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Lake Cahuilla Park to La Quinta Cove, California

Trip report by BestHike editor Rick McCharles

A recommended desert day hike near Palm Springs, California, is La Quinta Cove to Lake Cahuilla.

  • 10km return
  • 266m elevation gain
  • hike year round — but be wary of heat emergencies
  • dogs not allowed
  • no bicycles
  • close to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival venue

The trail is often noted for its quiet feel and beautiful scenery.

The trail surface is loose sand and gravel, so wearing good hiking shoes is recommended.

Most do this as an out and back.

As I was staying in La Quinta, I opted to get dropped at Lake Cahuilla Veterans Regional Park ➙ and walk home.

Bleak Lake Cahuilla is interesting. But I actually couldn’t see it from anywhere on the trail. There is an entrance fee to get into this Regional Park.

Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

Quite quickly from the lake start you climb above a couple of golf holes.

One surprise highlight is this wild horse sculpture en route.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Hot and dry. As you might expect. I did go later in the afternoon. Got some shade on the second half of the walk.

I saw one lizard. Some interesting vegetation …

… None of the bighorn sheep that are resident in the area.

Looks to me Lake Cahuilla Park to La Quinta Cove is the most interesting of a number of similar short day hikes in the area.

Arriving La Quinta.
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10 Great Day Hikes in the Canadian Rockies

Zac and Ine have spent a LOT Of time in the Canadian Rockies. They’ve hiked all these trails and more.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

☑️ Wilcox Pass Trail: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/rec…

☑️ Big Beehive Trail: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/canad…

☑️ Bald Hills Loop trail: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/rec…

☑️ Moraine Lake & Larch Valley Trail: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/tra…

☑️ Valley of the Five Lakes Trail: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/rec…

☑️ Crypt Lake Trail: https://www.alltrails.com/explore/rec…

☑️ Sarrail Ridge via Rawson Lake Trail: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/canad…

☑️ Opabin Plateau Lake O’Hara trail: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/canad…

☑️ Cirque Peak via Helen Lake Trail: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/canad…

☑️ Berg Lake Trail: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/canad…

☑️ Kinney Lake Trail: https://www.alltrails.com/trail/canad…

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Climbing Kilimanjaro February 2026

It’s official.

  • Feb 14–22, 2026
  • 9 days, 8 nights Machame Route
  • Zara Tours
  • 5,895 meters (19,341 feet)
  • $3495 USD

Expensive — but I finally signed on to the single best trekking peak in the world.

I’d long been a fan of hiking vlogger Eric Hanson. When he announced a personally guided adventure — I signed on instantly.

Machame Route (Whiskey Route) for me should be relatively easy. BUT many have to turn back due to altitude sickness symptoms.

My plan is to spend some weeks in Ecuador above 3000m and — hopefully — have some acclimatization ➙ then fly directly to Kilimanjaro airport. Altitude sickness is near impossible to predict. (I’ve never had any despite hiking higher than 6000m many times.)

I’ll stay on in East Africa following Kili. My first visit.

This is the 2nd time I’d signed up for Kilimanjaro. The first was in 2020 — cancelled by Covid.

Eric Hanson

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Hiking to Aw-Asen Falls, Philippines

Trip report by BestHike editor Rick McCharles

A month earlier, I’d asked LFC Travel and Tours (Facebook and Instagram only) to add me to a “Joiners Tour” of their day trip to Mt. Pinatubo.

Joining a group on the trip makes it much less expensive than booking privately. And more fun.

I’d sent in passport and a doctor’s letter confirming my health — but LFC still couldn’t put me on Pinatubo.

Who knows why? In my mind, just another example of how so many things don’t work in the Philippines.

LFC offered me an alternative for the next day ➙ Aw-Asen Falls at 142 feet (43 meters).

I signed on, still irked that it wasn’t Pinatubo.

Hikers are picked up in the middle of the night in a Hiace van.

