Sniffing trees in the St. Jacinto Mountains

The Swiss-made Palm Springs Aerial Tram has a rotating floor. 

After taking a final dip in the pool at our Palm Desert mega resort, we headed east a few miles to the Palms Spring Aerial Tram, which first began operating in the 1960s.  In the ten minute tram ride you rise about 4,000 feet in elevation, while the floor rotates slowly beneath you, cleverly giving you a 360 degree view without any effort on your part.  Off in the distance was the San Andreas fault and the nine towns that make up greater Palm Springs.  Up ahead was the peak of the St. Jacinto Mountains, at 8600 feet.

When we got to top, the temperature had dropped from the 80s to 44 degrees, and patches of snow were still visible in the shadows.  To stay warm we explored one of the nature trails beneath the tram platform, where I learned several things.  The first is that there is little plant diversity in the St. Jacinto mountains.  That's because this mountain is surrounded by desert, the soil is sandy, and it's often too hot or too dry to support most plants.  There are in fact only four types of trees in this forest, and that leads me to the second thing I learned.  A very helpful plaque informed me that the bark of the Jeffrey pine smells like vanilla butterscotch.  And indeed, it does.  It is quite delightful.

Yes, here I am, smelling some sweet Jeffrey pine.  

I also added a new word to my vocabulary (again thanks to another helpful plaque on our nature walk),  and that word is midden.  Middens are piles of shredded pine cones left by squirrels.   I never would have guessed there was a word for that.  (Turns out it's a word used for a lot of piles of assorted detritus, including kitchen scraps).  Well, now we both know.    

Some fresh squirrel midden.  (photo source: nps.gov)

Mega resort, Palm Desert

Coffee on our balcony deck, Deserts Springs Marriott

This past weekend, we bid on fancy hotels in the Palms Springs area using Priceline, so we could get away cheaply for a few days.  The deal is that you get a good price, but you don't know what hotel you're going to until you hit the "pay" button. We got a room at one of the mega Marriott resorts in the area, poetically named Desert Springs.  As you can see in the photo above, the complex is surrounded by a lush and heavily irrigated golf course (California drought, anyone?).  It also has four massive pools, six restaurants, mini golf, and over 800 rooms, surrounding an eight story atrium.  Impressed?  It also has an artificial lake with a boat dock.   Still not impressed?  The boat dock is IN THE LOBBY.  Every night you can hop  in the canopied boats and putt around in the waterways that ring the hotel.  I've haven't talked Steven into doing this yet.

Boat dock in the lobby

 In the meantime, we picked a pool and hung out for the day.   Self explanatory picture below.

Joshua Tree National Park

Steven stands next to a Joshua Tree.  Estimated height? 20 feet

This week we are temporary empty nesters.  Samuel is in Utah with his cousins and his brother Benjamin is a thousand miles away finishing his first semester in college.  So Steven and I decided to take a mini vacation to the desert, specifically Joshua Tree National Park in Riverside County.  The park is nearly 800,000 square miles and straddles the Mojave and Colorado deserts.  Created as a national park in 1936, it is covered with its namesake plant, the Joshua Tree.  The "wild armed" Joshua Tree is not a tree, but a yucca on steroids.  These big plants can reach 40 feet, but they grow at a leisurely rate of one inch a year.  So this big specimen that Steven is standing next to is over 200 years old.  Joshua trees are thick upon the ground in the Western part of the park.  They look like forests, even if they aren't technically trees.

It's spring time in the desert.

We also visited the park in April, prime blossom time.  Here's a picture of me taking a picture of a Mojave Mound Cactus, with brilliant red blossoms.

Beautiful blooms amid the brambles.

In addition to the supersized Joshua Tree yucca, there are the smaller Mojave yuccas.  They were used by local Indians for making baskets.  They were in bloom too.  A great time to visit. 

Mojave yucca in bloom in Hidden Valley, within Joshua Tree National Park. Pinyon pines are in the background.

Orange Bike of Carmel Valley

Orange Bike of Carmel Valley, currently located on Carmel Mt. Road 

I am directionally challenged today, but since I'm blogging about urban art, I'll let you enjoy this ordinary extraordinary bike from a new angle.  An anonymous artist has graced my neighborhood with their orange bike for the last few weeks.  The artiste rides about looking for nice resting places for Orange Bike. This week it has been placed next to pink rock roses on Carmel Mountain Road.

UPDATE: The artist turned out to be a clever marketer.  The orange bikes are actually an advertising tool for Orange Theory Fitness, a new exercise studio franchise.  At the new studio near my house, I found a stash of these orange bikes.   I don't mind; this is the kind of advertising I like. I don't know if the orange bikes were the tipping point, but I'm now a member at Orange Theory.

stash of orange bikes at Orange Theory Fitness