THOUSAND PALMS OASIS PRESERVE

Wednesday, February 11 – Today, we hike in the Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve of Coachella Valley Preserve Trail System in Thousand Palms, CA, which is located about 10 miles east of Palm Springs, CA. This Preserve is approximately 880 acres. This preserve is located right on the famous San Andres Fault. Little San Bernardino Mountains surround the Preserve. As a matter of fact, if you visit Joshua Tree National Park and stop to view the San Andres Fault at Keys View, you are actually looking down on the Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve. The ranger even offered to take our picture standing on the fault.

Our hike today had us climbing all over that fault. We hiked two connecting trails, the McCallum Trail and the Moon Country Trail for a total a little over 4.5 miles. This is pretty much a hike in a desert environment. There are a few small mountains to climb and a few canyons we hiked down into but not a great deal of change in elevation. The toughest part of this hike is the soft "beach like" sand we found ourselves slugging through some of the time.

Sandy….yuck…very slow going.

Up the mountain we go.

The desert was hot today.

Little San Bernardino Mountains.

The McCallum Trail took us to the beautiful McCallum Pond which is formed by a natural earthquake seep, water seeping up along one of the several faults.

While we were admiring the Pond, one of the rangers was wading around in the pond.

She called us over to her work station to show us what she was doing. She was emptying her traps full of red swamp crayfish. This crayfish has displaced most of the other native species from this pond….that isn’t a good thing. She is trying to eliminate them from the ponds. She had a good size bucket full of those nasty looking creatures.

This is from the first trap. By the time she was done, the bucket was full.

We were rewarded with a special treat today. We saw a bobcat! Marsha spotted him getting a nice cool drink of water, just as we started on the trail near the Visitor's Center. He put on a pretty nice show for us - must have known we were cat owners! Marsha ran back to show the photo to the Ranger. He came fast to see it. He said it was one of the best photos of the bobcat he has seen. We've been hoping to see a bobcat or mountain lion ever since we began hiking. Awesome!

If you are a frequent follower of our blog, you know we are early starters.

Breakfast with a view.

Boy are we glad we were one of the first hikers on the trails this morning. By the time we returned to the visitor's center, the parking lot was completely full of visitors, and the trails were filling up. It was also getting pretty hot in the desert by quitting time.

Tomorrow we are pulling up stakes and heading to Indio, CA.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

BREAKFAST WITH FRIENDS IN PALM SPRINGS

Tuesday, February 10 - We met fellow bloggers, Paulette and Rick, this morning at the famous Sherman's Deli and Bakery in downtown Palm Springs, CA. Although he doesn't write a blog, but he is a star in one, Rylie, their dog joined us. He was so well behaved lying under the table, we didn't know he was there. What a sweetie!

We enjoyed breakfast and tons of great conversation and laughs for over an hour with this nice couple. We've followed there blog for such a long time, it's just like knowing them. They winter in Palm Springs, so who knows, maybe we'll see them again. (Marsha had her camera but totally forgot to get a picture. Bad girl!)

After breakfast, we headed to downtown Palm Springs to stroll among the shops and do a little shopping. Palm Springs is known as a  desert resort city.

Surprisingly, prices are very reasonable in this expensive California tourist town.

Now this is what every city should offer.

Palm Springs is famous for its "Walk of Stars." Many Hollywood Stars who lived, loved and played in Palm Springs are on the “Walk of Stars.”

There is even a bronze statue of Palm Springs’ one time mayor, Sonny Bono. This must have been when he was very young.

Sonny is on the right.

This is Lucille Ball.

Little did we know that the famous "Forever Marilyn," the three-story-tall sculpture, was dismantled and moved to New Jersey. This was one statue we both wanted to see. While walking around the town, we did find this statue of Marilyn. Not exactly like the “Forever Marilyn,” but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

We even found a few items to take back to the RV. Everyone needs a Palm Springs T-shirt, don't they?

That was it for today. Tomorrow we plan on being back on the hiking trail - must work off that delicious breakfast - so stop back and see where we explore.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

ANOTHER AWESOME HIKE

Monday, February 9 -  We found another wonderful hike here in the Palm Springs, CA, area. This area has hundreds of hiking opportunities. We ventured into the Whitewater Preserve this morning. Whitewater is made up of 2,851 acres between the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains. We headed for a hike on the Canyon View Loop trail. This is a four mile trail rated "moderate." We felt that was a pretty accurate rating and a very enjoyable hike.