Delivered to the parking lot first thing in the morning. About 5 hours of not sleeping / dozing for me coming from Clark. It’s about 8 hours from Manila!

Switched to the worst possible vehicle for the final 17km to the trailhead ➙ an underpowered Jeepney with not much suspension.

I was shocked to see a couple of hundred hikers out here on a Sunday morning.

I’d say 80% were women. Mostly young women.

It’s not a long hike. BUT there are 919 stone steps up and 919 down. 😀

First you cross 2 suspension bridges.

YES, Filipinos love a photo op.

We marched through some paddies.

Reaching the Falls, people relaxed for a couple of hours. We’d all arrived early in the day.

Drones are allowed. So there is plenty of footage on YouTube. And even more on TikTok.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

The highlight for me was floating on a bamboo raft in the mist.

I’m pretty sure this guy could rope tow me from Peru to the Polynesian Islands. IF he had a long enough, light enough, rope.

Click PLAY to watch me on a raft, rescuing a hat, or watch it on YouTube.

Here’s our group. I only saw one other foreigner at the Falls. This hike seems to be quite unknown outside the nation. It’s not even on AllTrails.

On the return drive, we stopped for sunset at San Juan, La Union, a famed surfer beach. Consistent intermediate quality waves make it ideal for beginners.  

Mebuyan’s Vessel, an homage to the Bagobo goddess of the underworld, is an installation of 21 interconnected, inhabitable pods.

Signage said it could be climbed — but it was inexplicably closed. I must be in the Philippines.

A good trip, all in all.

Plenty of night driving, however. Those coming from Manila got very little sleep 2 nights in a row.

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Hiking Navigation: AllTrails v Gaia v Komoot

I purchased a premium Gaia subscription on Black Friday. So now have used paid accounts on:

I’ve not yet used Wikiloc or ViewRanger.

But I understand Wikiloc is good for Europe and South America.

I use Komoot for bikepacking and have been very happy with that product. Is it any good for hiking?

In this post I compare offline navigation for the paid subscriptions.

For discovering trails nearby me (Parksville, Vancouver Island) on their websites, I felt Komoot was weakest. AllTrails best, by far.

On the other hand, one problem with AllTrails is displaying too many options. Too many variations in the same hiking area can be confusing. Since there is a lot of user generated content, quality is mixed.

When I decided on a well known, popular hiking area ➙ Little Qualicum Falls, again AllTrails was by far best at giving me hiking options.

In terms of description, the AllTrails preview graphic video is most useful for me. I make a lot of decisions on which hike to choose based on these preview videos.

Click PLAY or watch an example on YouTube.

So far, AllTrails is by far my favourite of the three.

Next I went to my iPhones.

Logged into all 3 apps, I searched for “Englishman River Falls“. This is one of the most popular and well established hikes nearby. Komoot identified the trail on a map, but didn’t offer a way to SAVE and download.

I did the hike simultaneously using Gaia and AllTrails on two phones. Both worked well at the basic function of navigation.

I won’t use many of the functions, including Lifeline on AllTrails.

IF I want to make a record of any particular hike, I use the free version of the ReLive app. I’ve had a paid subscription in the past, but find the free features enough for my purposes.

Most mornings I take coffee down to Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park, my favourite walk in the area.

Again,

Johnny Cheng did a deep dive into both apps, concluding that more inexperienced hikers would probably like AllTrails better. That hunters and those going off trail would appreciate the enhanced mapping features of Gaia GPS.

I’ll search for hikes using a number of different sources as AllTrails can be confusing.

Look at the video preview on AllTrails.

Mostly use AllTrails for navigation. And compare with Gaia if there is any confusion.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Honestly, for the majority of trails I hike I follow signage. And check the free offline Maps.me app to confirm I’m still on popular trails. It’s all I used on the challenging Laugevagur Trail in Iceland, for example, summer 2023.

I don’t mind getting a little lost on trail. 😀