A bloom­ing agave plant looks like a young sprout on a per­fect spring day at the base of one of the lit­tle hills embrac­ing the wash. The wash and the rolling hills sur­round­ing it offer up a sur­pris­ing diver­si­ty of wildlife, in addi­tion to a nat­ur­al botan­i­cal garden.

Bisna­ga is an Amer­i­can­ism for the Span­ish Biz­na­ga, which refers to tall bar­rel cac­tus.  Friend­ly to hik­ers for some 1.5 miles of trek, start­ing from the park­ing area, it is one of sev­er­al bajadas (drainage basins) that car­ry off the rain­fall gath­ered in the drapes of the state­ly moun­tain to the north, 5,349 foot high Whale Peak.

At an ele­va­tion around 1,400 feet itself, the wash is accessed from Coun­ty High­way S‑2 about 1 mile north of the entrance to Agua Caliente Coun­ty Park. Look for sig­nage for Bis­na­ga Wash at a pull-out on the east side of the road, which has con­ve­nient park­ing for a few cars.  Anoth­er 0.9 miles up Coun­ty S‑2, to the north toward Val­lecitos Coun­ty Park, is Bis­na­ga Alta Wash, a well-defined baja­da no less than 500 feet wide and offer­ing excel­lent hik­ing with oppor­tu­ni­ties to see gar­dens of bar­rel cac­tus along its 2.5 mile length to the foot of Whale Peak.

For pho­to enlarge­ments, descrip­tions, and relat­ed pho­tos please click on pho­tos. To return, use the brows­er back button.

Desert Christ­mas Tree

Bis­na­ga Wash is rel­a­tive­ly flat and bor­dered on the north and south by low hills. With­in a short walk from the road, around the east side of a promi­nent hill, you can find beaver­tail cac­tus and sev­er­al types of chol­la cac­tus, includ­ing the sel­dom seen pen­cil cac­tus.  Con­tin­u­ing north toward Whale Peak, the bar­rel cac­tus, Fero­cac­tus cylin­draceus, are plen­ti­ful not only in the wash but hug­ging the rocky swales of each new micro-canyon that pops in from the east and west.

Some bar­rels grow over 6 feet tall.  They were a reli­able source of water for pio­neer trav­el­ers. The abun­dance of them here should not be sur­pris­ing since this lay direct­ly on the But­ter­field Stage Route, as do many at the Box Canyon his­tor­i­cal site far­ther up the But­ter­field route.

A Cac­tus Wren in its nest.

A num­ber of birds are com­mon here, includ­ing Cal­i­for­nia quail, cac­tus wrens and Costa’s hummingbirds.

Annu­al spring wild­flow­ers are abun­dant when there has been suf­fi­cient rain and grow­ing con­di­tions.  Desert dan­de­lions can car­pet some areas of the broad wash and the rolling, rocky ridges which bor­der it.

The unusu­al-look­ing Christ­mas tree plant is also found here; this plant is par­a­sitic on near­by tree roots, does not have leaves, and shoots up stalks that look a lit­tle like minia­ture pink and white “Christ­mas Trees” when in bloom.

Click on any thumb­nail below to enter the light box and slide show with option­al com­ments pan­el. Pho­tos by Bar­bara Swan­son unless noted.