Sand to Snow National Monument

By Balan Selvamuthukumaran ’27

Though I repeatedly said, after my spring break trip, that I was done with the desert for the foreseeable future, necessity led me right back to desert lands soon enough. Not necessity in any real sense, simply the necessity of being outside and having limited options within a two-hour driving range. Unfortunately, all of the forests and not-yet explored mountains were a while away, leaving me with nothing to do but find some stretch of desert I had not seen yet and head out. Though I was originally planning to go to Anza Borrego Desert State Park, upon realizing this desert was nearly three hours away, my friends and I decided to make a shorter day trip, perhaps somewhere closer to Joshua Tree.

With that in mind, we decided to drive to the Morongo Valley area, an interesting area near the well-known Morongo Casino. This was the location of the Sand to Snow Monument, an area that when explored, yielded sandy patches, a long-flowing creek, and snow-capped mountains in the distance (as well as random clumps of trees). It took us little time to get there, so we were already walking by 10 AM or so. We did not have any set plan for where we would be hiking besides a general estimate of a trail, so we ended up walking off for quite a while until we came across the creek. Here, we figured, was a great place to stop and eat lunch (hastily purchased breakfast sandwiches from Wendy’s). The creek was cool, perfect for a hot day in the desert, and the running water was fun to splash around in as we sat around and chatted.

Eventually, we got back up and started walking out further, aiming for a canyon off in the distance. This canyon was not particularly interesting but the view of snow-capped mountains was enticing, so we forged on. Eventually, we found a place where the creek seemed even deeper, and now, tired from all the heat, we decided to fully submerge in the creek for a refreshing dip. This might have been the most bucolic desert experience I have ever had (I mean, most of them don’t come with creeks and ice-cold water)—we just sat in and by the water for a while, until collectively deciding to walk the seven miles back to the car. To close things out, we got date shakes (SoCal’s finest!) and drove back home.