Last Two Weeks in Indio

The high temperatures continued for the first part of the last two weeks of our stay in Indio and then dropped down to more normal high 20's - 30C. I got a few more golf games in, the North Course with Chris and the South Course with John, Ray & Karen. Both times we played the South Course it was very windy resulting in some high scores.

Thursday was supposed to be our Shadow Hills Hiking Club outing but the hike leader had to cancel due to an injury so Chris and I picked a hike from our "140 Hikes in the Palm Springs Area" guide book and drove out to Mecca to try the Ladder Canyon trail we had heard about. The 7km road into the trailhead was terrible, max speed 15 kph but we got there and started off on the trail into a slot canyon that involved climbing and descending a number of ladders.

It ended up not to Chris's liking so we backed out before she got stuck between ladders and did an alternate hike in Little Painted Canyon which could be accessed from the same trailhead. This was a bit of a tiring 10 km walk in loose sand on a gradual uphill slope to the end of the canyon. Sort of like walking on an uphill beach. The canyon was very pretty with lots of greenery and wildflowers still present.

The next day we went to Sunnylands, an old estate in Rancho Mirage to see the desert gardens on the property. A nice way to spend the morning.

On the weekend, there was a small car show at the Shadow Hills Clubhouse for residents to show off their hobby vehicles. A few nice examples.

We went on our last hiking outing the following Wednesday to the Living Desert in Palm Desert. This  is a Zoo and Gardens and it also provides access to the Mt Eisenhower Trail Loop, We did the hike first as was going to be another very warm day. This was a 10 km loop that starts out on the open desert then follows a boulder filled valley up to a ridge providing some nice views of the Coachella Valley and some very nice properties in the valley floor.

It was very hot and I think I drank about 3 litres of water during the hike.

After returning to our car for lunch, we went into the Zoo and had a look at some of the animals. Too bad it was so hot as a lot of them were not too active.

The other feature I liked was was the G gauge model railway. It was huge with several thousand feet of track.

Thursday was house cleaning and packing day topped off by our last visit to Stuft's for pizza.

Friday morning we were all packed up by noon and on the road for the four hour drive to Phoenix to spend a few days with Brian and Linda. It was amazing driving through the desert on I10 to see how green and colourful it was compared to when we travelled that stretch of highway on our trip there in December. The rains of January have really made a difference.

We have planned on three weeks for our return trip so I will try to blog each place we visit on our way.