California, here I come

We are now in Hemet, California which is about 90 miles east of Las Angeles.  It seems to be a nice enough community but for us the main attraction is that it is a central place to go out from.  The drive here was interesting but one thing that was fascinating was the valley of windmills near Palm Springs.

From the motorhome (or car) I was unable to really get a shot that shows how many there are in that valley but if you think of a windmill forest, that will be close.  There were several sizes of windmills and some have two propellers and some had three.  It must take quite a computer program to figure out where to put them, what type and what size.  Also some were running and some were stopped, even in the same row.

 It is quite dry country but still quite pretty.

Today we drove back to Palm Springs to look at the Indian Canyons.  The Agua Caliente Cahuilla (pronounced Kaw-we-ah) settled in the Palm Springs area cenuries ago.  In 1876, the U. S. federal government deeded in trust 32,000 acres to the Agua Caliente for their homeland.  6,700 acres lie within Palm Springs city limits with the remainder fanning out across the desert and into the mountains.  We paid about $7 each (old folks' rate!) to get into the area.

The first canyon we went to was the Palm Canyon. It is considered to be the largest California Fan Palm Oasis.  It is a true oasis in the desert with shade and water in the midst of very dry country. It is 15 miles long.

We began the walk at the restaurant and trading post on the left above.  From there, we took a trail down to the oasis where there was water flowing through.  You could imagine the Agua Caliente finding coolness and water here.

This is a view from the top at the restaurant.

You can see the path where we walked down into the valley.

There were a few somewhat deformed palms.  One was still alive although on its side and this one was bent but still alive. 

Next we drove to the Andreas Canyon.  Through it runs the Andreas Creek.  There are many interesting rock formations.

The walk was beside the creek and it was so beautiful all around us that the photos cannot do it justice.

The somewhat fluffy looking bush is a cholla cactus, I think.  We saw them just outside the parking area leading to the exit.  It isn't the Teddy Bear Cholla that was common in Arizona and I can't quite tell which one it is from my cacti book.  I think it might be a tree cholla.  Also notice that the flowers are out here.

We noticed that there were few non-Californians parked in the Indian Canyon areas.  We don't know why.  It is so unlike other places we have been in the South.