Chasing Down The Muse: A day in the living desert

One of the great gifts of living in Laguna is the close proximity to alternate terrain. Within three hours we can be surrounded by tall pine trees in the local mountains, or brushed by sand and mesquite in the high and low deserts.

When Lynn Capouya asked me to join her and her company for a guided docent tour at the Living Desert Museum in Indian Wells, I jumped at the chance.

The Living Desert was established in March 1970 as a 360-acre wilderness preserve. Today it is one of the most unique institutions in the country and stands out as the only American zoo and garden dedicated solely to interpreting and conserving the deserts of the world and is the only zoological and botanical park specializing in just one entire ecosystem.

The Living Desert was the brainchild of several prominent citizens who anticipated what resort development would do to the Coachella Valley, and championed the idea of a permanent wilderness preserve where people could enjoy and learn about the natural desert. They convinced the Palm Springs Desert Museum, of which they were trustees, to establish an interpretive nature trail and preserve 360 acres in the (then) remote community of Palm Desert. In 1970, the Living Desert Reserve was born.

Living Desert has a vast array of botanical gardens, including geographic, taxonomic, educational and display. Areas represented on the grounds include the deserts of Mojave, Chihuahauan, Sonoran and Colorado. There are specialized gardens of euphorbias, cactus, agaves, Mexican columnars, mallows, primitives, octillos, barrel cactus, sage, yuccas and more.

Two areas are devoted to foreign landscapes. The East African Garden is said to be one of the best collections of African plant species in all of North America. The Madagascar Garden contains a collection of rare, plants found only on the island off the east coast of Africa.

The Palm Oasis was one of my favorites. A decomposed gravel pathway winds around two separate ponds of water. The path is lined entirely in palm trees of varying heights and sizes — 50 species of palms and several hundred palm trees in all. The temperature under this palm-leaved grotto was a good 20 degrees lower than the rest of the gardens. The Bismark Palm, a first for me, caught my eye. Its wide, branching trunk and stately blue-green fronds immediately enchanted me.

Everyone’s favorite, though, had to be the McDonald Butterfly and Wildflower Garden, which features more than 30 different species of butterflies and had just opened the day before. The garden is completely enclosed with fine mesh and filled to the brim with fragrant wildflowers. As the butterflies hatch, they are set free from their specially designed puparium into the broad garden. A double-door entry and exit prevents a mass migration of the winged creatures. A fleet of tiny hummingbirds also counts this exhibit as home.

To round out the tour, we passed through several animal exhibits. These included a baby zebra — just one day old, and a pair of 2-week-old twin oryx. My favorite of the animals was clearly the serval, a stunning and stately cat that is native to Africa. Servals have the longest legs in the cat family, which enable them to peer over tall vegetation to find prey.

OK, the sand cat was cool, too. About 36 inches long, with a round face with reddish streaks from the corner of their eyes to the side of their cheek, these cats are natives of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Hair covers their paw pads, so they are nearly impossible to tract, thus the actual numbers of their species is unconfirmed.

Our docent finished our tour at the demonstration garden and the retail nursery. It was all I could do NOT to pick up the small Bismark Palm and load it into the back of Lynn’s car. Maybe next time.

The Living Desert is open every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sept. 1 to June 15, and has summer hours of 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. starting June 16 to Aug. 31. The site is near Haystack and Portola avenues in Palm Desert, just off the 111 and 10 freeways. For more information, visit www.livingdesert.org/default.asp or call (760) 346-5694.

CATHARINE COOPER loves wild places. She can be reached at ccooper@cooperdesign.net