La Quinta, CA

As mentioned in a previous blog, some friends recommended Lake Cahuilla County Park.  They mentioned they liked the area – I agree!!  The campground is basically a typical county campground, just basic sand/gravel sites with electric and water hookups. The best part is it is one of the cheapest parks around, California campgrounds can be expensive.    It does have a lake that I walked around each morning (about 2.5 miles).  Here is a picture just prior to sunrise from just in front of my site.

Lake Cahuilla is in La Quinta, CA which is in the Palm Springs area. 

I took the Palm Springs Aerial Tram up to the top of Mt. San Jacinto.  You leave from 2643 ft and end up at 8516 feet.  On the day I went there was 2 – 3 feet of snow at the top! The Tram is the world’s largest rotating tram, they say it holds 80 people.

I also discovered the Living Desert – wow, what a great place.  It’s similar to the museum in Tucson, Arizona except this museum shows examples of many types of deserts.  I laughed at myself, one day I was hiking in snow and the next I’m sweating in the desert – as I mentioned this is an interesting area.

I took one of their walks and the leader pointed out this hummingbird nest and while he was talking the hummingbird showed up.

I only had a few hours at this park, I’ll be going back before I leave the area. 

Joshua Tree National Park was fairly close, so I went for a day trip.  I was hoping they would be in bloom, but only a few were blooming.  It’s probably another couple of weeks before their peak blooming time.  The Joshua Tree is an interesting “tree”.  For one it’s not really a tree, but in the lily family – the same family as the yucca.  Actually it looks like a tree with small yucca’s at the end of each branch.