The Coachella Canal

This is the actual reason I'm out here - working on a project to keep deer and bighorn sheep from falling into the Coachella Canal. It took about 8 hours to do what I was trying to get done each day, so the remaining daylight hours were open for exploring. I was by myself, no big bosses to yell at me, a rental truck with unlimited mileage and a big tank of gas that they owed me from the last trip...

The canal is way out in the most remote corner of the Anza Borrego desert in southeastern California. It carries water to Palm Springs and the golf courses and agricultural fields of the Coachella Valley from the Colorado River, a distance of about 70 miles. They had recently modified the section I was working in, making the sides so steep and slippery that animals used to coming down for a drink would get trapped in the fast moving water and not be able to climb back out. The solution was to design a series of artificial pools, fed by the canal, for the animals to drink out of as an alternative. We're monitoring how that goes for about a year.

After two years of drought, it finally rained this winter and the desert has exploded with wildflowers and new growth. It's amazing how many seeds are laying dormant in the sand, waiting years for enough water to fall to activate them and bring them to life for a few short weeks. The rain came in thunderstorms, so instead of the whole desert being green, there are huge stripes of flowers, the shape of the clouds that passed over and dumped rain.

This visit is kind of strange, but pleasant. It's usually 40-45C out here and the dry remains of the plants crumble at the touch. Leaving the air conditioned truck can be torturous, the hot air and heat radiating from the sand actually hurts, its so hot. This time though, the weather was perfect, the sweet perfume of the flowers wafted through air, and happy insects buzzed and crawled , feasting on the brief bounty of food and water.

The canal traces a twisting course along the foothills of the Chocolate and Orocopia mountains, following a precise contour of the land, so as to stay at a constant level, with just enough drop to allow the water to flow in one direction. While it's a manmade scar across the desert, the turns and curves show that it's still at the mercy of the form of the land. At irregular intervals, the canal ducks under the large dry streams and washes that cross it. It's an unusual concept, a creek crossing a bridge above a canal... The flash floods through the washes would otherwise quickly fill the canal with sand during storms. 99% of the time floods aren't an issue here though...

The canal is kind of... nowhere, but I'll tag it "Bombay Beach" which is basically a trailer park out in the middle of the desert, on the shore of the Salton Sea.. but more about that later.