After leaving sunny San Diego, we set up basecamp at Indio, California. Indio is one of the cities in the Coachella Valley, where you find Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta and Desert Hot Springs. The populated portion of the valley is just a bit bigger than Saanich Peninsula but it has 10 times the population.
As you drive along Hwy 111, it is hard to tell which city you are passing thru unless you look closely at the street signs – like Victoria’s municipalities. Some of the cities use a LOT of water to create green boulevards along the streets while others have open sandy fields with scrub growing on them. There are reportedly 125 golf courses in the Coachella Valley. This one looks out of place in the beige desert.
RV Park living in the desert – aerobics in the pool, yoga, water volleyball, Pickleball, BINGO with playing cards, billiards, root beer floats, free waffles & orange juice each morning, movie night, card games (HAND, KNEE & FOOT - aka Minnesota Canasta), Mexican train using dominoes, everyone sitting on their pool noodles in the pool trying to stay cool.
You could stay at the RV Park the whole time except for going to get groceries but we wanted to do some exploring. This panorama photo is from Joshua Tree National Park, north of the Coachella valley.
Joshua Tree National Park
Our dear friend, Susan Jardine from Vancouver arrived for a 10 day visit during her spring break from school. For 4 days, we rose just before dawn so we could drive up to Joshua Tree National Park from Indio. Each day we visited a different part of the park, about 80 miles each day. Susan kept us busy (and well fed)!
The Joshua Tree, a yucca plant, only grows above 3,000 feet in altitude and are adapted to living in the dry, cold desert. The trees come in amazing shapes and reminded us of Dr. Suess trees.
The trees grow out on the desert flats or can be found with a backdrop of huge granite outcroppings. The hard granite is a favourite for rock climbers but they are encouraged to use specific sites to preserve the other natural areas.
One memorable hike was to Lost Palms Oasis – 3 hours in, 2 hours back (less stopping for photos on the way back as it was getting hot). You walk across a rock strewn landscape and then came over a hill to see a grove of palm trees in a gorge. The walk down into the gorge is steep but it’s nice and cool at the bottom with traces of water underfoot. We saw a Desert Tortoise on our way back – a special treat as they are endangered. Tortoise like yellow flowers so there was lots to eat. This is a popular hike as we counted 115 people walking toward the oasis as we walked out.
We took hundreds of photos of the landscape and the flora and fauna. Here are a few but you can see more flower pictures on the "More Photos" page of this website.
Anza-Borrego State Park
This park is technically, not in the Coachella Valley but its only an hour’s drive south. The park is at the southern end of the coastal mountains near where the Pacific Crest Trail starts at the Mexican border.
The wildflowers were spectacular this year because of the wet winter. Most cactus will bloom later but some species were out in full display.
We stayed in the small town of Borrego Springs and traveled each day into different parts of the Park. Our first morning visit was to an abandon Native American winter village site off Hwy 78. Smooth depressions in the granite rock are evidence of early habitants. It’s thought, the depressions were used for grinding grains. As no one else was around, the spirit of those people could be felt among the larger rocks which would have provided shelter from the wind and the sun, with a water source probably nearby. The panorama shot below would have been their vista from the settlement, which was behind us.
Jim found a hummingbird constructing a nest.
At the Tamarisk Grove Nature Preserve we took a walk to look at the cactus in bloom. We found several new species to photograph. It was hot and the wind did not cool us so we were glad to get back to the Nature Preserve and have lunch under the shade of the Tamarisk trees.
One day we drove the Geological Tour down Hwy S22 towards the Salton Sea. Until it’s pointed out to you, most of the rock looks the same but the tour brochure from the Visitor's Center did a good job of detailing the significance of what we were seeing.
We stopped in Salton City to find the old marina and wandered the beach strewn with old barnacle shells and the occasional fish skeleton - fossils in the making. This town appears to be dying too as we saw a number of abandon houses.
On the east side of the Salton Sea, which is below sea level (see photo below), we visited a State Park that has made an enclosed area for a boat launch. No boats there but lots of birds taking advantage of the protection. Black-necked Stilt and Eared Grebe in abundance but we did not find the Yellow-footed Gull we were looking for – much better chance of seeing one during the summer when it migrates from Mexico. The Sea (fresh water to start but saltier than the Pacific Ocean now) has had so much water added this winter, from the rain, that some of the picnic tables are in the Sea. If you are curious about the Salton Sea, have a look on Wiki for some history. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea
Part of the Salton Sea was set aside as a wildlife refuge in 1930 because of it's importance to the Pacific Flyway, the migration route of many birds. Renamed as the Sonny Bono (a US Senator and of Sonny & Cher fame) Wildlife Refuge, this is a favourite stop for us as well. This year, we saw a Burrowing Owl guarding his nest inside an irrigation tube and some Gambel's Quail.
One of the other outings was to Mountain Palm Springs and Palm Canyon where you can see the native California Fan Palm which were very plentiful in earlier geological periods when there was more rain. Now, the palms are only seen where there is a natural spring or other water sources. These particular groves are very pretty and usually in a secluded canyon so walking around the corner of the canyon into full display of the palms is a pleasure.
Because of the popularity of Borrego Springs, we were only able to book a spot for 4 days so moved back to the Coachella Valley to Caliente Springs Resort in Desert Hot Springs.
Desert Hot Springs
Near here is the Thousand Palms Preserve where the San Andreas Fault is evident in the local geography. The Fan Palms are located along the edge of a cliff that is several hundred feet tall. The hill behind the oasis has been pushed up by geological action and is one edge of the Fault. Its strange to be standing on and looking at an area of the earth that is known to be so active and so dangerous when it moves.
Before heading to the airport for Susan to fly home, we took the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway to Mount San Jacinto State Park with views of the Coachella Valley. The loop hike with overlooks was very pleasant as the temperature was 10 – 15 °C degrees cooler than the valley floor. We found a few birds to photograph (White-breasted Nuthatch and Western Bluebird) and we even threw a few snowballs with the remnants of the winter precipitation. Can you see all the golf courses on the valley floor?
After Susan flew back to the rain of Vancouver, we spent the rest of our time at the Caliente Springs Resort learning new card games (Euchre and Pinochle), playing waterball and doing morning water aerobics. We even got in a few games of billiards and a visit to the flea market at the College of the Desert in Palm Desert on Saturday morning.
We also checked out some birding sites, like Big Morongo Canyon Preserve (where one morning, we joined 40 other eager birders) and Whitewater Preserve where we actually walked on part of the Pacific Crest Trail. Both are on the north-west side of the Coachella Valley so not far from Desert Hot Springs. You can see the extent of the Brittlebush fields by finding the person walking thru the yellow in the top two photos.
Southern California has been very windy this year. While at Caliente, we asked to be moved to a different spot as our first spot was not shielded from the winds coming up the valley from Los Angeles. Even with a better spot, we had to bring our slides in if the winds were gusting too much, as the slides have awnings on the top. One late afternoon, we got a severe weather alert on the cell phone as the winds were forecast to gust to 50 mph. Because of the weather, some of the snowbirds delayed their departure time from this area as they were worried about snow in Utah on their route home.
We broke camp on April 7th and headed up to Auburn in the Sierra Nevada foothills to see family for a few days and then trekked back to Victoria via the COHO ferry. As we came thru the Lake Shasta area, we noted the rise in the water levels in the lake. Although not taken from the same viewpoint each time, the photos show the lowest levels that saw in 2015 compared to the new ‘ring’ on the bathtub.
The rig needs some repairs in the Nanaimo area so we won’t have much to report for a few months.