YOLO folks in Palm Springs, CA, April 2019
My cousin, Terri and Bill, who invited us to stay with them in their condo in Cathedral City, CA. Palm Desert, Palm Springs and Cathedral City all kind of blur together in this area. A luxury for us and it had been ages since I'd seen my cuz.
We visited the Living Desert Zoo and Gardens for a day--a wonderful place! This metal art is a lion family.
A giraffe in metal art, too.
These giraffes are real and hungry.
A young mother giraffe. Her baby is just right of the palm in the center of the picture.
All knobs and eyelashes. I love the design on these animals.
Such a long skinny neck to hold up that head.
They come to feed for the trainer.
A curious look on this one.
Even the baby eventually shows up for the feed bucket.
The trainer uses a tennis ball on a stick to get the giraffe to follow commands. The giraffe gets a treat for putting his nose against the ball on command to focus.
Such majestic bearing.
Kids play on the metal wart hogs while real ones laze about behind them.
Some of the wart hogs are smart enough to seek the shade of the tree.
Cheetahs know when it's feeding time, too.
Lean, mean, running machine.
They just circle the enclosure and wear a path in the grass.
A crowd waits on the other side of the moat for the feeding, while the cheetahs laze around waiting for the same thing.
Yawns of boredom?
A hummingbird was pulling threads of silk from a spider web on the railing.
The hummingbird is just a tiny spot in the middle of this picture.
The hyenas walking around their pen.
A colorful place to take a rest.
Some blooming cactus in the desert.
Terri taking a rest in one of the chairs.
Looked so good, I had to join her!
Momma and baby bighorn sheep. The baby was only a couple of weeks old.
Daddy bighorn sheep has the big curly horns.
The whole family was drawn to eat the alfalfa the staff spread around.
This crazy cactus looks like a cartoon character.
Pretty cactus flowers.
The buds look like toes on this cactus. A 9-toed cactus?
More unusual shapes in cactus
Purple cactus? We saw many of these, actually, some in the wild.
The small sharp barbs on this one didn't invite touching, but I think it is used to create fibers for weaving.
One of the wolves circling his pen through the water pond. They just kept circling and circling...
These pecarry babies were scrunched in between the adults.
This bob-tailed cat looked like he'd be soft and cuddly.
A big desert lizard.
Jason next to a spineless cactus. It looked naked without the needles.
Terri, Bill and Jason in the cactus garden at the Living Desert.
This one's spines were so numerous, they looked like white hair.
This leggy purple cactus looks like an octopus.
This tall spike of a cactus was sporting blooms.
Lots of blooms looking ready to break out on this one, too.
Pretty lavender flowers on this prickly cactus.
This ocatillo has bright orange flowers on the end of the stalks. We saw lots of these providing glimpses of color along the roads, too.
Who has the hardest head? Who is the most stubborn?
The familiar Colorado columbine was blooming here, too.
This place had the largest model train setup I've ever seen! This was the first part we came to.
The cowboy here has lassooed himself a dinosaur!
Trains were running everywhere.
Karen at the pool at the condo.
The entry to the San Jacinto tram at Palm Springs. It had just opened a few days before after repairs.
Terri, Bill, and Jason heading to the tram ticket area.
These trams rotate completely twice on each assent and descent so you can stay in one place and see the entire panorama. Not great for photo taking, though.
From the desert floor to 8516 feet in altitude. We felt the change in temps, for sure.
Jason is comparing the cable size and type to what we had on YOLO.
Jason, Karen, Terri, Bill on top of San Jacinto peak.
We're so far up you can't even see the town and lands below with this camera.
You could see the San Andreas fault and the Salton Sea from up here.
Karen in a selfie at the top of San Jacinto.
Bug trails in the wooden posts holding up the viewing platform.
Should I be worried standing out here?
Looks like a big-nosed face in this rock.
Apparently, you can bring your plastic sled up here and play on the snow slopes. A guy had his snowboard on the tram up with us, too.
The snowmelt was creating moving water in the creek area.
Karen next to a Jeffery pine. They say the bark smells like vanilla or butterscotch, but I couldn't smell it.
We took the scenic hike the 1.5 miles around the edge.
Karen, Terri and Bill on our hike.
Jason copping a squat on the hike.
Big pine cones from these trees.
Chatting with other hikers while we take a rest.
Jason scoping out the mountainside.
Still plenty of snow up here to walk around.
The view a long ways off.
We packed our lunch to eat on the peak. Jason chows into the Subway sandwich we split.
We got lucky and didn't have to wait in line to go up or down for very long. Still early and perhaps folks didn't yet realize the tram was back in operation.
The wind farms at the base of San Jacinto.
More wind generators in the valley.
Desert color along the road. Looking towards the San Andreas fault.
A bit of purple and pink along the road, too.
We left them to enjoy the condo and headed out to reach our next destination in California--Santa Barbara.
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