LOST PALMS OASIS…JOSHUA TREE

Friday, February 13 (hope you had good luck) - We hiked the Lost Palms Oasis trail today in Joshua Tree National Park, Indio, CA.

We left home a little later than usual (7:30), and that had us ending our 7.5 mile hike too late in the day....Hot, Hot, Hot. The temperature gauge read 88 degrees at 2:00 p.m..

This area of Joshua Tree NP is considered "high desert.” We quickly realize that, as we climbed the 10 mile incline on East bound I-10 to the park entrance.

The trail, although a little longer than we prefer, is an enjoyable hike. It is very well marked and doesn't have too much of an elevation gain…about 400 feet. The problem is you gain and lose the 400 feet numerous times as you climb in and out of the washes and canyons.

Much of the hike is in coarse sand. Slow going here.

Be prepared for some rocky climbing.

Lots of beauty all around.

The two canyons we hiked through were lovely.

Once you reach the Oasis at the end of the trail it is a pretty scary climb down into the canyon, if you want a close-up view of the palm trees. Remember, if you climb down there, you have to climb back out! YIKES!

Besides the Palms in the bottom of the canyon, they are way up the side of the canyon too.

Brunch with a view.

On the way back to the trailhead, Paul thought we could take a short cut down one of the washes. Men! After about a half mile, Paul agreed with Marsha…We better go back to the trail. He insists it would have eventually brought us out to about the Saltan Sea.....30 miles away! Ha Ha!

On the way back, we were able to see the Salton Sea…waaaay over there.

Just when we thought we were almost back to the trailhead, our legs said….Oh No! Not more steps.

Regardless, after nearly 5 hours, we returned to the trailhead a little tired and ready to head home.

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

A MOVE TO INDIO ELKS

Thursday, February 12 - Our seven day stay at Desert Pools RV Resort was up. They were not willing to extend our stay under the Passport America discount even though they had plenty of vacancies. With that in mind, we headed to the Indio, CA, Elks Lodge.

This was our first movement East since we left Ohio. No, we are not heading there yet! There's snow in them thar hills!

The Indio, CA, Elks Lodge in an RV destination for sure. They have 55 campsites, some on gravel and some on the blacktop. There is only 30 amp electric and water. There is a dump station on sight and you can use their "blueboy" portable dumper to extend your stay without moving to dump. The streets are paved and the sites are nice and level.

We are in Site #22. It is a corner lot and bigger than some of the others. Bella is enjoying her new home. There is grass for her to graze on! What a treat to her.

Looking left.

You do have to be an Elks member. The Lodge is available for your use. They have a brunch on Sunday, lunch every day, and dinner each night they are open and entertainment on the weekends. Our initial reaction is that it seems like a pretty nice place to stay for a week or so. They do have a one week limit if the place is full and there are campers in the dry camp area waiting for a spot. If vacancies are available, which there are numerous spots open today, you are permitted to stay as long as you wish. The host and hostess are super nice.

Indio, CA, is a large city (40,000+), so there is all the necessary shopping establishments and big box stores. There are plenty of hiking trails and other outdoor activities in the surrounding desert and mountains.

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

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!