Chefprefers BLOG

After our introduction to Palm Springs, we heard that an easterly was coming in the next couple of days, so we decided to drive to the Joshua Tree National Park before it set in. It’s about an hour and a half drive north of the city. There is one main road through the park, and we decided to follow it and stop along the way at some of the popular walks.

At the drive-up gate, the cost for admission is $30 per car and when my sister flashed her AAA card for a discount, the attendant asked for her age. She was 62. The cashier fussed about for a few minutes in which I was thinking Why is she taking so long? She came back with a front window parking slip and an Annual national park pass for my sister. Apparently, for all the 62 years olds and over, you can get an annual pass for $20 to be used for any National Park in the US. Bonus! The AAA Card wasnt needed. Your first impression of the park is that it’s mountainous and is bare of large trees although the landscape is covered with small palm type trees known as Joshua Trees.

Our first stop was at a huge boulder known as Quails Springs. We saw rock climbers scaling the 10-meter edge. It was a good day for it for a stroll, we followed a fainted path into the desert bush and ended up in this narrow valley. My sister was continuously on the lookout for snakes and animals, it was obvious that she hadn’t been in the bush for a while. No snakes although, we did come across a few tiny lizards.

The next stop was hidden Valley, apparently this valley was surrounded by boulders that herbaceous animals couldn’t enter, the desert valley had abundant of grasses before the area became a national park, a farmer dynamited one end to allow his cattle to roam the internal. It was quite hidden and the vegetation was quite untouched, but not anymore.

Our next stop was Key View, this is the money photo shot where the lookout overlooks the Coachella Valley. It was very popular with tourists. Well, it was quite busy and we took our silly selfies before the buses arrived.

Our last stop, was at Skullrock. We walked for 45 minutes around these huge boulders and eventually came across the spectacle. A large rock that looks like a skull. By this time, I was done with walking, I could lie down and sleep at this barren feature. It was another 2k walk to the car, if someone came along with a dirt bike, I would have hailed them down. Looking at my companions, they would have hopped on too. But we weren’t so lucky and we had to brave the final stretch. Our drive back to the resort was uneventful, arriving just before dark. Our plan, to find a Mexican restaurant so that we can try the dominant spice for the area.

Coachella valley has a few distinct cities. Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert and Indian Wells. The resort is in Rancho Mirage. Each city is quite spread out. Just down the road means 7 miles away. The cities were designed as a grid and each block is huge. It’s not a walking place and the whole time we were there we didn’t see a bus. As though it’s not arranged for buses. However we did see bus stops. Our trip to the restaurant (Fresh Agrave) was just down the road to Palm Desert. Yes, 6 miles away. The establishment was busy although they always managed to find a table. I plan on doing a good blog later to cover most of the dishes we tasted. The highlight here was that a guitarist came over to play a romantic spanish ballad. An old fellow about 65, big belly and his guitar sat on his stomach as he strung along. His voice pitched at the serenading octave, singing to a song he knew so well. $5 tip didn’t seem enough. He smiled and continued to the next table.

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