Since this was our plans for the entire day, we retreated back to the hotel room to go online and look at other options. Wes, who has been working at our itinerary here, checked out other options and we created new plans which included a visit to the San Andreas Fault (Coachella Valley Preserve), the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Park, and the Palm Springs Botanical Gardens. All of these options are in the valley and several miles apart so we were prepared for a bit of driving.
We headed off to the Coachella Valley Preserve first to walk along a couple of Oasis created by the San Andreas Fault. The Coachella Valley Preserve is located 10 miles east of Palm Springs near Thousand Palms. It is a 17,000 acre site that is home to the Coachella Valley fringe-toed lizard (which we never saw in our walk through the McCallum trail) which is found nowhere else in the world. It is also home of the spectacular Thousand Palm Oasis which is fed by water seeping out of the San Andreas Fault. We hiked a 2 mile trail called the McCallum trail which takes us through the Thousand Palm Oasis across a short span of desert to the McCallum Pond oasis. Needless to say the temperature difference between the palms in the oasis and the desert was incredible. Vegetation was very dried up at this time of year but in the oasis there was lots of evidence of birds and animals. The palms where covered with dead leaves that droop downward in such a thick layer it creates a shelter for the living things in the oasis.
After we got back from this hike we headed off to the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Park to consider what options for hikes we might be able to explore. We realize that it is getting close to noon so we are aware that the hike would have to be limited due to the extreme heat. We stopped and talked to a volunteer at the visitor’s center who recommended that we hike the 3 mile loop trail which he assured us would give us a trail that lead up to a ridge line where we could see views into the Valley overlooking Palm Desert and back up to the San Jacinto Mountains. The trail wound up through the desert and a wash to the ridge line. What was disappointing is that when we got to the ridge there was a sign across the trail indicating that area was closed. We stood about 25 feet from the ridge where we could enjoy the views. We did sneak a quick look and grabbed some pictures but the real views would require we walk further along the ridge and out of respect for the closure we did not push onward but returned. By now we are really thirsty and hot – really hot since the temperature is getting close to 40 and of course we carried water with us.
We got back to the car to travel on to the Palm Springs Botanical Gardens. Once again we are disappointed to arrive to discover that they are closed today. By now we felt that we had enough and would just return to our hotel room, eat lunch there (we had a lunch packed for the trail that still had not been eaten) and cool off. It is after 2 and we both feel it has been a full day already.
One of the things that I started to become aware of is the price of gas. Yesterday in Barstow we paid $3.76 per gallon. I noted today that as we drove around that the price of gas varied from $2.76 per gallon to $3.06 per gallon. This means that the price between the high of Barstow to the lowest here is a full $1 per gallon.
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