1000 Palms Oasis and Air Museum

Wednesday we decided to go to the 1000 Palms Oasis in the Coachella Valley Preserve.

1000 Palms Oasis

Although it was about 105 degrees we walked the McCallum trail to the McCallum Pond. There is only a 100 foot elevation gain so it was not to bad. The heat was the main issue. You could see the palm trees in the distance. The round trip was 1.5 miles.

1000 Palms path

On the trail there was no shade. We came upon this sign which let us know which way it was to the pond.

McCullum trail sign

The trees are surrounding the pond.

McCullum Pond

We made it to the pond. In spite of the water it was still HOT here. There was shade though which helped.

No swimming allowed!

Patty and Terri enjoying the shade.

Patty and Terri

We spent about 30 minutes at the pond. Scott and I walked around the entire pond while the girls enjoyed the solitude. As we were getting ready to head back several other people starting to show up. I like this picture with the relflections.

Reflections

We left the Oasis and drove into Palm Springs to the Palm Springs Air Museum. Patty and I have been here before. There are two sides, The Pacific and European campaign. Last time we came, only the European was open. Scott and Terri and never seen the museum. There is alot of information about how we got into the WWII conflict.

Pacific Side

There are many exhibits and a lot of era correct planes. There were steps at this plane so you could look into the cockpit.

Scott checking it out

We moved over to the European side. This plane was part of the Teskegee black flying squadron. The movie "Red Tails" is about the Teskegee Airmen. Patty and I will rent Red Tails as soon as it is available on RedBox.

Teskegee plane

This is a Mitchel B-25 Bomber. It is nicknamed "Mitch the Witch".

Patty posing in front of "Mitch the Witch"

This is a front view of "Mitch". How would you like to be sitting in the front seat? :)

Best seat in the house!

There were a bunch more planes outside. Although most planes are fully restored and are beautiful, we did not stay outside long because it was pushing 110 degrees.

Planes, planes, and more planes!

They even had a Russian built MIG fighter that had been sold to Korea. I'm not sure how it got from Korea to Palm Springs! It definitely is obvious why American Air power is so superior to the rest of the world! How scary if you were an enemy combatant having to face one of our finest in an F18!

Russian MIG

We were pretty hot and tired so we came back to camp and went into the pool for a couple of hours. The pool is still not being heated except by the sun, but is naturally staying at about 86 degrees. It is soo nice!

I will take some pictures of the pool before we leave, but here is our campground. This is a former date farm and the still cultivates the dates and sell them. The palm trees you see produce a large crop of dates.

1000 Trails Palm springs

That's it for today. 

God bless you!

Brian and Patty

Palm Springs Aerial Tram

It was HOT today in Palm Springs. 110 degrees, so we decided this would be a good day to go hiking. Actually we took the Aerial Tram to the top of the San Jacinto mountains. It is approximately 40 degrees cooler up the mountain.

Both the Blankenbillers and us remember the tram cars looking like this:

Old style tram cars

About 12 years ago they changed them to the new style. They can now carry about 80 passengers. They are considered rotating cars because the floor rotates twice during the 15 minute ride up or down the hill. This allows everyone to get a complete 365 degree view of the canyon. The new cars look like this:

New rotating cars

We made it to the top and the temperature was a very comfortable 70 degrees. Here Scott and I are appreciating the cooler weather.

Scott and Brian

The mountain station is at about 8000 foot elevation. Here is a picture of the desert floor. You can see Palm Springs, as well as Desert Hot Springs and Palm Desert.

Palm Springs

We walked to the highest point at the tram station. You will see this point in a picture later. The white poles you see are windmills in Palm Springs. We could see all the way to the Salton Sea which is 40 miles away from here.

Windmills

We decided to hike the Desert View trail. This was a 1 1/2 mile easy/moderate and fairly rocky loop trail. This is part of the Mount San Jacinto State Park.

State Park

But first we had to walk down a fairly steep .30 mile switchback concrete path to Long Valley. Not so hard going down, but for us out of shape folks, it was a little harder coming out after hiking the trail.

Path to Desert View Trail

This sign showed us our options for two short hikes. We did the Desert Trail and looked at all five viewpoints. We came back on the Nature Trail.viewpoints

Desert View Trail sign

Here is one of the viewpoints on the trail. The signs actually called them "notches".

One of the Notches

I told you I would show you our overlook in a later picture. Here is the overlook taken from down in the valley. You can see a person standing on the rock in the middle of the picture. After the hike we needed to walk back up the path to the station.

Overlook

Here is the Desert View trail. There were sections that were very rocky. It was probably a dry creek bed.

Desert View Trail

Another viewpoint.

Viewpoint 2

Here's a picture of Terri and me at one of the viewpoints. While looking at all the pictures today I realized that I didn't have any of Patty because she took all the photos! OOOPS! Well she did hike the trail today also! Good job Patty!

Brian and Patty

We finished the loop and made our way back to the top. We watched a movie on how they made the tram and then went back down at dusk.

On the Tram

\We were all really hungry and decided we wanted good Mexican food. I asked two employees at the Mountain Station for advice. They both highly suggested Las Casuelas Restaurant. Good prices, and Great food. Chips and salsa were excellent as was the iced tea which was great after the hike. We all said we would definately go back!

That's it for tonight,

Love you all!

Brian and Patty