Palm Springs trails in Tahquitz Canyon take hikers into history

Bring water. Stop to sniff the creosote bushes. Keep an eye out for oases.

This is good advice on many desert trails, and it’s doubly true on the outskirts of Palm Springs, where the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians owns several publicly accessible canyons. In Palm Canyon, you find the world’s largest California fan palm oasis. In Andreas Canyon, there’s a year-round creek. In Tahquitz Canyon, if the weather has been wet enough, you’ll reach a 60-foot waterfall and a pool where Jim Morrison once waded.

But the biggest surprise for a newcomer might be the backstory: On this territory, the tiny Agua Caliente tribe has come back from near death and built a business empire worth billions. Now the tribe, whose members are the most powerful property owners in Palm Springs, is getting ready to share its culture, including some painful history, with more visitors.

You can hear parts of that story on a hike with a ranger, as I did recently in Tahquitz Canyon, or hike on your own in Tahquitz, Palm, Andreas or Murray canyons (details below).

Before 2023 is done, you may also be able to soak up more history at the tribe’s long-awaited cultural plaza, which will include a museum next to a spa built around the waters that gave Palm Springs its name.

Either way, the canyons are a good start.

“Some of my best memories