On Wednesday, March 26th, after saying farewell to Rick and Lynn Hannay, the four of us, Bob, Ralph and Dawn White and myself, climbed into the jeep and headed out on another hike to Mecca Hills and the Painted Canyon. We arrived at the end of a dirt road to the trailhead around noon and started up the Painted Canyon. Not long into the hike the trail turned a sharp left into what looked like a huge rock face, fortunately there were people coming out of the canyon so we headed in up the Ladder Canyon, named becauswe there are ladders that you have to ascend and descend through the slot canyon. As we climbed are way up through the canyon it became very narrow with steep rock walls jutting up about 100 feet on either side. Once we arrived at the summit we had a great 360 degree view of the painted mountains surrounding us.
The Mecca Hills are located about 40 miles southeast of Palm Springs. They were formed by the convergence of the North American Plate and the Pacific Plate along the San Andreas Fault. The geologic formations of Mecca Hills are among the most unusual of their kind in the world! Layers of eroded rock, some over 600 million years old, have been pushed up and overturned by the activity of the San Andreas Fault system. Painted Canyon, in the heart of the hills, exhibits many mineral deposits in hues of rose, pink, red, purple and green. The canyon runs in a general north-south direction, and is distinguished by sandy washes sprinkled with Ironwood, Smoke Trees, and Palo Verde.