Finding Fault in Palm Springs

January 16 - February 4, 2022

Wow!  Palm Springs is pretty darn hard to find any fault in!  During winter, its temperatures are in the low 70’s for a high and mid 50’s for a low.  This makes for delightful days of being outdoors exploring as well as perfect temperature for a good night’s sleep.  There is a plethora of activities to do.  I truly believe we could stay here for a few years and still not see and do everything!  Many people must agree with me as the population of the area triples during the winter months.  Despite all of this, we did find a fault.  The San Andreas Fault!  I’ll talk more about that later!

Palm Springs RV Resort was “home” during our time in the Palm Springs area. Frankie loved being able to be off leash and play frisbee in the open desert next to the RV park!  Here we found our first Costa’s Hummingbirds!   I hadn’t anticipated seeing any hummingbirds, but we decided to give it a try and put the feeders up anyway.  I’m glad we did, as keeping the feeders full was almost a full-time project for these hungry birds!  

I am a huge lover of dates and, for as long as I can remember, have made and savored date bars at Christmas time. After arriving here, we learned the area is the date capital of the US!  We found fresh dates wherever we went!  No longer do I view date bars as a Christmas treat!  Good grief!  Why limit yourself in such a way?  We found date ice cream, date salad, date burgers, date just about anything!  Dates are everywhere you go.  In fact, our campground is among a grove of date palms!  We followed up on a recommendation (thanks Cyndi!) and toured Shields Date Garden where we learned about growing and harvesting dates by watching a 1950’s film called “Romance and Sex Life of the Date”.  I’m sure it was a pretty provocative title that got a lot of attention at that time.  Heck, it got me to walk into the theatre!  This business was established in 1924 by Floyd and Bess Shields.

In addition to their date farm, they have citrus trees, an ice cream shop, a restaurant, a gift shop and “The Walk”.  The Walk is a beautiful trail, winding through the date palms, citrus trees and other native vegetation.  As you begin the walk, there is a statue depicting the birth of Jesus.  Throughout the trail, you find other statues that tell the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. You can be sure we enjoyed one of their famous “date shakes” as we strolled the trail!

Farmer's markets are easy to find in the area.  We managed to go to several, including the Farmer in the Dale Farmer's Market in Sky Valley, and the Palm Desert Farmer’s market. In addition to fresh, yummy dates, we found strawberries, cherries, breads, spreads, squash, avocados, fresh cheese, walnuts, artichokes, and other vegetables.  Everything is so very fresh and delicious!

Hiking in the area is incredible!  We could stay here for a long time and never hike the same trail twice!  One of our favorites was the Pushawalla Palms Trail and the McCallum Trail at Coachella Valley Preserve.  It took us along the ridge out to the Pushawalla River, that actually had a little bit of water running!  

So, let’s talk about that fault.  The Coachella Valley Preserve is located directly on a portion of the San Andreas Fault! Really interesting!  The fault allows water to rise up to ground level along the fault.  In fact, during our time in Palm Springs, we hiked through several oases formed by the fault.  Currently, on Thursday mornings, the preserve offers a docent-led hike.  Along the hike, we learned a lot about the desert vegetation, including its uses historically by the indigenous tribes.  Harlan taught us so much by having us smell the smokey aroma of the creosote bush, tasting the fan palms small date fruit, viewing how the vegetation changes along the San Andreas fault zone from atop a hill, and understanding how the arrow weed was used to make lots of things (including arrows and grain baskets)!  We also hiked out to another oasis (created by the San Andreas Fault) to McCallum Pond.   New for us:  side-blotched lizards and Bewick’s Wren!  Catchy little bits of wisdom Harlan taught us:  Sedges have edges, grasses grow in masses, reeds are round! 

You could spend a week or more exploring Joshua Tree National Park, but we enjoyed two days of visiting the park.  Although the park was geographically very close to us, the mountains get in the way of reaching it.  This made it an hour drive there.  Still easier and quicker than hiking those mountains to get there!  Highlights of Joshua Tree were:

Hiking Hidden Valley Trail – where cattle rustlers hid and rebranded stolen cattle in the late 1800s.

Barker Dam, built in 1949-50 to provide water for livestock.

We called it "Butt Crack Rock"!

Hidden Valley Trail

Hidden Valley Trail

Hidden Valley Trail

Keys View, which is a popular spot to view the sunset.  While we didn’t stay for the sunset, we did really appreciate the view.

Rock climbers take on some of these rock formations

Hiking the Skull Rock Trail loop that includes a small tour of Jumbo Rocks campground.  It’s primitive camping, so if you don’t mind not having hookups, this looks like a wonderful place to camp!

Skull Rock Trail

Skull Rock

While we were visiting Joshua Tree, the Santa Ana winds blew up!  I now have a much better appreciation for what that actually looks like!  We had left windows open so Frankie wouldn’t get too hot and came back to find more than a little sand to clean up inside the camper!  The Santa Ana winds came back for a second time a week later.  This time, we were better prepared and left the camper closed up tight, but with the A/C running.  We also found that the masks we are all wearing come in very handy when in the desert during a wind storm!  We even saw a dog out for a walk with goggles on!  I so wish I had been able to get a picture of the German Shepherd with goggles on!  He looks pretty awesome!  Although we had the camper all buttoned up for the second go at these winds, we had treated ourselves to having the camper professionally cleaned the day before.  Oops!  That didn't last long!

