Oasis in the Desert

On Sunday we travelled to Borrego Springs located in the Anza –Borrego State Park approximately an hour and a half north east of San Diego.

We are staying at a beautiful RV park with a nine hole golf course.  This area is referred to as California’s secret desert and is like an oasis!! The plan was to stay one night and then continue on the Casa Grande, Arizona; however, decided to stay three nights.  

Orange tree on our spot

Fresh lemons, oranges and grapefruits are 'ripe for the picking' each morning. 

Borrego Springs is a small town of nearly 3,400 residents which decreases significantly during the summer months when temperatures commonly exceed 48 degrees Celsius.  Shopping is limited to one small market, one bank, a few restaurants and a hardware store.  The pace could not be more different from Palm Springs and is incredibly relaxing.  Many in the area describe Borrego Springs as a Palm Springs that existed 50 years ago.

There are no stop lights in Borrego Springs and night time lighting is kept to a minimum to protect the extraordinary magnificence of the starlit sky.  Borrego Springs is situated  fifty five miles from the lights of the west coast.  It is designated as one of only two "International Dark Sky Communities" in the world. Huh......  The starry nights are spectacular!! But it is so dark that Linda was nearly ran over by a cyclist while out for a night time walk; she landed on her back side, but minimal lingering effects. 

We have kept busy with sightseeing, two rounds of golf and hiking.  There are many hiking trails in the area and this morning we trekked through an area called Slot Canyon.  Slot Canyon is a narrow crevice created by rushing water and can be more than a hundred feet deep.  It was a great adventure making our way down the approximate one-half mile trek through the canyon.

On the drive here, we followed the Salton Sea, a shallow, saline, lake located directly on the San Andreas Fault; the lake's surface is 226 feet below sea level and is California’s largest lake. In 1900 water from the Colorado River was diverted in the Salton Sink, a dry lake bed and became a very fertile area allowing farmers to plant crops. In 1905 the Colorado River flooded the area and destroyed the crops.  This flooding occurred every few years and led to the construction of the Hoover Dam north of Las Vegas to control the Colorado River.  The dam which was completed in 1935 put an end to the flooding.

  

We really enjoyed our stay here and will definitely be back  Tomorrow we head to Casa Grande, Arizona to spend a few days at the house before we fly to Florida for our cruise. Linda is hoping to get to the Phoenix Coyote and Oilers hockey game tomorrow night which will mean an early start to the day.  We also want to attend the Waste Management Open Golf Tournament starting on Thursday in Phoenix.  Retirement is a blast!!

Moving on.......................

Palm Springs averages 5 days of rain in the winter….we’ve experienced 2 of them!   So it’s been good days to laze around and catch up on emails, crib and rummy games, hot tub time, some pilates, and reading (yes Linda is into her second book!)

Wednesday and Thursday, before the rains, we golfed at Desert Dunes and Mesquite; Linda spent an incredible amount of time in sand, on both courses, and Ron had better rounds! We have been paired with really nice people on the courses and enjoyed the days.

We have also met many ‘residents’ around this resort from “home”; Rosalind, Camrose and Viking AB.   It truly is a small world with the ‘6 degrees of separation’. 

So it is time to move on; we have spent 15 wonderful days here in Palm Springs (we are already thinking of booking for next January and Linda has been touring the park for that “perfect spot”).  Trips to down town Palm Springs each Thursday evening for the street festival, 2 trips to the C.O.D. Street Fair on the weekends, a couple of happy hours at “Islands” (the best sliders!), the aerial tram, and Joshua tree park. Trader Joe’s is a great place to shop for groceries as they have many unique and delicious foods.  We’ve commented on some of the crazy drivers here. Speed limits are 45 – 55 MPH on most roads and traffic lights are still every couple of blocks, so the brakes get a work outJ  Can you believe Ron has a tough time keeping up?  To Borrego Springs.....

Joshua Tree National Park

Tuesday we visited Joshua Tree National Park, which covers 3,200 square kilometers and is an hour’s drive northwest of Palm Springs.  The name Joshua tree was given by a group of Mormon settlers who crossed the Mojave Desert in the mid-19th century. 

The tree's unique shape reminded them of a Biblical story in which Joshua reaches his hands up to the sky in prayer.  

Joshua Tree

As a side note, it was this religious significance that inspired Bono of U2 to name their 1986 album “The Joshua Tree” after touring the area.

There are many hiking trails of varying difficulty.  The differing geological landscape is fascinating as it changes considerably from the northwest area of the park which is part of the Mojave Desert and home to the Joshua tree. 

Ocotilla Cactus

As you travel southeast you enter the Colorado Desert which is part of the much larger Sonoran desert that spans southern Arizona and north western Mexico and features the Ocotillo and Cholla cacti.

Cholla Cactus

Hidden amongst the rocks are red diamond rattlesnakes and desert spiny lizards; glad it was cool enough so that no snakes were out!  Signs warned us not to place your hands in rock crevices when ascending the steep inclines.

Keys View Point’ provided an excellent panoramic view of the Eagle Mountains, the Coachella valley and beyond the Salton Sea to Mexico. In the valley floor, the San Andreas Fault is visible.

Our hike through Hidden Valley

Jumbo Rocks

Skull Rock

Another great day exploring new territory!

