Palm Springs CA

11/24/2018

Fooled you I bet:)

It was actually just palm trees, in the desert, at a spring. Yesterday we went off in search of an area spring called Clapp Springs. With our sketchy directions and little to no cell service we never made in the correct direction even. Please note here, that out in the wilds, 3 separate times, we met a local and none of the 3 had ever heard of the spring we were looking for.

We were victorious today though. With a better grasp of the lay of the land and slightly better directions we made it. The writeup said it was a year round spring, obviously the drought is having an effect because not only did we not find any water, we didn’t even see any damp earth, I mean dry as a bone. While we could have driven all the way to the spring, the writeup said that it was longer allowed, and we could see where post were put across the road, which someone promptly started going around.

It was a good day for a walk only where I was thinking I read 1/2 mile in, it turned out to be almost a mile each way, couple that with the fact that we didn’t grab a hat or water out of the jeep at the beginning of our walk……… we easily survived, but we did get a little warm, I know some of you are in the Frozen North, but it was almost hot this morning, I was sweaty by the time we made it back to the jeep for a cool glass of water.

Be sure to check out the 360 video  from where we started out hike and other pictures on RMTravels.smugmug.com.

11/25/2918

We drove around 70 miles today, all but 10 or so off pavement. I gotta say we were in some of the most desolate inhospitable places today. To start with the ground was covered in small rocks, then it looked like the rocks had been pressed into the ground with a steam roller. I guess over thousands of years the rain settled the rocks into the ground. In many of these areas the only thing growing was in the very shallow water runways, each of these shallow, only a few inches deep, channels had plants growing in them. Then the deeper the wash got the greener and more abundant the vegetation was. You could look out across the landscape and judge how deep it was by how green and dense the vegetation was.

Other places were much like areas I have sadly attempted to describe in the past. Lots of rock, mountains, lots of smaller rocks covering vast areas with sparse vegetation, mostly scrub brush, and a few other plants and cacti,  growing here and there.

Oh, by the way, what I’m calling scrub brush is probably creosote plants, but don’t quote me on that.

We’re parked at a county park, near the small town of Palo Verde CA, next to a small lake, next to the Colorado River. We’re also right on the time change border, Mary’s watch keeps picking up AZ time.

The Pictures are random shots from our stay here and of course from the spring we found today.

Also, down  at the sand dunes, there is probably plenty of space to camp now, yesterday 4 out of 5 vehicles on the road was some kind of camper pulling something built to play in the sand.

Hey, don’t worry if you in stuck the cold shivering and shaking, your fingers getting numb while you’re scrapping ice and snow off your windshield for the drive home, I’ll be thinking of you. Of course I will be, how else could I rub in that I’m kicked back in the shade of a palm tree with my Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian shirt on reading some best seller about life in the tropics.

This may be the last post for a while. We’re going to be staying in 1 spot for the month of December and probably January.