Humans have occupied the area encompassed by Joshua Tree National Park's nearly 800,000 acres for at least 5,000 years. The higher, drier, and slightly cooler Mojave Desert is the special habitat of the Joshua Tree for which the park is named. In addition to Joshua Tree forests, the western part of the park includes some of the most interesting geologic displays found in California's deserts. The dominant geologic features of this landscape are hills of bare rock, usually broken up into loose boulders. These hills are popular amongst rock climbing enthusiasts. We did several hikes within the park including a visit to the Oasis of Mara. The Chemehuevi Indians moved to the oasis in 1871. This was also a Serrano campsite in ancient times. This was the only water for miles around . Food was provided by waterfowl and desert dwelling animals that came for a drink. Next was a trek to Barker Dam which was constructed by early cattlemen, including rancher William F. Keys whose homestead is available for a tour. The dam and watering trough are gathering places for desert wildlife such as Desert Bighorn Sheep and also includes many species of birds, e.g.the Greater Roadrunner, Cactus Wrens, Mockingbirds, Le Conte's Thrashers, Verdins and Gambel's Quails. We also saw Native American petroglyphs. We were also fortunate enough to see two Desert Tortoise. They spend 95% of their time in burrows so we considered ourselves very lucky to be able to view them. They are only found in this locale and are, unfortunately, on the endangered list. The scenary in Joshua Tree NP is awesome as you'll hopefully see in some of the attached pictures. Twentynine Palms, is home to our LARGEST US Marine Base, the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center so, as you can imagine, there were a LOT of happy faces after the news of last Sunday evening. While in the area we also went to Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, which is an internationally-recognized birding site. Several rare or unusual species are known to nest here, and many other species are abundant during the spring and fall migration seasons. Additionally, we went to PioneerTown which was built in 1946 as a movie set for western movies, including the movies of Gene Autry, The Cisco Kid, Annie Oakley , Judge Roy Bean, Range Rider, Buffalo Bill. We also had an enjoyable lunch with Robbie and Jerry, some fine folks whom we met last year while in Oklahoma City and capped off the four days with a trip into the desert at ten o'clock at night to view the skies. We're here to tell you that we saw MORE stars than we ever imagined were in our heavens. The clean, crisp air of the high desert, coupled with the lack of any surface or city light really provides a star-gazers dream. It was fantastic and was the perfect way to cap off our visit to Joshua Tree.
Next it was on to Palm Springs where we spent another terrific four days. We started with a visit to the Salton Sea which was formed between 1905 and 1907 when the Colorado River burst through poorly built irrigation controls south of Yuma, Arizona. Almost the entire flow of the river filled the Salton Basin for more than a year, inundating communities, farms and the main line of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The Sea is currently 228 feet below sea level. Interestingly, the bed of the Salton Sea is only five feet higher than the lowest spot in Death Valley. Fish were introduced to the lake, and by 1920 it was a major tourist destination. As with any lake without an outlet, the Salton Sea became salty. In the 1950s, the Salton Sea was a greater tourist draw than Yosemite National Park. The saline levels continued to increase and spawned an algae bloom. In 1960, California’s Fish and Game Commission announced that they feared the Salton Sea would be dead within fifteen years. The water and the fish were deemed “unhealthy” and by the 1970s the resorts and tourists were history. The entire area was relegated to use only for irrigating and a wildlife preserve. There are miles and miles of deserted buildings, dilapidated structures and plat after plat of “ghost developments”.
The next day, Thursday, we attended a performance of the FABULOUS Palm Springs Follies; what a delight! The Follies are a world-famous, Broadway-caliber celebration of the music, dance, and comedy of the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s with a cast old enough to have lived it! That's right, the Long-Legged Lovelies and Follies Gentlemen all range in age from 56 to 81 and they are INCREDIBLE. Also on the bill was the comedy of Riff Markowitz (he was hilarious), the juggling of Rejean St.Jules (whose juggling sequence was both high tech and impeccably choreographed to a dynamic musical score) and several songs from the Four Preps, whom I'm sure many will remember from the sixties (when they performed their hits like Santa Catalina - Twenty-nine Miles to...). It was an all-around GREAT show and we would recommend it to all. Thursday evening was spent at VillageFest. Once a week the City of Palm Springs closes off seven blocks of their downtown area and it becomes a street fair complete with all kinds of vendors. There was fresh produce, home-baked goods, LOTS of street food, art and many musicians and street-performers. It was a fun time, we bought some neat things and capped the evening off by dining outside where, even though it was still in the 90s, it was quite pleasant - there is virtually NO humidity. Did we mention that every day the temperature has gone over 100 degrees? But, it really has not been too unbearable. We feel fortunate to be here now. Within the next couple weeks many shops and shows are closing for the season because the mercury will really start rising!