Street Fair

Sunday morning we headed to the ‘College of the Desert’ Street Fair. What a huge market, that takes place every weekend. After nearly 4 hours we came back with a few treasures. Then another beautiful afternoon at the pool.

And the highlight of the evening was the return of Oiler hockey. Even better with a win!  

Bye for now.

Patio Lanterns (and more)

The weather is warming every day and the sky is bright blue here. Morning and evening walks around the park take nearly an hour. We've had time sitting around the pool and R&R.

Linda was finally able to photograph one of the elusive hummingbirds which frequent our site.

We enjoyed our first round of golf  at Cathedral Canyon course; was a bit of a challenge for our first outing given the narrow fairways with plenty of homes to hit and water hazards.

We joined up with two very nice ladies with the same last name.  Linda remarked to them something about 'sisters' to which they smiled, but no reply:)  Linda momentarily forgot that we were in Palm Springs- just a little faux pas.  Unfortunately, one of the "sisters" tripped on the tee box on the third hole and badly sprained her ankle and they both had to leave.

A lot of water….hence Ron was able to “fish” frequently!

Linda won round one, marginally!!

Today we hit Shadow Mountain and again proved to be tough with narrow fairways and houses in close proximity.

Linda won round two handily  Could be a trend developing

We've hit a couple of tourist attractions. The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway was spectacular. It is the largest tramway in the world rotating 360 degrees for at least 2 full revolutions while ascending 6,000 feet to the summit of the San Jacinto Mountains which is 8,600 feet above sea level . 

Typically, the temperature between the valley floor and the top of the Tram is usually 30 degrees (F) cooler.  .

The views from the top of the mountain are incredible. To the south you can see the Salton Sea and all the way to Mexico.

Several kids brought their sleds up the tram and snowball fights took place; hard to believe atop the desert!

From the Tram you can see the San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm.  Development of the wind farm began in the 1980's and is one of three major wind farms in California.


The San Gorgonio Pass, the gateway into the Coachella Valley, is one of the windiest places in Southern California.  This wind farm contains more than 4,000 separate windmills and provides enough electricity to power Palm Springs and the entire Coachella Valley. The largest of these windmills stands 150 feet tall with blades half the legend of a football field. A wind turbine's cost can range upwards to $300,000 and can produce 300 kilowatts - the amount of electricity used by a typical household in a month.

Next stop were the Cabazon and Desert Hills Outlet Stores in Cabazon; self restraint!

Our friends Ray & Sandra LeBlanc and Don & Debbie McEwen surprised us, prior to our departure,  with a diddy they wrote to the tune of Patio Lanterns by Kim Mitchell, and with patio lanterns to adorn our awning.

You see Ron is rather fond of patio lights - all kinds, hot peppers, pumpkins, globes;  whereas, Linda, well....

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Palm Springs

Palm Springs!

Yikes…it is cold here, but doubt we are getting any sympathy from homeJ We departed L.V. late Saturday morning; as we hit the Mohave desert, at high-noon, the temperature was 2 degrees! Misconception of‘Desert’, meaning warmth, in the winter months! We also ‘pushed the envelope’ on our gas mileage and unfortunately had to get some diesel at a stop in the middle of the desert… at $4.99 / U.S gallon (and that’s only 4/5 of our real gallon!). Needless to say it was just enough to get us to the next larger city.

We have a great spot at the Outdoor Resort in Cathedral City. The Palm trees are beautiful and Linda loves the birds. She has been trying to capture “good” pics of the hummingbirds, with their beautiful vibrant colors of purple, greens and reds. They hover overhead but seem to be distracted by the camera and she is still working on the best shot! She has been tormenting the local roadrunner and it gets upset with ruffled feathers when she gets too close! Maybe time to invest in a camera with a better zoom lens before she gets attacked!

The resort golf course had a very lengthy frost delay, so we decided not to wait it out today. It was very windy and cold; we are glad we brought our down vests and fleeces with us. But the sun is beautiful and the sunsets are gorgeous. It just goes down too early over the mountain at 4 pm and then complete darkness by 5pm!

We have decided to stay here for 2 weeks and then will see where our journey takes us next. Will hopefully get golfing on Wednesday and will post pictures then!!

Sunrise

Nice friendly Roadrunner

Agitated Roadrunner being chased by woman with camera!

”How often are you going to blog?”

”How often are you going to blog?” is the question we are getting. Answer….only once or twice per week at the most....we are not going to bore you with ‘what we had for breakfast’.  Although the daily morning lattes that Ron makes are wonderful!

With Ron’s ‘winnings’ on the first night, we rationalized staying a few extra days in Vegas. We seem to have used those winnings over and over, and are still here this morning while our satellite system is being installed. Linda is happy that she will soon be able to watch some Oiler games.

The Consumer Electronics Show has been on all week, but it is not open to the public. Imagine Ron, the Gadget Guy, not able to go!  He even approached guys with CES name tags, in the casino to see how to get in; bribery doesn’t work.

And no golfing yet; yes, Linda is still here and hard to believe she hasn’t been on the links, but we have enjoyed the “fun” of Vegas.

 A trip to L.V. is not complete without a stop at Margaritaville; good eats and drinks, and fun atmosphere. The beautiful weather of the first 2 days has turned; high winds and much cooler yesterday, with the same forecast for the next couple of days. Temperature this morning is 0.  So it is time to move on to Palm Springs tomorrow.  R&L