Imagine a place where you can hike through the continent's largest desert oasis, where you can explore cool evergreen mountain forests, where fossils of a vanished ancient lake cover the ground, where rare bighorn sheep gaze down upon you from precarious cliffs, where centuries of Native American history sit at your feet, where you can lean against a weeping wall of maidenhair ferns or squeeze through narrow canyon passages. The place is real: It's called Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley. With the valley and surrounding mountains covering hundreds of square miles, how can you ensure that you experience its many natural wonders? That’s what "Day Hiking Trails of Palm Springs and the Coachella Valley, Vol. II" answers, as it explores more than 30 popular trails and what you’ll see on them. Links are included to printable, detailed 8.5" x 11" maps. Let’s start planning your hike! ROB BIGNELL is an avid backpacker who’s been hiking with his son for more than a decade. Together, they’ve scaled summits almost two miles high, crossed America’s driest deserts, and walked beneath soaring, 20-story trees. Bignell is the former Opinions page editor of Palm Springs' The Desert Sun newspaper, and contributor to the valley's Uken Report and Palm Springs Life .