Hiked from the La Quinta Cove to the 74 with Cameron, Marilyn and Sally towards the end of March.
Sally's TR and pictures:
Today I took a looong magical hike on the Guadaloupe Trail with Ellen, Marilyn, and Cameron. We arranged a car shuttle by leaving a car on Hwy 74 Sawmill Trailhead, and parked in La Quinta to start our hike in the Cove. Starting at sunrise we were able to see the desert come to life in a rainbow of colors. It was deliciously cold and windy. The wind felt good except it made it difficult to photograph the many flowers that were waving in a frenzy. In addition to the hike being about 15 1/2 miles long there was quite a bit of elevation gain, maybe a total of more than 5,000'. There was plenty of prickly, pointy, and scratchy vegetation. We took special care to avoid the cholla. Cowboy Camp made a great place to stop for lunch. Beautiful as it all was, we were happy to make it back to the car. Yep, it was a looong day!
Miles of smiles,
Ellen