No maps, no trails, just open desert

The beauty of the desert isn’t always apparent at first glance. As that old desert rat Edward Abbey wrote in “Desert Solitaire,” “There is something about the desert.... There is something there which the mountains, no matter how grand and beautiful, lack; which the sea, no matter how shining and vast and old, does not have.”

In July, the average high at Death Valley is 115 degrees. In January, it’s a pleasant 65. Obviously, winter is the perfect time to explore California’s nearly 6 million acres of desert.

Comfortable weather aside, trekking in the open desert can be disorienting. Though trails and campgrounds are clearly marked in the San Gabriels and the Sierra, it’s not so in the desert, where few trails have been created.

“We don’t maintain trails,” says Terry Baldino, a park ranger at Death Valley. There are cross-country routes, but flash flooding often washes away anything that resembles an official hiking trail. Some visitors are uneasy about the wildness, he says, but the lack of defined paths is part of the adventure of Death Valley.

Say you’re driving along one of the park’s 600 miles of backcountry roads and see an interesting canyon. “Just park the car and explore,” says Baldino. “Go up any canyon and you won’t be disappointed.”

Visitors who stroll canyon labyrinths are treated to swirls of color in the million-year-old, water-carved rock. Some Death Valley favorites are Golden Canyon near Furnace Creek, Mosaic Canyon west of Stovepipe Wells and Fall Canyon near Titus Canyon off Scotty’s Castle Road.

A big concern in winter is the flash floods that can trap unwitting hikers in narrow desert canyons. If it’s sunny, explore the canyons, say park officials, but if dark clouds threaten, stick to the valley floor.

“Always keep an eye on the weather,” advises Brian Cahill, a spokesman at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, about 150 miles east of San Diego.

There, hikers squeeze through narrow canyons such as the Slot, where space can dwindle to two feet between walls 60 feet high. The danger comes from rain that fills these canyons with water, leaving hikers nowhere to go.

In addition to the usual hiking essentials, bring a gallon of water per person a day, because it’s dry even in cooler weather. One extra to tote along: tweezers or a comb to remove cholla cactus barbs.

The desert’s abundant wildlife also can be more easily spotted in winter, when animals such as desert bighorn sheep leave the high country to seek moderate temperatures in the valleys. Cooler weather also means fewer rattlesnakes, scorpions and other nasties, which tend to hibernate during colder months. Keep in mind that mountain lions do roam the area and contact the local park visitor center for updated information on the rare sightings.

The big draw in late winter is the desert wildflowers. The bloom can be extraordinary in wet years, and flowers already are beginning to sprout in some areas. The peak bloom typically explodes in mid-March. Anza-Borrego is the wildflower mecca, where good years bring carpets of purple sand verbena amid splashes of white dune evening primrose and two species of sunflowers -- dune and desert.

Maybe you too will be drawn to the “unimaginable treasure” of the desert, as Abbey put it.

For information on desert areas:

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, (760) 767-5311; wildflower hotline, (760) 767-4684

Death Valley National Park, (760) 786-3200

Joshua Tree National Park, (760) 367-5500

Mojave National Preserve, (760) 255-8801

Palm Springs Indian canyons, (760) 325-3400

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To e-mail Julie Sheer or read her previous Outdoors Institute columns, go to latimes.com/juliesheer.