It's been a while

Western Diamond Back
The Pond

View from the trail

View Across the Valley

View From the Top

We're back!!!! We finally got both problems fixed on the computer and are in back in business. While we were down we made a couple of excursions around us. One day we went to Big Morongo Wildlife Preserve. This is north and west of us, outside the western boundry of Josua Tree. This area is made up of the same mud, sand, and gravel as our area, but has defined areas of canyon, mesquite valley and boggy area. Very interesting. No pix from there, though. The pix above are, from the top my first rattlesnake sighting in the wild! I was so excited I hoofed it 10 min. back to the house to get my cameraman to record the historic experience for all the world to see. Actually I heard it first, and had to really look to see it. The next pic is of McCallum Pond at our oasis. The next three are the result of another of our excursions. This one was to the top of the San Jacinto Mts. via the tram. The whole trip was awsome! The tram was $22 apiece, but it went up about 8000'. The tram floor revolved twice around on each trip so everyone got a full view. On top was a different world--there was still gravel, mud, and sand, but there were trees. Mostly pines. There were a couple of paved walks around the buildings, but we opted for a wilderness hike. The hike took us down the side of the mountain to a valley, up the other side, along the top, down the side again and back up to the ranger station. From there was a short level walk then up the pavement to the buildings again. Total hike--about 5 mi. We of course were unprepared for the 40 d. temp change, and stayed chilly in spite of our exertions. But we survived, and had a great time. We saw one scrub jay and some other birds, but no other wildlife. Our third excursion was to the Salton Sea, but we took no pix this year. We were there last year, but not at migration time. This time the sea was full of white pelicans, blue herons, white egrets, all kinds of ducks. The shores were alive with waders like the stilts. We didn't think to bring the camera. Duh!! In the middle pic of the mountain top, if you look at the top of the rock (on the left) you can just make out the tram station. The station is a large complex of tram station and waiting room, two restaurants, a couple of gift shops, several viewing patios, and a theater. In the bottom picture, the white vertical lines are huge wind turbines (hundreds of them) at the wind farm down on the valley floor.

If you want to view these beauties for yourself, feel free to visit us. You can stay with us or there are several hotels/motels close by. We will be glad to play tour guide for you!

Basta por hoy!

Louise and Duane