Desert Vacation

We spent a week in the desert of Southern California. The desert is not at all what I expected. It's full of hills, mountains, plants and wild life.

We stayed in La Quinta, CA which is one of the small desert towns around Palm Springs. Interestingly there are no La Quinta Hotels in La Quinta, CA. We stayed at a place called Casitas at Santa Rosa.

This is the view from our balcony.

Lost Palms Oasis Hike

Took a hike in the sothern part of Joshua Tree National Park to Lost Palms Oasis. I had never seen palms that had not been trimmed before.

This is a pretty typical landscape -- rocks and a little bit of sand

We were shuffling along the trail and we were amazed to see this jack rabbit.

Can you believe the size of his ears?

Saw lots of lizards too.

This is a Teddy Bear Cholla cactus. It is not soft or cuddly and should never ever be hugged under any circumstances....

Here's the oasis at the end of the trail ---

Anza Borrego Desert State Park

The desert in Anza Borrego is completely different than the Colorado Desert in Joshua Tree.

We started a hike to another oasis in Anza-Borrego.

We hiked through a canyon.

Scrambled around on some bolders.

We were hiking along and we saw something moving on the cliffs ahead of us. Other hikers? A Mountain Lion? Nope -- a herd of Big Horned Sheep. This one had a transmitter around it's neck, or maybe that was her iPod...

All in all we saw a herd of 13 sheep. They were grazing all around us.

And aparently were as curious about as as we were about them.

After hiking the valley and seeing all the sheep we finally came to the oasis.

Here's me at the oasis --- kinda give you an idea of the size

Joshua Tree National Park -- North Entrance

Joshua Tree is completely differnt on the north side than on on the south side (where the Lost Palms Oasis is). There was even a significant difference between the west and east entrances of the north side of the park. The west is flat plains filled with Joshua Trees as far as you can see. Giant boulder piles decorate the landscape.





We had a great time climbing on the rocks!

Hidden Valley

We took a short hike through Hidden Valley, which is a valley completely surrounded by boulders. The ground inside the ring of rocks is protected from the harsher elements of the desert and makes the land more fertile.




I was quite disappointed not to find a ranch dressing sales outlet at the end of the trail....

Ryan's Peak

The climb to Ryan's peak starts at about 3000 feet. In a short mile and a half trail, you climb another 2500 feet -- so basically its a 1.5 mile rock stair case. It was about 100 degrees out, but the view was worth it.

Keys Overlook

The northern part of the park is divided in half by a mountain range. Keys Overlook is a very nice view...

If you look closely a desert squirrel was also taking in the view....

And then checking us out.....

Jumbo Rocks

On the east side of the mountain range there are no Joshua Trees. There are lots of boulders and cactus though. Spent more time scrambling on the boulders.





Here's Brian in the eyeball of Skull Rock.


And me goofing around...

Palm Springs

Here's a shot of Palm Springs from the San Jacinto Mountains