A Visit to the "Playground of the Stars" - Part 2

Did you read Part 1?  

In the previous blog, we'd made it to Palm Springs, and we wandered around, checking out the post-modern architecture and eating all sorts of fun things.  

Let's go for a hike!

We woke up on Saturday morning after a decent night's sleep (after setting off the CO alarm just once, for no discernable reason at all - some scotch tape fixed that - yes, I know that's not like suuuper safe, whatever); since we knew we'd need to put gas in the truck at some point in time anyway, Chris headed out on a mission to do just this, as well as get us breakfast from nearby Townie Bagels.  While he was out, I wandered to the RV park's office to drop off the trash and recycling we'd accumulated so far.

The office (on the left) and other side of the loop at the RV park

Arlene and the truck, all tucked into spot #133.

While it was sunny, overall, you can see the clouds starting

to roll in - we'd have some interesting weather later this day...

Chris took this glamour shot of his sourdough bagel with lox

Breakfast was delicious, and after we finished up, it was time to head out for our main excursion of the day, some hiking on nearby Mt San Jacinto.  Hiking here is plentiful, and we wanted to pick a trail that was close by, so we could see the Palm Springs area where we'd been wandering the day before; we walked just a mile through a neighborhood to the trailhead for the North Lykken Trail and started our climb.  While the trail itself was short - just 1.3 miles or so - it was almost straight up, going from around 500 feet of elevation at the base, to 1400 feet at the highest point.  It was tough, but the views more than made up for it!

Here we go!

This is a popular trail, and we shared it with quite a few folks,

but everyone was respectful and careful to wear their face coverings.

Looking back down at the trailhead (on the right).

See all the police cars?

Those were actually for the Palm Springs Search and Rescue,

which didn't inspire a ton of confidence.

However, everything was fine, as you'll see later.

Getting a bit higher up...

...and zooming in on some of those giant houses.

Starting to see the outer edges of Palm Springs,

looking off toward the rest of the Coachella Valley.

Here's a panoramic Chris took - 

be sure to click on it to see it bigger.

See those orange dots on the trail above Chris?

Those are the members of the Search and Rescue teams,

whose vehicles we'd seen below.

It turns out that this was a training/family day hike,

so all was currently well.

We thanked them for all they do

as we passed them on the trail.

After some hard work (and about 50 minutes or so), we made it to the end of the trail, where we were rewarded with a few picnic tables on which to rest and these sweeping views:

From here, we could see all the way to the 10 freeway

(about 7 miles).

See all the windmills?

As you'll see in a later blog, we can attest that it gets windy here.

All of Palm Springs!

From its end, the North Lykken Trail connects to the Museum Trail, so named because it starts at the Palm Springs Art Museum.  We took this back down off the mountain, so we descended the same elevation (from 1400 feet back to about 500), but this time in only about .8 miles.  Trust me when I say it was steep!  Although most of our descent was spent making sure we didn't go rolling down the mountain, we managed to grab a few shots on the way:

Me: "Honey, I think this cactus likes you!"

The Art Museum (in the immediate foreground)

and an outdoor installation known as "The Babies."

We'll get closer to this one in a bit...

More of downtown PS, including one of the several golf courses.

We made it to the bottom of the trail in just 35 minutes (versus the 50 it took us to hike up), and we were ready for some lunch!  Sadly, it was only about 10:30am, so we killed some time looking at some of the outdoor art exhibits while we waited.

The Art Museum has a few sculpture courtyards downstairs,

so we peeked at them from street level.

Saw some Chihuly (of course).

So, "The Babies."  These dudes are part of an outdoor exhibit, sculpted by David Cerny, and each one has a barcode instead of a face, as part of a commentary on the commercialization of those of us in human society.  They're pretty neato, but they're certainly rather unnerving when you see so many of them, in mid-crawl, contained in this giant pit.

The Art Museum is on the back side of the pit,

so we saw a lot of "backsides" at first.

Safety first, babies!

After doing a bit more strolling, we found a good looking gourmet burger joint called Stout that was tucked away on the backside (heh, again) of a shopping plaza (it had a huge patio and was super quiet).  We camped out on a bench out front until it opened at 11, and thoroughly enjoyed our meal there.  Post-lunch, we made a quick stop at BevMo (yup, the one in the historic building I mentioned in the last blog), and we carried back all sorts of fun Southern California beer finds we can't get back home.

On the final blog, we have some crazy weather at the camper, and we say goodbye to the Coachella Valley in favor of the Valley of the Sun!

Later!

Amy