Friday 31 July 2015

aerial tramway and moorten gardens

Thursday 30th July 2015

Moorten Botanical Garden

wombat checking out the cactus

personal residence

relaxing in the carved out chair

turtle in botanical garden

humming bird sitting still

humming bird in flight
Up early to another hot day.  There was the Moorten Botanical Garden only a couple of hundred metres away from the motel.  It was meant to have a good display of desert and arid plants and cacti.  Spent about an hour having a look around.  It was really nice as it is privately owned and the owner lives in the house on site.  Another highlight was the Humming bird that flew in and started drinking right in front of us.  He was so tiny but so cute.  After the garden we got some lunch so we could do the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway to the top of Mt San Jacinto.

wombat at aerial tramway car park

tramway car

view of palm springs on mt san jacinto

great view

greg at the lookout

wombat on the mountain

on top of the mountain

bark smells like butterscotch

on the walking trail

notch 4 of 5 on the trail

taking in the view

wombat meets squirrel

palm springs entrance
The tramway starts with a drive to the bottom valley station which is a couple of kilometre drive up the hill.  The station is at 2643 feet and the 2.5 mile journey takes you to 8516 feet at the top.  The temperature is some 40 degrees F cooler at the top too.  That equated on our trip at 40 at the bottom to 24 at the top.  It was beautiful up there with a magnificent view.  There is a 1.6 mile loop walk that goes along the edge of the mountain with 5 lookout notches along the way.  These look out over the valley and Palm Springs.  We stayed at the top for a couple of hours before coming back down.  At the bottom we went to the Palm Springs sign on the 111 on North Palm Canyon Drive.
Went for dinner a Ihop and then had an early night.  I think the jet lag had caught up to us.  Tomorrow we head to the Salton Sea on our way to San Diego.

joshua tree

Wednesday 29th July 2015.
joshua tree national park
greg is back!!
First day in the states and we are off tripping around the desert.  Today we decided to do the Joshua Tree National Park.  Today Greg would also make his debut in the US for the second time.  We drove from Palm Springs towards the park stopping for and early lunch at Yucca Valley.  Entered the park through the west entrance.  It was a nice leisurely drive through the park stopping at some lookouts on the way.  It was quite beautiful and picturesque.  We did 3 walks in total.  Two just over a mile long and one that was about three miles.  We should have brought water as it was basically 40 degrees and sunny.  Hidden Valley was beautiful with all the trees and flowers hidden away between the rocks.  The Wall Street Gold Mine was also interesting.  There were old trucks that had been left behind just slowly rusting away.  We ended up leaving via the north entrance at Twentynine Palms (I wanted to stop and count them) making our way back to Palm Springs.  Back at the Motel and it was swim time before dinner.  Off for dinner at Denny's and then back for a late night swim.  Tomorrow we are headings for the mountains via the Aerial Tramway.

hidden valley walk

cute chipmunk

barker dam

mountain goat was checking us out

wall street mill gold mine

things as they were left

i can get this going

dead tree in hidden valley

joshua tree in hidden valley

wall street mill mine

old remains near mine

one of the walks

greg loves his vacation

lots of joshua trees

looking before crossing. wait, i
should be looking the other way.

skull rock

huge wind farms near palm springs

view from keys lookout.
palm springs is on the right

Thursday 30 July 2015

hollywood, we are back

hollywood sign

Tuesday 28th July 2015
Well we arrived into LA at 6.30 a.m. and it was really cloudy over the entire sky.  Fast forward 30 minutes and we had cleared customs and immigration, had our bags and were on the Hertz bus heading to the car yard, with now beautiful blue skies all round.  Before 8.00 a.m. we had our sexy black Corolla and were on our way.  We drove to the shops and got a drink and something to eat and then drove up through Hollywood to the Griffith Observatory for a look.  Did a bit of a walk around and took some pictures and then hit the road for Palm Springs.  Its only about a 2 hour drive to Palm Springs and an easy drive at that.  Got to the hotel and the room was not ready.  Had to fill in an hour so we got some icecream as it was about 42 degrees, got to love DQ.  Got back into our room and had a lay down for a couple of hours.  It had been about 30 or more hours that we had been up.  Once up we headed out to dinner and then came back about 9.00 p.m. and went for a swim and a spa.  The pool was beautiful as the temp was still in the high 30's.  Then it was time for bed so we can try and get our sleep right and get exploring tomorrow.  Just a few pictures to wet your whistle!!

griffith observatory

nice clear day in la

watch out for rattle snakes

on a walking trail

on another trail

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