Thrills 'n Spills

We have had a great couple of days!   We visited the 1000 Palms oasis Preserve which is located in the Coachella Valley.  This preserve is located in the northern edge of the Indio Hills and we could see the San Bernardino Mountains as well as the southern edge of Joshua Tree National Park.
This preserve contains a rare and fragile habitat - palm woodland oasis and desert wetland.  Water from the springs along the San Andreas earthquake fault feed perpetual water features in the form of seeps, creeks and ponds.  This water feeds the California fan palm and other desert plants.  It was hot when we began our walk.  We didn't even get 10 feet from the entrance when all of a sudden I was no longer on my feet.  How one goes from upright one moment to flat on your a** the next is a mystery to me.  Fortunately I have a well cushioned landing pad and was happy to realize my new camera was A-ok. I did not hear of any after shocks from the impact so that's a good thing.   My left palm and binoculars took the worst of it but luckily Don fixed the binoculars. 

 Selfie!

 It was absolutely like being in another world.  We walked along sandy, hot desert and could see the green palm trees in  certain areas where the water seeps up.  Along the fault is where the water comes to the surface and provided these beautiful oasis.

 Some areas were packed so hard with thick hard clay like chunks.  These pieces of earth are thick and very hard.

 And then off in the distance we saw the palm trees.

It is the coolest forest ever!  Dried palm fronds litter the ground and it was very interesting to see them in their natural environment as opposed to being all trimmed up like they mostly are in cities and parks.  Some of the pond fronds seem to mesh with the trees beside it creating a solid wall of intertwined pond fronds.

 I don't know what kind of little bird was eating the fan palm berries.  Native Cahuilla Indians used the fruit for food and the fronds for shelter and weaving.

 The water was very clear and beautiful.  The coolness and shade in this area was very appreciated after the plus 90 in the open area.

I just loved this walk!  It was beautiful and gave me a new appreciation for the Fan Palms in their natural habitat.

 This is a cork tree.  How cool is that?  It was huge and the bark was so interesting.

 It was at the entrance to the Coachella Valley history museum.  The museum was based in the home of Dr. Smiley who got stranded in Indio in the 1920's   I did not take many pictures of the house as it is really hard to do it justice.  It was built out of adobe bricks and was really a mansion back then.  There was a lot of history of the area, the natives and the Salton Sea.

This is a desert submarine.  They were built in the early 1920's as a sleeping or cooling room for produce and milk.  Water from the centre pipe trickled down over the burlap covered metal walls and through natural evaporation cooled the interior.  The railway was still using these structures in the late 1950's for sleeping quarters.

This is a Mexican Bird of Paradise flower.  These pretty little trees grow everywhere here and the butterflies love them.

The 3 pictures above are just taken from the car as we drove this morning.  The mountains are close by and there are tons of flowers and green grass. It really is a beautiful area.
 We got up and got moving early this morning as we wanted to (well, I wanted to) take in a 1 hour bird walk offered by the Sunnyland Centre.  We drove for an hour and never did find it which was disappointing. I only pouted a little tho.  Luckily I had all my maps and lists with me and found a note I had made about the Coachella Valley Wild Bird Centre conveniently located right in Indio!  LOL  This was truly Don's lucky day.  We had to stop and get gas after our little morning tour.  Then we noticed the Shields Date Farm was right on our way back so we did a little stop there.  Well, actually we grazed there for a while on all the wonderful dates and date products they had for sampling.  If you spend 25.00 you also get to do their garden walk for free so that was a bonus.

  These are date palms.  Dates are very expensive to produce.  I was interested to learn that if you plant a date seed a new kind of date is originated, sort of like every time a child is born, a new unique person is brought into the world.  The only way to get a specific variety  is to propagate its offshoots

There are 48 female trees to one male planted.  Full production of 150 to 300 lbs of dates will not be reached until the trees are10 to 15 years old.  The roots on a date palm is similar to an onion, none of the roots get any larger than your little finger.  They climb up the ladders which are permanently attached to the tree or from booms mounted on trucks to harvest.  Date palms require a lot of water and they do not pollinate on their own - this must be done by hand  (geez, that sounds a little dirty but I have no idea how else to write that - hahahaha).  Protective paper covers are put over the date bunches in July and August to protect the dates from rain and birds.

 The garden was sort of bible based with lots of statues and what not but very pretty with lots of flowers.  There were citrus trees as well and a couple of fig trees too.

We got some date sugar and date crystals as well as 2 kinds of date products.  I learned that you should freeze dates to keep them fresh and to prevent the white powdery or sugar crystals from forming.  They can be frozen for 5 years.  They said to keep them in the freezer and just take them out one at a time to eat.

This is a pretty little burrowing owl that has broken her wing.  The amazing ladies at the Coachella Valley Wild Bird Centre were just so knowledgeable.  They showed us all around their facility which is a non-profit corporations created to care for and rehabilitate orphaned, injured or sick native wild birds. Ultimately, the goal is to release them back into their habitats.  There was a young hummingbird and a few small owls in the inside being cared for.  Outside they had a red tailed hawk, peregrine falcon, road runners, barn and great horned owls and some grebes.

There weren't many which is a good thing as most have been rehabilitated and sent back to their habitat.  Mostly they get young ones in the spring and summer.  The female great horned owl has fostered many many little ones.  She cannot fly so she cannot teach them to hunt.  The young are sent to a male in a different cage with a bucket of mice and he teaches them that part. The barn owl above is also not releasable so is used to take to schools and educate school kids.  This is a very dedicated group of people and a lot of these nocturnal animals require night time feeding etc.

