Playing around Palm Springs

We attempted a road bike ride out of our 'rv resort' on Sunday afternoon. The winds (Santa Ana's) were killing us! We stopped along the way at a few of the 'golf communites' to look at the models and see what you get for the money. Nothing special, they are packed in tight. The amenities are nice if you like golf. It took us both a minute to figure out that the 1/2 size garage door on the side of the house was for your golf cart(our first thought, those would be great for bikes!). After about 10 miles of fighting the wind, we packed it in! The weather reports is calling for the Santa Ana's to be pretty active through Wednesday of this week, gust up to 50 mph. So, looks like we'll be hitting the hiking trails.

We found a trail that overlooks Palm Springs and headed up! The trail was rocky and loose, but the views overlooking the city were pretty spectacular.



We're finally getting to know all of the features of our digital camera. So, we decided to try out the self timing feature. It helps that the top of our hiking stick unscrews and acts a camera stand. So, here's our first attempt:



And I offer a bit of advice. Don't try to run over to your framed in shot when the trail is steep, loose and there is a drop-off on one side! (Don't ask how I know that)

After the hike, we headed over to the Palm Springs tramway to check it out. It takes you from 2,600' to 8,400' feet. You can see our pic, we were dressed pretty lightly. The temp where we were hiking was 73. The temp at the base of the tram was 60 and temp at the summit was 48! Needless to say, we decided to attempt the tram later in the week, with the proper attire.

For those interested, the mountain biking here is pretty much a bust. Too much sand. One trail desctription I read on-line says something about starting off with a 3 mile climb, 2 miles of which is walking through sand (and I thought riding in Traverse City was sandy?)! It looks like we'll have to save our moutain biking for next stop, Vegas.

Look for more later about the Palm tramway and Joshua tree National Park. For now, I have to go get an oil change in the Suzuki.

Rich