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Published: November 30th 2009
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We were up early, ready and on time waiting for our guide/driver, Lewis. The hummer arrived, and it was one mean machine!! It was an original military vehicle built for the Gulf War, all refurbished, wheels all separately driven, chasis two feet off the ground.......(Verne is feeding me this info). Anyway, we all climbed aboard and off we went down the highway. The morning was rather cool but the air fresh as we whipped along. Highway to secondary road, to rarely traveled, to sand road, to trail......into the desolate depths of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts and the Joshua Tree National Park. This park of 800,000 acres has so much history and contains the oldest canyons in the country, incredible rock formations, an ancient volcano and a landscape much the same as those news photos of Afghanistan you have seen in the media. As I said, - desolate - and we were in the middle of it! The Joshua Tree is intrinsic to this area with hundreds of them dotting the sparse landscape. They are interesting trees, as you will see in the photos with "arms" pointing to the heavens. These trees were named by the early Morman settlers who
Home of the Mountain Lion
We never did see him....apparently he loves to sit here and enjoy the view! traveled this pass, as it reminded them of Biblical Joshua with his arms outstreached pointing the way. Before the Mormans, Indian tribes also took this trail as they traversed from one area to another. How the settlers ever accomplished this feat in wagon trains, I will never know. I have much more respect for these early pioneers...than ever!!! Early goldmining was done in this region as well, with remnants of the mines still visible. In 1924 the beginning of the roadway was built to enable workers to travel to the construction sites of the underground aquaduct that runs through the Coachella Valley, which was built to bring water from the Colorado River. It was quite a feat back then and was considered one of the seven man made wonders of the world.
The trip into the canyon was .....well, as I later explained to Tianna....."If I was a quart of milk....I would quickly become a block of cheese!!" Shaking, bumping, thumping, jumping....sometimes each side of the hummer was on two diferent levels...we held on for dear life. When the guide drove over particularly uneven terrain...he would exclaim "Yee Haw!!!"...and Verne would say "Whooaa". (Verne is still feeling the effects
The road into the Canyon!
This was a better part of the road. I couldn't take photos of the bad part....I was holding on too tight! of our Hummer adventure!!!) At our stop off point before we turned to go back, we climbed Summit Hill to view the Salton Sea in the far distance...and views that stretched over 200 miles. It was all pretty amazing. David commented on the quiet and stillness of the area.
On the way back we stopped off at Thousand Palms Oasis in the Coachella Valley to hike over a barely substantial walkway across a branch of the San Andreas Fault where water gurgles to the surface. It is said to be the third largest oasis in the world. Looks something like an area that might exist in Hawaii. But the Oasis wasn't "in the middle of nowhere sitting amid miles of desert sand dunes" as I expected. The soil was decomposing granite, at one time a sea bed.
Later in the day, Maria, Tianna and I were on the highway once again making our way to the Desert Palms Mall....a high end mall where shoppers had lined up at 10 pm the night before in order to get in on the "black Friday" bargains! There were still lineups to get into the stores when we arrived. The shoppers all
Joshua Tree
As we got further into the Canyon...there were hundreds of them of all sizes. carried many, many bags of brand name merchandise! And did I hear there was a recession happening in the U.S.??? I read in the newspaper today that black Friday made the retailers smile with billions of dollars worth of sales. The tour guide told us his hummer adventure tours have never been busier....a record year! Go figure!!!
On Saturday before we left Palm Desert....we went to Shields Date Farm...and their store that sells fresh dates and other goodies. Shields has been in the date farm business since 1924. It was so interesting to see the movie....The Romance and Sex Life of A Date......really!! The production of the medjool date is truly amazing. The date palms take 10 years to grow and then produce.....there is a male and female date palm. The female palms are pollinated by hand.....the date growers take the pollen from the male date flower, shake it into a powder and spray it over the female flowers.....all having to be done at a certain time of the development of the pollen and flower. Now I know why Medjool Dates are so very expensive and we only seem to see this variety at Christmas. It is a labour
intensive process and that is an understatement! The many different varieties were all so fresh and wonderful. We enjoyed many free samples, plus we had "date shakes"!!! I bought 5 lbs. of dates, and other interesting goodies such as dried fruit slices covered in chilli powder - which Verne and I just love!
We love Palm Desert - there are so many wonderful and amazing things to see and do. And then the weather is pretty good as well!!!
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