Disquieting news about Skyline?

[cynthia23]

By pure happenstance I learned today that the Agua Caliente is closing escrow on ninety acres of land which from what I can tell via comparing it to Google Earth, is directly on Skyline. Here's the image from the online real estate ad (which is how I found it originally)

http://www.trulia.com/property/photos/3 ... 2263Notice Notice the Tahquitz Canyon water towers, it will help you orient to the Ramon trailhead ...ignore the bottom picture of a Palm Springs street, that's just some google grab they randomly attached ...

So, if this is in addition to the chunk of Skyline that they hope to get in the BLM "swap", this could mean they control the majority of Skyline....the question is, why do they want to?

[Hikin_Jim]

[skunkboy]

Cynthia, I think if you look closely, those two parcels are smack dab in Tahquitz Canyon. The golf course on the south side of the picture is Canyon Country Club, and the snake like line on the top of the picture is the Tahquitz flood control channel. If you look closely, you can see Ramon Rd, and if you follow it to the end, there's the trailhead. I think the Aqua Calientes are just firming up their real estate, and at $12 a head to hike in Tahquitz now, I'd say they're making a killing. Back in the 60's, we used to ditch jr. high, and go up there and watch the naked hippies jump off the rocks. It's changed a lot since then.

Sincerely

Skunk

[cynthia23]

Let's hope you're right, but I don't think so, Skunkboy. I greatly magnified the pix and then linked up to Google Earth with the original pix side by side for comparison, and followed the trail (it's not easy, but one can follow it fairly closely. Also, people have posted pix of various sites of the trail, and that helps. ) The two areas do seem to intersect. it looks to me that the area is about 3800 to 4000 up, and that it's the part of the trail that goes all the way to the southernmost part of the ridge, directly above Tahquitz. Also: 1. the tribe already has all of the canyon itself, 2. the body of the ad described the land as 'mountainous terrain 5 miles W of Palm springs' which would not describe areas in lower Tahquitz Canyon, and 3. from how I read the pix itself, wherever on the mountain the land is, it definitely appears (at least to me) to be on the face of the mountain ... not down in the canyon. You can see the sharp descent of the ridge with the increase in greenery. Also, note the two tiny white dots--those are the Tahquitz Canyon water storage tanks. They will help in reading the picture.

Still, I'm no expert, so I'm hoping others will weigh in here with their views. We need some (military?) people who can read aerial photos better than I can. It could be that the parcel is only on the upper slopes of Tahquitz and doesn't contain any sections of the trail. Unfortunately, the original pix is small. So, people? Where is this parcel?

[recordalley]

I have been reading about concerns on the skyline for a few months now...here's my take. the skyline only attracts a fraction of the people that tahquitz or the indian canyons does. at tops, whats the record for hikers on the best day...a hundred maybe? Most of the year, no one goes up. It wouldn't seem cost effective for them to put up a toll booth (if thats where you're going with this) & man the booth. Do they own the land at the bottom? where would they take your money? I don't know what their motive is, but I don't think it has to do with the trail.

Back in the 60's, we used to ditch jr. high, and go up there and watch the naked hippies jump off the rocks

hey...who you calling a hippy?

[neverwashasbeen]

I'm fairly certain the tribe doesn't own the entire canyon, unless Tahquitz Bob sold his parcel. I believe that there were a few other private landowners as well.

[Florian]

I think the parcel is well south of the trail. Here is a crude outline where i place the parcel ..



-Florian

[Florian]

Notice the Tahquitz Canyon water towers, it will help you orient to the Ramon trailhead

You can see from the topo that the southern most part of the Skyline is parallel with the water tanks putting the parcels well south of the trail.

-Florian

[recordalley]

I'm fairly certain the tribe doesn't own the entire canyon, unless Tahquitz Bob sold his parcel. I believe that there were a few other private landowners as well.

The indians in our area got every other square mile of land & it looks like it goes up the mountain too after looking at the map. maybe up to the state wilderness boundary.

[KathyW]

Those two tax parcels are in unincorporated Riverside County. They are located in the South 1/2 of Section 21, Township 4S, Range 4E. The APN's are: 513-240-005 and 513-240-006. They are owned by Michael Artero of Santa Clarita. This is all public record. Maybe Michael Artero just took the best offer he received when he listed it for sale, and that offer came from the Agua Caliente Indians? It's not public land.

Edit: Florian's map shows where they are more or less.