Indio, CA (Part 2)

FRI., DEC 16, 2022 thru SAT., DEC 31, 2022

This post will continue on with the second half of our month in the Palm Springs area…

On Friday, Dec. 16th, Gary & I visited Joshua Tree National Park. On the drive there, we passed a huge wind farm that is located northwest of Palm Springs. I will forever more associate this wind farm with Palm Springs because you pass it every time you go anywhere near the city.

The Joshua Tree supposedly got its name from the Mormons after the biblical figure, Joshua. The Mormons saw the limbs of the tree as outstretched in supplication, guiding the travelers westward. The Joshua tree isn’t actually a tree, but a species of yucca. They can grow over 40 ft. tall at the leisurely rate of an inch a year. The older the tree, the more “arms” it has. The Joshua Tree has clusters of cream-colored flowers that bloom February thru April soooo no blooms for us to see in December! 

We walked a great trail called Hidden Valley. On another trail we saw a wedding taking place. It was so beautiful. They even had their dog there. We could hear the ceremony. It was so quiet. And we drove to a lookout called “Keys View.” Super windy and cold there. At least 15 – 20 degrees cooler there than where we were in Indio.

This area is a mecca for climbers! We saw several throughout the day. 

Half of Joshua Tree National Park lies in the Mojave Desert at elevations above 3,000 ft. This is where you’ll find the Joshua trees and boulder stacks. The rocks or boulders occurred naturally over millions of years ago due to volcanic activity, the shifting earth, and ground water.

The other half of the park lies in the Colorado Desert. This is where you’ll find green-barked palo verde trees, California’s fan palms and tons of cholla (pronounced choy-ah) cactus. There was a naturally occurring “Cholla Cactus Garden.” It took our breath away! It was soooo large. As one fellow tourist said “I feel like I’m at the bottom of the ocean.” They are also known as Teddy Bear Cholla.

All of Joshua Tree is beautiful and so very different than the National Parks we’ve recently visited in Utah!

Sun., Dec. 18th, Gary & I did the Palm Springs Windmill Tour. We saw a 13-minute film,  viewed some of the placards in the office, and were sent on our way with a downloaded app of their self-guided driving tour which included a turbine graveyard to wander through. In the graveyard was an older model turbine (windmill) blade laying across the ground. 85 ft long. Typical land-based turbine blades are now twice that length. And off-shore wind turbines can be 351 ft long. The length of a football field. Unbelievable. We’ve seen turbine blades being transported on the highway. Just massive. They also had an older lattice-tower-style wind turbine laying on it’s side, which required more maintenance than the new sleeker more modern design. Each of the bolts on the lattice tower… and there were a lot of bolts… had to be periodically checked by human hands. I can see why that design went by the wayside. 

This area in California is particularly good for wind turbines because of a constant wind that typically blows through the San Gorgonio Pass. California gets about 7% of its energy from wind. There are over 2,000 windmills in the Coachella Valley. Initially established in 1982, the Palm Springs wind farms have become the most iconic feature of the area. They are north of the city and can be seen from either side of I-10. The windmills can operate with as little as 7 mph wind speed. They will shut off at sustained winds of 50 mph. Some of the wind turbines in Palm Springs are taller than the Statute of Liberty. 

There was also a solar farm on the property. Solar and wind can make similar amounts of energy using the same amount of space. But farmers still have room for crops at the base of the blades whereas with solar they do not. Nowadays farmers and ranchers leasing land to wind farm companies is an added source of revenue for them. They can get $5,000 per year for each turbine placed on their property.

While it was interesting, Gary probably enjoyed it more than I did. A little techie for my brain, but I now know more about wind energy than I did before! By the way, both terms are correct… windmills and turbines… but “turbines” is more commonly used now. 

On Monday, Dec. 19th, Mary & I headed to Moorten Botanical Garden in Palm Springs. A privately owned arboretum that began in 1938. A small area but packed with 3,000 varieties of desert plants placed in concentrated habitats. They even had part of a wall on the premises that was once part of the first Palm Springs Hotel. It was torn down in 1957. The wall was reassembled here by the Moortens to preserve a piece of Palm Springs history. The Cactus Castle, the Mooreten’s Mediterranean style home was also on the premises and appears to still be occupied today. 

Then with Mary’s rental car, we were able to drive into the Mesa section of Palm Springs, near the arboretum, and sneak a view at some very nice homes!

From there we headed to Indian Canyons, the ancestral home of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians. We did a hike around Andreas Canyon with its flowing Andreas Creek, rock formations, and magnificent fan palms. Absolutely gorgeous! 

Gary missed out but he enjoyed his “me time.” We had a great dinner together at our tiny home afterwards with Mary’s steaks, and capped off the evening by watching a holiday movie… Trading Places. One of our faves! 

Tuesday was a fun day chillin’ around the campground with Mary before she flew home on Wednesday. We will miss her. But we look forward to catching up with her again on the road this summer. 

The next week saw the return of the Hannafords from New Hampshire and the four of us celebrating a very fun Christmas together. We spent time by the pool, played games, ate great food and drank an adult beverage or two! We also exchanged Christmas gifts with the Hannafords, but since we are living in tiny homes, our gifts are practical! We gave them a gift certificate for our filtered Reverse Osmosis Water, and they gave us a replacement cover for our propane fire pit. The original cover had landed in the bottom of the pond at a Houston campground last spring when the wind took it.

Also the four of us finally saw the Harvey Girls DVD, which I had purchased while we were visiting Winslow, AZ. The Harvey Girls is the story of the pioneering women who worked as waitresses at Fred Harvey’s restaurants along the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway from the 1880s through the 1950s. We came across information about the Harvey Girls throughout our travels in Arizona and other towns out west.  These 100,000 amazing young women, between 18 and 30 years of age, found a freedom they had never known before. Such a fascinating documentary of strong and adventurous young women coming of age! 

On Wed., Dec. 28th, we made a repeat visit with C&J to the Sonny Bono Rec Area, Bombay Beach and Salton Sea. What a treat! It was a gorgeous day in Southern CA with brilliant sun and warm temps! As I’ve already written about the Salton Sea and Bombay Beach earlier in this post, these pics are mostly of the birds we saw with a few shots from Bombay Beach. We were blessed with seeing a flock of white pelicans, Sandhill Cranes, black-necked stilts, migrating snow geese, Gambel’s Quail, Western Sandpipers, Blue-Winged Teals, and Bonaparte Gulls. So named to honor a cousin of Napoleon Bonaparte who made important contributions to American ornithology.

A very fun day! 

On Thurs., Dec. 29th, Gary & I were awakened to hearing the whoosh of propane and realized it was coming from a hot air balloon directly over head. That beat the following morning’s wake up due to a low level earthquake in the area and our tiny home shaking slightly. Never a dull moment! 

Our days in Indio were drawing to a close so that meant chores had to be done. But we did manage to head out one evening for pizza with the Hannafords at a local restaurant called Mario’s Italian Cafe where they offered $5 glasses of wine filled to the brim. Don’t know how the servers could carry them without spilling. We got there early so they were $4 happy hour glasses of wine. Wow. And the pizza was also good. 

We had a lovely New Year’s Eve with C&J, which included Mexican Train, plenty of appetizers by moi and a Chinese feast prepared by Cheryl. The next day was going to be a sad farewell as we were temporarily parting company with the Hannafords for two months since we were going in different directions. The pod will reunite in Galveston, TX on March 1st.

But in the meantime we have places to explore including Death Valley, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tucson and beyond. Stay tuned.