This is where they teach the birds to fly.  Apparently a lot of the pelicans from the Salton Sea that are orphaned or sick come here and are taught to hunt fish and fly.
We had a laundry morning and a couple of relaxing/sitting by the pool afternoons and our time here has flown by so fast.  Tonight we went to a local amazing little Mexican restaurant for supper which was amazing.  Definitely NOT a low carb day.  Maybe tomorrow . . .









 

Salton Sea, Slab City and a shake!!
Yesterday we set out to see the visitor centre and visit a date farm.  We had a lot of things we wanted to do and have only a week to do them all so were trying to plan our week.  There was a shooting involving a drunk driver and the police (no police were injured) so the road was all blocked off and we ended up missing the visitor centre.  So we decided to just take a drive through the area.  For the most part the nearby cities and towns are in the Coachella Valley.  They all sort of run together like Phoenix and area.  We are staying in Indio but 1000 Palms, Palm Springs, Indian Wells, La Quinta and others are all really close by.  We got on the freeway and ended up in Palm Springs.  It was very windy and dusty.  We walked around the downtown area in Palm Springs and it is really quite pretty.  There is a lot of grass which seems really strange in the desert.  I know they have lots of programs in place to conserve water so I was trying to research why they have so much grass which requires constant watering.  Most of the articles were a little dated and I am interested in finding out more about that.  After a couple of hours of wandering we decided to try to see the Tahquitz Canyon which we read had a spectacular 60 foot waterfall.  The walk was about a mile uphill and we were excited about seeing the waterfall. We stopped in at the center there and the fellow told us that the waterfall is all dried up and has been since July.  He said that it has dried up on occasion but in all his years of living here it has never been dry that long.  It is basically mountain run off.  They truly need some snow in the mountains!!  We decided not to walk up the hill so we went for a yummy late  lunch at the Yard House.

 Some kind of little ground squirrel close to the Tahquitz Canyon entrance.

 There are lots of palm trees in this area and they are amazing.  The only palm native to California is the California Fan Palm which is the one in these pictures.  Many other varieties, as well as date palms can be found in the area as well.

Today we went on a road trip to see the Salton Sea, Slab City and area.  Slab City, which is close to Niland is about an hour away from Indio.  It was an interesting drive.  Along the way we saw date palms, citrus, grapes and fields of lettuce  and a few others I could not identify.  There was a lot of irrigation going on as well.

Slab City is about an hour drive from the Mexican Border.  There was a huge border patrol presence here and we went through a road stop area as well.  It used to be a WW2 military base.  Now it is home to about 1000 people in the winter.  Mostly people who want to live off the grid.  I read some can live there for about 100.00 a month.  Not sure what they do for water and showers but some of the homes had big water containers. They are fairly close to a town called Niland which had some interesting homes as well.  Most of them had fences all they way around and signs that said keep out.  One had a big sign that read "everyone, stay away."  That one sort of made us giggle.

 I guess you just park your home wherever you see a spot you like.

 coolest visitor centre I've ever seen

 And if its hot, just pull up a seat under that shade tree right there

 Looks like some of those "leaves" have fallen off the tree.

 My nieces came her last year and Sydney sang at this "clubhouse"/community centre??  they call it the Range

Better watch out for Papa Jimi.   It was a friendly place however, everyone who rode past on their bike or motorcycle  or just out and about gave a friendly wave and smile.

 this is Salvation Mountain.  It was created by a fellow named Leonard Knight.  He settled near Niland in 1984 and created the mountain out of cement.  It crumbled and the current one is made out of adobe clay covered in paint.  In 1967 he had a life altering experience and discovered God which is pretty apparent if you can read - LOL.  You can walk up the mountain if you stay on the yellow brick road the sign says.

 He makes all the flowers out of window putty.  Most of his paint and clay are donated.  The colors are really pretty.  I walked up the back of the mountain as it is still dirt and clay and not as slippery as the yellow brick road.

 Around the side of the mountain is an area where there are a few little rooms.  No idea why there was a duck decoy hanging in this room.

 It was fascinating as well as a little spooky for some reason.  There was a strange fan above one of these rooms and it made the strangest sound.

We then drove back along the Salton Sea .

 the Salton Sea is a very important bird area.  Over 400 species visit the area or fly through on migration

The Salton Sea is a shallow, saline lake (the biggest lake in California actually).  It is located on the San Andreas Fault and is 234 feet below sea level.

 The Salton Sea was accidentally created in 1905 when irrigation canals were dug to increase water for irrigation.  Long story short, the canals overflowed the canals and the Colorado river flooded the area for 2 years.  Due to high salinity very few species of fish can live here.  These are mostly tilapia and they die off every year due to fluctuations in water level, increasing salinity and fertiliser runoff results in increased algae and elevated bacteria.  The beach you walk on is crunchy dried fish parts.  In some places I bet it is 8 inches or more deep.

The area was once a resort area and deserted towns are still there. It is a very strange area to visit and it is kinda smelly too!

I very much enjoyed all the birds!

 Very cool to see a snowy and a great egret beside each other.  I watched and heard one of these egrets peck at another bird.  They make quite a honk!

 There were tons of pelicans.

 Most of the pelicans were the American white ones but there were a few of these pretty brown ones mixed in.

I annoyed the heck out of this poor heron.  I wanted to try and get him in flight so kind of kept getting a little too close for his comfort.

And last but not least -

A date shake!!  I had not had one for over a year.  I do believe I will be having at least one more while we are here.  One day we are going to another date farm that you can walk around the garden and learn more about the dates.