After checking out coastal Southern California, we moved inland to Palm Springs. Just one of nine cities out in the desert. Problem was, we are experiencing a "heat dome" (read: heatwave)! I shudder to think how much the power bills cost round here, with all the air-con going flat-tack 24/7.
We did have plans to visit some local canyons, go for a hike and maybe see some Indian relics etc, but my risk management head kicked in and decided we shouldn't really be hiking round the desert in 115+ (thats about 42 degrees C, by the way).
So today we drove up a mountain to 2500 ft ASL, jumped on a cable-car that took us up to 8500 ft ASL in about 12 mins. Impressive. And about 30 degrees F cooler up there! Ha!
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| Going up a mountain the easy way! |
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| Where Eagles Dare, anyone? |
We did a 5 mile loop track through pines and alpine meadows and BF boulders! Reminded me of the scenery in the movie " Lone Survivor" (shot in New Mexico I think). Saw a heap of squirrels and a few Chipmunks, but no Mountain Lions or Bears, or deer (the hunter in me kept stopping to glass for bigger animals in all the usual places. Quite handy to help get the heart-rate back down, too, I hear).
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| Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, chipmunk, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel that looks like a chipmunk.... |
(on the drive out, I did see one Big-horn sheep grazing not far off the road, but thats about it).
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| That's in metres, by the way... |
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| Checking out the local hazards.........here kitty kitty.... |
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| Ha! Made it! (and that's in feet, this time) |
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| The old Ranger station at 9100'. Built around 1920's, so no helo's to bring in the parts - only man or mule. |
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| Ahhhhh.... |
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| That's either a very small person, or a very large tree...oh, wait - it's both! | |
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After our hike, we had a bite to eat and a cold drink while we waited for our cable car (they call it a tram). The views from the top down to the desert floor were something else, as you can see from these photos:
We weren't looking forward to going back down into the fan-bake oven, but had to. On the way back, our outside thermometer on the car hit 118 degrees F! I think the F stands for something other than Fahrenheit! Works out to be about 48 degrees C or something ridiculous I haven't experienced for a long time, in another life.
Lucky our hotel has A/C and a pool! (note: it is still too hot to use the pool at 1755L, as it feels like a warm bath. We will give it a go about 2200L I reckon....
Almost like you're back down the Haka valley with that kind of heat!..... Almost..
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