12-23-2010 A Sunny Day in the Desert

 

Finally! When the sun does come out, it is as though I can breathe the light.  I am a light addict, I know.  Mo says often, “Quit worrying about it, you can’t change it”.  I want blue skies, maybe a few puffy whites around, and 75 to 80 degrees or so.  Isn’t that why we have an RV?? I am certainly not complaining about our gorgeous day today, however, not one bit.  We started out with a swim around 4:30 am in the 24/7 hot spring pool.  If you can’t sleep in this park, just go swimming.  Funny thing, by 5:30 there were some other folks showing up.  Crazy, I know, but it sure felt good on the bones that are tired of all the rain.

Today instead of hiking, we decided to try out the Palm Springs Aerial Tram. Knowing how quickly after a rain the skies can get hazy, I was glad that we left early in the morning  and beat the crowds. 

We heard many languages spoken on the tram and in the visitor’s centers, and even had a great conversation with a local Palm Springs resident who was sharing the great tourist attraction with visiting relatives.  I think I’ll just link to the tram information since the hour is late and I am a bit worn.  Lazy? Maybe, but why rewrite it all?  Sometimes people tend to avoid touristy attractions, but often they are attractions for a good reason.

The quick, slick, smooth ride from the desert to the snowy mountaintop was breathtaking, and worth every single penny.  Maybe it isn’t something you have to do more than once, but I wouldn’t have missed it.

We capped off the tram ride with a great long walk through some wide open desert along the flooding wash north of Palm Springs.  Sadly, almost all of the nice hiking trails in this area are not dog friendly, with even leashed dogs prohibited from the trails.

We wandered off into the desert toward the huge windmills that fill the valley, unencumbered by rules, people, or anything else to bother us except the ever present desert garbage. 

I just don’t get the garbage thing, but it seems to be strewn everywhere, huge piles of household trash, shoes, books, hangars.  Abby didn’t care, and we didn’t either as long as we just kept looking up to the gorgeous skies and brilliantly shadowed mountains capped with fresh snow.  It was a beautiful day and a beautiful walk.

  The garbage of humankind can be ignored I guess, if you try hard enough. Is it somewhat strange that all this garbage and all this opulence are just a few hundred yards apart?

After our walk, we wandered around the back streets of north Palm Springs, checking out Elvis Presley’s honeymoon house and other idyllic homes on soft quiet streets. In spite of all the road closures, we managed to find a route west of the valley that took us through open countryside and avoided another tiresome stop and go run down busy highway 111 through the palm towns. I took a ton of photos today, tried to delete as many as possible, but just couldn’t resist the magnificent vistas of desert sky and mountains.