Palm Springs trip Dec 4-8, 2023

 We were invited to  a trip trip to Palm Springs to stay in a time share condo. We hiked every day for a week. This is the view from the condo

 

Our first hike was west of the valley in the Mecca Hills wilderness to the Grotto. The trailhead is off Box canyon road and requires 4 wheel drive to get there.

It starts by going over a desert ridge, then a couple more to get to a wash that leads to a narrows.

There were some flowers blooming. I hadn't seen this one before.

Desert Sunflower

Spanish needles

The start of the Grotto looked like a dead end, and it was for us. Next time we will try to get further.

There was a little scrambling around Mud stone conglomerate canyons.

Brenda going thru a rabbit hole.

Colorful clay hills.

An Ice cloud rainbow.

From the ridge we could see a palm oasis.

The nest day we drove to the Pacific Crest Trail to hike a short out and back. The scenery could not be more different.

The nest day we drouve around to the north side of Joshua Tree to hike the 49 palms trail.

That afternoon we hiked the Pushawalla Palms trail.

Next day we rode the Gondola to 8000 feet to hike in the cool mountains.

Sugar pines grow here

There was some ice and snow on the trail

Lodgepole pines