Friday we went on tours of the Date Farms in Indio which account for nearly 100% of all dates produced nationally. We went on tours, viewed videos, ate dates and even drank date shakes; which weren't too bad but we thought they were a little too sweet to make a steady diet. We learned that Date Palms are grown from offshoots of the mother tree. Date palms are said to live with "their feet in water and their heads in the sun," which means they must have plenty of ground water, yet thrive in arid, high heat to produce fruit. This is why date palms grow only in hot, dry desert climates throughout the world. It is a very labor-intensive crop necessitating hand-pollination of every fruit-bearing tree.
On Saturday we started the day at 8 AM with a three-hour ranger-led hike up Tahquitz Canyon. Centuries ago, ancestors of the Agua Caliente Cahuilla (pronounced Kaw-we-ah) Indians settled in the Palm Springs area. The Agua Caliente Indians were industrious and creative with a reputation for independence, integrity and peace. The hike was pretty strenuous but the spectacular 60 foot waterfall at the top of the canyon, the rock art, ancient irrigation systems and artifacts, along with cultural and educational exhibits made the trek well worthwhile. Next we went to Desert Hot Springs where we visited one of Peter Toth’s Indian carvings. Toth escaped the Soviet invasion of Hungary with his family and as a gift to his adopted country, he has carved a giant log into a sculpted head in every single state to honor our Native American past. Collectively these are known as the "Trail of the Whispering Giants" and this one, Waokiye (meaning “Traditional Helper” in the language of the Lakota Sioux), in Desert Hot Springs, is the 27th in the series. We have viewed Peter Toth’s carved Indians in other states during our travels and hope to continue to see as many as possible. We also saw
Cabot's Pueblo Museum which is a Hopi-inspired Pueblo located in the heart of Desert Hot Springs. The structure is hand-made and was created from reclaimed and found objects. It was built by Cabot Yerxa on property he homesteaded in 1913. He worked on the property until his death in 1965. Cabot journeyed through the desert; gathering reclaimed materials from as far east as the Salton Sea, north to Morongo Valley, south to Palm Springs and west to White Water. The Pueblo is four-stories, 5,000 square feet and includes 35 rooms, 150 windows and 65 doors. There are many unique features: including windows and doors collected and reassembled from abandoned homesteads, old telephone poles, buck board wagon parts and many other materials used creatively. Another stop in Desert Hot Springs was to see the VW Spider. This giant "black widow" guards the entrance to a warehouse known as "Hole In The Wall," which was formerly a welding shop and a Volkswagen repair shop. The shell of an old Volkswagen Beetle provides the body for the huge spider. The legs were crafted from large tubes, and it has a menacing "mouth", a red “hourglass" on it’s underbelly and a series of barbs at various leg joints. Quite a sight to behold! We just love these offbeat sights of “Americana”. Our last treat in Palm Springs was the Aerial Tramway. This is the world’s largest rotating tramcar. We left from the desert floor and experienced a breathtaking journey up the sheer cliffs of Chino Canyon, ascending in ten minutes to the the Mountain Station at an elevation of 8,516 ft! What an experience and what a view.
So, as you can see, we've had a VERY EXCITING week-and-a-half and now it's off to San Diego. We're leaving the desert but it has been very beautiful in its own stark way.
Here is a link to enable you to see some pictures of everything I mentioned:
http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=12d75a4ec4dce698bcfd7207a7b1fe91&sid=0Sbs27hoxZMmu
And we welcome any email correspondence at PFerraro1@cfl.rr.com
Stay safe, take care and keep in touch,
Pat & Judy
PS - we'll send more news down the road...
1 comment:
Oops . . . I guess Becca was signed in. But, I'm thrilled to see your travel news.
Sandra
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