Sunday was a blistering hot day here in Desert Hot Springs with the temperature hitting a high of 90F by mid-afternoon. So, what did I do? I went for a walk in the desert! More on that, in a bit.
There are dozens of spots that provide great views of the desert
Paulette and I started the day off by going to the IHOP restaurant for breakfast in Palm Desert. We hadn’t been to an IHOP in about 4 years, but every time we passed one, we both said “we’ll have to go back there again”, so yesterday, we finally got around to it. Paulette said she was treating me because it was Valentine’s Day – if that was the plan, then she owes me $25!!
From the main, paved footpath, smaller paths lead to viewpoints
We got back to the RV Park around 11am and it was already close to 80F. I checked the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway online site to see about tickets, but they were sold out for the entire day. I finally realized why it’s been so busy here – it’s a long weekend in the U.S. for President’s Day. So, once again, I had to delay the Tramway for another day.
An oasis that is pretty much the same as the one we visited at Thousand Palms
Even though it was really hot, I still felt like getting out and doing something just to try and wear off some of those pancakes from breakfast! Paulette just wanted to stay around the park and go to the pool for the afternoon and do some sewing. So, I decided to check out a place called The Living Desert over in Palm Desert.
Even though I’d heard about this place, I’d never been there before because I thought it would just be another phony “tourist attraction” type place, but a guy at the pool the other day told me he went there and it wasn’t bad. So, off I went to The Living Desert at about 11:30am.
There are even some high, natural rock hills in the park
What is The Living Desert? Basically, it’s an interpretive nature trail and preserve in Palm Desert that covers 1,800 acres, with another 1,000 acres that remain completely in their natural state. The Living Desert was established in 1970 by several trustees of the Palm Springs Desert Museum who foresaw the impact that resort development would have on their local desert ecosystem.
Among their main goals were to preserve a portion of the Colorado Desert in its natural state and to build up, under controlled conditions, populations of various species of desert animals and plants threatened with extinction. I’m no expert, but from what I could see they’ve done an excellent job.
All of these plants had unobtrusive signs describing what they were
Sure, there’s a lot of cement around – including a road that goes through all of the main park and garden sites. But this is a good idea too, because it permits electric trolleys to carry handicapped persons, and anyone else who is unable to walk around the entire park, and enable them to enjoy all of the various sites and attractions. The site is handicapped accessible even without the trolley rides – a scooter would work just fine!
Great care has been taken everywhere to try and maintain all of the exhibits in their natural state. All of the various plants, trees and cacti have signs explaining the origin and type of species. I had no idea how many types of cactus plants there are.
It was scorching out there
The only thing I didn’t like about the park were some of the zoo like enclosures for birds and animals including some African desert animals like cheetahs, gazelles, giraffes, zebras and others. I don’t like seeing any animal caged so I just ignored that and didn’t take any pictures of them either.
I did, however, walk out into the natural desert for about a half-mile just to see the San Andreas Fault exhibit. I seem to have an unnatural desire to put myself in harm’s way when it comes to this earthquake hot zone. I’ve now been to 2 of these Andreas fault lines, but in neither case did the earth move under my feet!
The footpath up to the San Andreas Fault lookout
I spent 2 hours walking around in the hot sun before heading back to the RV Park and a nice, refreshing swim in the pool. Was that ever nice. Paulette had been at the pool earlier, with some friends, so she was already done with the pool for the day.
Last night, we barbequed the last 2 of the Tenderloin steaks we got from Costco a couple of weeks ago. Even though we’d frozen them, they were still every bit as good as the first ones. Not a bad way to end a great weekend!
Have a great Monday, and thanks again for visiting!
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