View from the Pier

It had only been my repeated experience
that when you said to life calmly and firmly…
‘I trust you; do what you must,’
life had an uncanny way of responding to your need.
- Olga Ilyin, 1894-1991

Tahquitz Canyon, California

Standing at Kak wa wit, I looked with awe at the explosion of color that is Tahquitz in the spring—mysterious, dusty mauve mountains sandwiched between a carpet of fiery wildflowers and a cornflower blue sky. I was in the land of the Cahuilla, people of the magic waters, where Kak wa wit means “mouth of the canyon,” so-named more than 3,000 years ago by the great chief Evonganet. While here, I learned that the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, believe that all in nature are connected in a single, harmonious whole. This universe encompasses not only plants, animals and humans co-existing and continually interacting, but also includes Spirits, which the Cahuilla understand to appear in many forms, including colors.

As I hiked into the canyon to Tahquitz Falls, the landscape here felt very much alive despite being in the midst of a desert and all my senses were joyously engaged. Swaddling the base of the red rocks were crimson chuparosa, apricot globe mallow, and golden brittlebush. Less showy but more aromatic were the white sage, Mormon tea and creosote, all long known by the Cahuilla for their medicinal properties. The chasm is home to a wealth of wildlife and, if paying attention, you can see lizards sunning, roadrunners darting, and hummingbirds hovering. As I made my way deeper inside the canyon walls, even the boulders along the trail seemed alive. The hulking stones featured petroglyphs and an ancient metate, a mortar-like vessel worn into the rock by the Cahuilla people centuries ago, which they used to prepare food.

One mile back and 350 feet up from the modern visitor’s center, I heard before I saw the vital force that attracted and sustained the Cahuilla.  The 60-foot Tahquitz Falls is seasonal, fed by snow-melt from the mountains. In February, while far from the peak of its power, its magical song reverberated off the stone cliff face. The ancient path of the running water had carved deep contours into the rock, forming a heart-shaped recessed area that enclosed the sparkling life-blood coursing over the horizon. The stark white desert light cast weird shadows across the jagged crag and below, a crystal-clear pool glittered in the dry air.

Standing here alone at this serene yet dynamic spot, I felt in-tune with the age-old story of Creation that had been handed down over the eons through song and oral tradition among generations of the Cahuilla. In the beginning, twins Mukat and Tamaioit existed in black space —not in harmony but in competition. In attempts to out-do each other, the brothers made the four directions, the earth, the wind, the stars and sun, oceans, animals, and nukatem, spirits of the earliest people.

Tahquitz was originally one of Mukat’s favorite nukatem, and bestowed with special powers that he used to help his fellow Cahuilla. Over time though, Tahquitz began abusing his gifts for selfish purposes and, as a result, was forced out of the community. He went to live in a cave in the San Jacinto Mountains, where he was reputed to snatch men and women and devour their souls. He was believed to appear as an old man on the canyon’s trails, or as the sound of thunder on a clear day, or as a meteorite blazing across the sky. But, in an echo of the duality of Mukat and Tamaioit, even wayward nukatem like Tahquitz were said to occasionally provide healing blessings.

The Canyon has seen good days and bad even in this modern era.

In 1969, after a concert by the band Canned Heat, more than 1,000 revelers headed here from downtown Palm Springs three blocks away. The unruly partiers, reputed to have included the Doors’ frontman Jim Morrison, trashed the canyon, leading the Cahuilla to decide to close to the public the space they consider sacred. In 1998, the tribe decided they could not keep a place of such natural beauty hidden from the world, and undertook a massive clean-up campaign that included power-washing spray paint off its red rocks. The site was re-opened in late 2000 and now offers a portal of understanding into the culture and history of the Cahuilla people.

From near the Falls, I took in the panorama stretching out ahead, with the glass and metal of Palm Springs gleaming far below, amid the lush green expanse of Coachella Valley. The solitude of my vantage point and the soothing sound of the cascading water transported me to another time. The noonday heat glared down on the cityscape in the distance, and it appeared an unreal, shimmering mirage.

It was a view I had thought I would not see. An earlier trip to Palm Springs had been canceled after my mother had been hospitalized, close to death. I had been shaken up enough to be unsure if I were up to traveling across the country on my own, much less trekking through this beautifully eerie ravine to the lair of an evil shaman.

And, in fact, I felt I had experienced a phenomenon attested to by the Cahuilla, that Tahquitz Falls is a place of power, and if you enter tired and weak, when you leave you are rejuvenated and energized. Like this plucky ladybug I observed at the bottom of the Canyon, I had managed to hang on when my world went upside down. The Cahuilla call a departed human Spirit tewlavi, believing it is immortal, watching over the living, and participating in our lives.

I know little of Olga Ilyin, quoted today, other than that she authored “White Road: A Russian Odyssey,” an account of life during and after the Bolshevik revolution, a story of the power of the human spirit.

Perhaps whatever culture we call home, we are all indeed connected, as the Cahuilla have believed since Mukat and Tamaioit existed in timeless black space.

http://www.tahquitzcanyon.com/Ancestors.html

http://www. aguacaliente.org

For more Palm Springs images, see Travel Photos.

For an article on other Palm Springs attractions, such as Salvation Mountain and the Salton Sea, see Travel Articles.

For more Palm Springs images, see Travel Photos.

For an article on other Palm Springs attractions, such as Salvation
Mountain and the Salton Sea, see Travel Articles.