College of the Desert hosts a Street Fair every Saturday and Sunday.  Yes, you can buy dates and other produce there as well as about anything else you may want.  We bought several things, including That’s Ridiculous vegetable peelers!  I’m pretty sure there must be a YouTube on the gadgets.  

Old Town La Quinta!

During our stay, we attended mass at a couple of different churches.  My favorite was St. Francis of Assisi.  Their crucifix was very unique.  It depicted St. Francis embracing Jesus on the cross.  It’s based on a painting in the Museum of Fine Arts of Seville.  It symbolizes the moment in Francis of Assisi’s life when he renounced all worldly goods to embrace the religious life.

We also went to Indian Canyons a couple of times.  There we hiked the Andreas Loop, Andreas South Loop, and Palm Canyon trail that connects to the Victor trail.  There we found more oases and, yep, we found that San Andreas Fault again!

The fruit of the California Fan Palm is small, but delicious!

Last September, we camped outside of Yosemite and met Cyndi and Vince, who we saw again in Pismo Beach!  They live in the area and had asked us to let them know when we were “in the Desert”.  I actually didn’t understand the Palm Springs area is nicknamed “The Desert” and it took me a bit to figure out what Cyndi was talking about!  Unfortunately, Cyndi and Vince were on a trip to Arizona, so it didn’t work out for us to get together.  The good news was Cyndi recommended The Well Spa to us!  We spent a good portion of a day there and all I can say is WOW!!!  We enjoyed eucalyptus steam rooms, swimming pool, hot bath, massages, and a delicious lunch.  A big shout out to our masseuses and a huge thank you to Cyndi for the recommendation!   

The Living Desert Zoo and Gardens was another full and delightful day!  There, we learned about the animals and vegetation of deserts in North America, Africa and Australia.  Seeing and learning about the Black Rhino, gazing at the Grevey’s Zebra, walking with the Wallabies … was all amazing.  My favorite part of the day was the five-mile hike up Eisenhower Mountain that leaves right from the zoo!  Along the walk was a very informative display about … the San Andreas Fault!    After hearing about this fault line for a lifetime, it was super cool to read the information, see the evidence of the fault line’s location and hike along where the Pacific and North American tectonic plates meet!  I finally get it!  Nothing like living it, rather than reading about it!

The Palm Springs Air Museum had been recommended to us several times so we spent an afternoon checking out WWII planes.  We were able to climb around inside a B-17 bomber and see a TBM Avenger torpedo bomber, which is the plane George H. W. Bush was flying when he was shot down.  The entire museum was so very well put together!  It includes many videos and artifacts that do an amazing job of telling the story of World War II as well as the Cold War!

Tahquitz Canyon, in Palm Springs, provided us with an interesting and fun two-mile looping trail which leads to Tahquitz Falls and back.  The area was home for the Agua Caliente people 1500 years ago.  Evidence of their habitation here includes rock art and bedrock mortars.  

On Thursday evenings, Palm Springs hosts Village Fest!  We decided to head to downtown early to look around a little before Village Fest began.  The sidewalks of downtown Palm Springs include their own version of the Walk of Stars.  This is certainly appropriate as many of the stars owned homes here; many even have streets named after them.  The statues of Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe, and Sonny Bono were fun finds as well!  Dinner at Las Casuelas Terraza provided delicious meals, charming ambiance, and live music to boot!  Following dinner, we strolled the streets that had been shut down to traffic and opened up to venders.  My only purchase was fresh dates, although there were over 180 venders vying for our attention. 

Idyllwild is a small, mountaintop town 50 miles west of Palm Springs.  We took a day to explore the quaint town!  While there, we enjoyed a cup of joe from High Grounds Coffee Shop -- appropriately named as Idyllwild is at 5,308 feet above sea level!  I also found a little quilt shop and bought a few fat quarters for my next sewing project.  While there, we met Max, the town’s mayor who happens to be a golden retriever.  Idyllwild is an unincorporated town, so Max was fully qualified for the position!  We enjoyed dinner and a beer at Idyllwild Brewpub.  It offered patio dining with fantastic views of the adjacent pine forest.  The town has a wood carving featuring area wildlife that won an award in 2012 for the world’s best use of Gorilla Glue.  It’s worth a look if you ever find yourself there!

The one activity that EVERYONE said is a “must do” in the area, we didn’t do!  I just couldn’t talk myself into taking the aerial tram to the top of an 8,000-foot mountain.  I simply don’t enjoy heights and I didn’t feel the need to experience the snow at the top of the mountain.  Goodness, I’ve had a lifetime of snowy winters!  Nope.  I took a firm “pass” on the opportunity.  I do understand most people highly recommend it.  The views are said to be magnificent and it would be quite the contrast to go from desert climate to snow in a matter of minutes.  Who knows, maybe I’ll do it next time we are here.  One thing is for sure, this place is special and I certainly plan on returning!

Next up:  Death Valley National Park!