Week ending Feb 19, 2015 Joshua Tree, Lake Cahuilla County Park

Friday after a trip to Burger King in Indio to post the blog we stopped to pick up some new locks and a length of chain, to secure our solar panels while we are away, picked up some groceries and then headed to Red Robin for John's favorite hamburger and Joan's favorite beer.  We then thought we should check out the RV park at Lake Cahuilla County Park at La Quinta. The park looked just fine for us, next to a pretty little lake, lots of wide open spaces to get the satellite aligned. They did not have a full service site available in the reservable area, but we could take our chances as they have 3 sites that they do not reserve. They did however have a pull through site with only power and water in a separate area of the park. We decided perfect, we would take that one. So Tuesday,Feb 17th, we will move to La Quinta. The brochure said the price was 160.00 weekly. When we paid they charged us 90.00, wow what a deal for this part of the world. It turns out we are in the equestrian group camping area, all individual sites, in fact larger sites than the individual camping area, so a real deal in our mind. The BLM area we are in is less than an hour away, so we got back to the trailer mid-afternoon, in time to move the solar panels out of the shade.

Happy Valentines Day. Saturday morning we watched all sorts of campers leave the BLM area, strange because this is a long weekend.  We then walked into Joshua Tree National Park to do the Bajada Nature Trail.  There were lots of signs on this trail describing the flora.  We managed to get a shot of a horned lizard, we think.  It sure blends in with its background.

We walked back to the trailer realigned the panels and decided today was our day off. The temp outside is hot.  By 1:00 P.M. the first draw of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts is on, so Joan has her entertainment for the next week. John has been keeping an eye on the solar, moving it as needed to keep the panels charging the battery in the most effective manner. Shortly after lunch our solar controller gave us a message we had never seen before "FUL", i.e. fully charged.  Wow, we are hoping to be able to watch curling this evening without running the generator. The blue sky, with a nice hot sun and being here to align the panels as the sun moves across the sky seems help the charging a lot. 

Sunday morning after watching many of our neighbours pack up their tents and depart we headed back into the park. Our target was what we believed was a short interpretive trail to see Lost Palm Oasis starting from Cottonwood Springs, which is a very lush spot. It turned out to be a 3.5 mile trek each way with considerable elevation gain so we opted for 2.4 mile loop to Mastodon Mine.  The first stop on the trail was a fan palm oasis at Cottonwood Springs which is situated on a crack in the earths crust.  Geological faults crisscross this park. When groundwater hits a fault plane, it rises to the surface and creates conditions for an oasis.



The hike took us to the top of a ridge, giving us good views into the next valley,



then past the old Mastodon Mine site.  This mine was established in the 1930's, and is one of about 300 mines that were in the Joshua Tree Park area.  

We then headed back to the trailer to enjoy the warm sunny afternoon as well as more of the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Monday was exploration day. We drove to Desert Center and then headed north to Eagle mountain. As it turns out the places we intended to explore could not be accessed, but we did find an amazing solar power system, the Desert Sunlight solar project. We stopped at the visitor center, but it was closed. We took some pictures before noticing the sign "no cameras or cell phones"  We then drove by Lake Tamarisk Golf Resort. We had looked online at the RV park as a possible place to stay, but discovered it was not in a convenient location to visit Joshua Tree National Park. We then stopped at Chiriaco Summit, where we visited the General Patton Museum.



The California and Arizona Deserts areas were used by the US Army for training before they went overseas to North Africa in WW II. We picked up a cold drink and then it was back to the trailer to watch more Tournament of Hearts.

Tuesday was moving day, so time to head to Lake Cahuilla County Park at La Quinta as we mentioned above. It is less than an hour away from the BLM site , so after sitting around in the morning sunshine we got everything together and finally about lunch time moved.  The lake looks beautiful, but there is no swimming allowed.

Wednesday, after paying for a second week here,  we were off to the library to do some internet surfing, check email, get fresh veg`s. Not a very busy day as the women`s curling is getting quite interesting.

Thursday after visiting with our neighbours we went for a walk along the lake shore.



We checked the wi-fi at the office. It isn't great, but it does exist. Of course they don't even advertise its presence, so we suspect they don`t want people using it much. Walking up to the office we saw the big horn sheep that we have been seeing signs about. They really do exist. 



We also saw pelicans and a heron on the lake. There is a fishing derby at the lake this weekend and in preparation for this event there is no fishing allowed right now. I guess the pelicans and herons didn`t get that memo.