Ĭlimbing gradually, the trail gained about 350 feet. Along the creek, sycamores outnumbered palms, their brown and orange leaves throwing welcome shadows.

(Milanovich would say only that the tribe is self-sufficient, with housing, health and educational programs in place.)Īs we made our way up the canyon, Castro showed us brittlebush, whose sap “was used to alleviate toothaches,” and desert lavender. Riverside County employment figures suggest the tribe has at least eight times as many employees as it does enrolled members. How wealthy is the tribe? Of more than 60 California tribes with casinos, only the Agua Caliente has three. The Rancho Mirage resort, which is the fanciest, has added a 340-room hotel (where weekend rates typically start north of $400), the Sunstone Spa and a performance venue, the Show. Then came a bigger casino in Rancho Mirage in 2001. The Agua Caliente opened its first casino under a tent in Palm Springs.

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