This morning's outing was to a handful of minor summits around Desert Hot Springs. A number of these were drive-ups, the others fairly short hikes. All are mostly large piles of sand covering underlying rock piles of rock. Half the fun was driving the Jeep around the backwaters of the Palm Springs/Desert Hot Springs area north of Interstate 10.

Edom Hill

This summit in the northwest corner of the Indio Hills has a collection of telecom installations. The very summit is occupied by a VOR station managed by the FAA. Much of the mountain has been used by OHVs for many years. A poorly paved access road off Varner Rd climbs to the summit from the southwest. There is a gate about a mile below the summit, but a 4WD vehicle can use one of several ways to bypass this and drive nearly to the top. I parked where a wrecked vehicle occupies space on the SEside of the VOR station. There is a formidable fence around the summit, but erosion has created an easyP3>crawl-through on the east side. This was the only summit with more than 300ft of prominence.

Flat Top Mountain

This is a hill, not a mountain, the diminuitive neighbor to Edom Hill, across Varner Rd to the west. I parked on Varner Rd and hiked the half mile distance to the summit through a small nature preserve on the east side of the mountain. In hindsight, I think this is a drive-up via the utility road that follows the transmission lines over the summit. There's a wreck near the summit of this one, too.

Miracle Hill

This little bump is found in the town of Desert Hot Springs, on its SE side. It is covered in residential parcels, but the highest plots have not yet been developed. The highpoint is most easily accessed from the south side off Monterey Rd, but I used the cul-de-sac at the end of Oris Dr on the north side. Either works.

Devers Hill

Found a few miles southwest of Desert Hot Springs, there are numerous windmills surrounding the hill, though none on it. Various dirt roads can get one quite close, though there is another formidable fence on the east side where I approached from. Again, erosion under the fence made access easy. Kind of a lame summit, truth be told. Lots of trash dumped in the area, too. Afterwards, I found while driving the powerline road on the north side of the hill, that the access gates through the fence on both sides of the enclosed area were wide open. Not really sure why the fence is there, but it seems they might have planned a solar installation here at one time, or perhaps they just haven't yet gotten around to starting it.

Whitewater Hill

This larger hill is found at the junction of I-10 and SR62. Driving west from Devers Hill, I found a sandy wash I could P27>drive under SR62 to reach Whitewater Hill. A paved road goes up the east side of the hill, but is gated fairly low on the hill where a few homesteads are found. I parked the Jeep and hiked up the paved road to the summit, about 2/3mi away. There are windmills all over the hill, both large, modern ones, and older, smaller one. The highpoint is occupied by a trio of telecom towers overlooking the Interstate below to the south, and across to the North Face of San Jacinto.

Garnet Hill - Bernardo Hill

Garnet Hill is found on the south side of Interstate-10, east of the Indian Canyon Rd exit. Jeep roads throughout this small group of hills allows one to drive right to the summit. Bernardo Hill is a PB-only summit at the east end of the hills, also a drive-up.

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