Nonetheless, this experience kind of opened our minds up to the possibility of experiencing more waterfalls this far east of the Los Angeles basin.

The hike consists of a two-mile loop with interpretive markings throughout. Most of the points of interest were Native American sites from rock mortars, rock art, natural shelters, and even an old ditch. Even though the loop could be done in less than an hour, it very easily could've consumed the better part of a half-day checking out these various spots. We spent about 90 minutes on the trail.

We did this hike in a clockwise direction because this side of the trail (at least towards the beginning) seemed to get most of the morning shade. But by the time we were on the trail in the late morning, most of the shade was gone. A little more than half the walk followed Tahquitz Creek on its "upper" side starting with a brief climb, then descending towards the creek before climbing moderately some more until reaching the waterfall. The last stretch of the trail involved going up a series of steps to make up the majority of the 350ft elevation gain.

Once we were at Tahquitz Falls, there was what I called the common viewing area, which was basically an open patch of land at the edge of the waterfall's plunge pool. This was where most of the visitors could crowd in, have a picnic, and get an angled view of the falls wedged between a crevice before crashing onto a boulder at its base.

For more frontal views of the falls, we had to rock hop our way onto the middle of the stream where foliage above us didn't obstruct the view. From here, it looked as if the falls split the cliff as deep blue skies contrasted the bright white cliff face. Perhaps the only thing keeping this spot from being the de facto spot to take photos was the mist from the falls itself (that's how well it flowed during our visit!).

This stretch also passed by a USGS gauging station followed by a pair of attractive small cascades as well as an old irrigation ditch. After a brief interlude where the loop trail merged, it split once again as it made its final descent back towards the visitor center. Since we were following this trail clockwise, we were able to get nice views of downtown Palm Springs from this part of the trail.

There is one more thing we do want to mention about this waterfall. Ever since we became aware of Tahquitz Falls, we've seen in the literature other photos where the falls either was trickling or wasn't flowing well. As far as we could tell, this waterfall is fed by snowmelt from the San Jacinto Mountains so its flow will most likely peak during the March through May timeframe. It really depends on the snowpack and how hot the weather becomes to melt the snow. We believe our Tahquitz Falls experience just so happened to be at a time when its flow was probably much higher than normal.

Once in town, Hwy 111 continues through the downtown area as North Palm Canyon Drive. Beyond the southern end of the downtown area, look for Mesquite Ave, then turn right and follow this road uphill past the Tahquitz Canyon Visitor Center and into the car park.