Pogonip Walk

My wife and I decided that we would take the dogs for a walk this afternoon in Pogonip Park. As I laid down for a nap around 2PM I said, "Lets go sometime round 3 or 4 PM." (Note the "or 4PM" part.) At 3:02, I heard some scratching on the bedroom door. I turned over to try to extend my nap. At 3:04, I heard a quiet knocking on the door. I put the pillow over my head. At 3:07, someone jumps on the bed screaming, "It's time to go!" Well, maybe it was a gentle whisper in my ear, but it sure sounded like screaming to me!


So I reluctantly got up and we drove the dogs to the top of Spring Street. Just as we began our walk, it started to rain. It was more a mist than rain, so we continued on our walk. Considering that it was 100+ degrees every day in Palm Springs last week, it was nice to be able to take a walk in moderate temperatures. Of course, by the end of the walk, it was raining much harder. We were soaked by the time that we got back to the car. However it was such a nice walk that we did not regret it at all. Watch out for the dog on the left in the picture above, he is the one who dropped the bone on my foot!

We are so fortunate to have such a pretty park just on the edge of town. After a short walk into the woods, you feel like you are miles from civilization. We saw a few joggers and a few other walkers, but not many. We covered about 4 miles in an hour and a half. It was a very pleasant hike through the woods.


Pogonip used to be a private club. It is kind of hard to see in this photo, but there is a clubhouse at the end of the meadow. The clubhouse has been condemned so you cannot enter the building but you can wander around the exterior of the site. Along the trail to the clubhouse, you can see the remains of the swimming pool. The meadow that you can see in the above photo was a golf course at one time. In fact, it was named as one of the nation's top scenic golf courses. Later the meadow was turned into polo fields. International caliber polo players and movie figures visited the popular polo fields. The list of visitors to Pogonip includes Darryl Zanuck, Spencer Tracy, Roy and Walt Disney and Mary Pickford.

More details on the history of Pogonip can found here and here.

A picture of the clubhouse can be found here.

A map of the park can be found here. We entered the park at the end of Spring Street, seen at the bottom of the map. We hiked up Spring Trail until it intersects with Rincon Trail. We followed Rincon Trail to almost the other end of the park. We returned on the same path back to our car. If you click on the purple diamonds, you can see "virtual reality" pictures from the park.

More of my pictures can be found here.