It begins at the Ranger's Station and follows a segment of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).

The Ranger Station is awesome.

The PCT is a trail similar to the Appalachian Trail (AT). The AT travels from Georgia to Maine along the East coast where the PCT travels 2650 miles from Mexico to Canada along the West coast. So now we can say we've hiked segments of both these famous trails!

The first half of our hike today, carried us up the mountain via a series of switchbacks. Nothing as strenuous as yesterday's climb, but no stroll in the park either. It gave us a pretty good workout with increased heart rates and some heavy breathing, that's for sure. But we enjoyed the workout and the views were some of the best we've ever experienced on a hike.

We had to navigate the mighty Whitewater River. 

Our hike began in sand.

Then quickly changed to a rocky climb.

Can you see where the Whitewater River should be?

Once reaching the top of the mountain, the trail meandered along the rim of the canyon. It was amazing how the geology of the surrounding hillsides had changed form sandy and rocky cliffs to lush green meadows and bushes. This area will be gorgeous soon when all these flowering Brittle bushes are in bloom. Several have already started to burst open with beautiful yellow flowers.

Like yesterday, we stopped at the top of the mountain to share a small sandwich for breakfast. Another "breakfast with a view" and a lovely break before beginning our decent.

This area is inhabited by Bighorn Sheep, which we did see on the mountainside before beginning our hike.

The sheep were waaaaay up high on the mountain side.

There are also bears and mountain lions in the area and of course rattlesnakes, but thankfully they kept hidden. We did have a hawk fly very close overhead checking us out and looking for a little breakfast of his own. We didn't see him find anything, but we're sure there's plenty of small creatures roaming under all this bush that he would love to find.

Was he maybe looking for this?

The hike down was relaxing and enjoyable giving us an opportunity to enjoy the many awesome views and search the surrounding hillsides for wildlife.

The mountains in the distance look like they are painted on the landscape.

In some places, snow is still on the mountains.

Once off the mountain, the trail continued among the rocks of the Whitewater River back to the ranger's station. This part of the trail was a little difficult to find, but after roaming around the dry riverbed for a couple hundred yards, we found the trial markers and finished our hike back to the trailhead.

Another very enjoyable hike! We rank the Canyon View Loop Trail in the Whitewater Preserve as one of our top ten favorites and recommend it to others when in the area. We're enjoying our time here in the Palm Springs desert so much, that we are looking to extend our stay by another week. So check back and see what adventures we find to share.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!

DARN NEAR KILLED US……LOL

Sunday, February 8 - We hiked the Lyykens Trail up into the San Jacinto Mountains overlooking Palm Springs, CA, this morning.....ugh! We could either enter the trail from the North where it is rated "moderate" or from the South where it is rated "strenuous." We really didn't make an obvious decision. We simply followed the directions to the trail and found ourselves at the South trailhead, so we decided to head out and turn around if it became too difficult.

The trial is well defined and consists of many, many, many switchbacks leading up the mountain. We gained 1000' in elevation over a distance of about three miles to the top.

We should have known better when we saw this on the map.

Lots of beauty along the trail.

We saw several people running up or down that mountain. We thought them nuts!

The views from the top were fabulous. We overlooked downtown Palm Springs and the entire Coachella Valley.

The next photo is for our son-in-law, Dave. See all the green down there Dave. It is what they call a golf course. Show us one of these this time of the year in Ohio…lol

Our friends Pam and John always eat lunch at the top of the mountain calling it "lunch with a view."  We are a little earlier risers getting on the trail at about 7 a.m., so we sat at a picnic table (must have been brought up by mules in pieces) and had "breakfast with a view!"

Then, of course, we had to either return the way we came or continue on to the North trailhead and find a way back to our car. We chose to return the way we came. Let us tell you, it's significantly easier going down then up. But still no walk in the park!

We certainly consider this the most strenuous hike we've ever done and are proud of our accomplishment by making it to the top. There was a point near the top that we thought be were going to throw in the towel, but pride won out and we persevered.

1,500’ feet, we still love our Buckeyes.

We had a big surprise yesterday. While Paul was sitting outside, a gentleman with a dog walked up to him. Paul recognized them both instantly. It was Rick and Rylie. We talked nonstop for about an hour. It was a really nice visit. We are getting together with Rick and Paulette on Tuesday for breakfast. Thanks for stopping over Rick and bringing Rylie. He is one well-behaved dog.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!