But.... It's not my FAULT!

Up bright and early today for our first full day in Desert Springs.... We decided to head out on the motorcycles after an early lunch, Judy wanted to go and check out the Visitor's Centre over on the wildlife refuge close by. It is located right inside a big Palm Tree Stand.

A couple volunteers run the centre, and they are allowed to camp in their RV for the season, right beside the buildings...

The centre is built right inside the palm tree stand, it is very unique...

The palm trees are really thick, but you can walk through them... nice and cool on a hot day!

Here is more of a view of the centre....

They had some nice displays inside with lots of local information on trails etc...

After we checked it all out... THE BIG BOMB DROPPED.... we were standing right on the "Famous" "San Andreas Fault"... It actually ran right beside the visitor's centre... on of the volunteers was telling us all about it... It runs right up to San Francisco, a long way!

The last earth quake here, was 2 years ago when they felt the ground shake...

Now here is how all the hot springs work.... water runs underground along the San Andreas Fault line, and will actually bubble up to the top of the fault to the surface! Our resort has a well drilled 300 feet down into the fault, and draws up the hot water, and feeds it right into the pools and spas... it is a mineral water and feels real good, and is really clean! It is very therapeutic and can help with weight loss, heart conditions (:-)) sleeping problems, you name it.

Judy and I went down and enjoyed the tubs tonight and they were great, however we are experiencing big winds here... watch out folks, they are heading east!

We drove into Desert Springs and did a bit of shopping until the winds got too high, and then we headed for the hills... seems to be a great area!

Till tomorrow....

Moving Day!

Woke up this morning to bright sunshine coming in the windows, knew it was going to be hot, and we left all of our pack up until this morning, so had lots to do!

We were on the road by 9:30 and things were warming up! We only had about a 50 mile drive over to Desert Springs so we were able to take our time.

We lasted 6 days on our holding tanks, so we did very well, however when we left they were right full and this adds a lot of weight to the RV, plus we still had about 1/2 a tank of fresh water. I drained off a good portion of the fresh before we left on the desert floor, so there was probably some happy cactus plants we left back there.... lol....

We got out of the Park on the S22 and hit Hwy. 86. Right on the corner of the two there is a big brand new AM/PM Travel Centre. We pulled in and loaded up $60.00 worth of diesel fuel, (the gauge was on FULL when I started pumping, this was just a top up!) This place also offered FREE RV tank dumping so we drove over and unloaded our tanks! Thanks AM/PM! They also offered free fresh water to refill you tank if you want it! So about 700 lbs lighter, we headed off for Desert Springs...Judy did all the photography today, and here is a shot along Hwy. 86 by the Salton Sea... can you tell by the salt on the highway medium do ya think????

These next two pictures are my favorite shots of the day, love to see the snow capped peaks of the Santa Anna Mountains...

We stopped just about 20 miles from Desert Springs at a large mall, and loaded up on groceries, that were really depleted after being in the desert for a week! Had a nice pizza lunch as a bonus today! We headed out to Desert Springs on a road that boasted 1,000 Palm Trees.... I think they were right....you can see them in the distance on the left...

Here are some more out my window... it was getting real warm after lunch, and you had to have the air turned on high to keep alert...

We got to our Resort which is really a nice one... 8 different hot springs here, but did not go to them today.... Judy took some shots around the Resort as I put up our internet and Star Choice dishes.... we wanted to catch the 2nd. half of the Don Cherry Storey on CBC, "Keep you head up Kid".... we watched the 1st part last night, and we both enjoyed it!

Here I am in the distance working on one of the dishes...

Lots of flowers down by the Club House...

One of the pools at the club house... this Resort has 2 different sections, both with the same facilities... it is big!

These folks knew how to keep cool. Judy and I noted, that today was the first time since we started living in the RV, that we had to have both of our roof air conditioning units working at the same time to keep the RV cool this afternoon.... it got to over 88 deg. F.

Palm Trees, and pools.... lots of ducks as well....

Not sure where she took this shot from, looks like the front entrance area....???.....

Here are some of the park model units, and all the grounds here are well kept...we did run into some people leaving today to go home after being here all winter..... it will soon be our turn to head home.... :-((

Here is a shot of our site, it is quite nice... we parked the Motorcycle trailer around the corner in some overflow parking area, so we don't have to have it on our site... this is a gated community, so all is safe!

Tomorrow we will get out and explore a bit... supposed to be real warm again I think.... looks like Ontario is in for some hot weather soon... here is hoping!

Till tomorrow.....

An Oasis in the Desert!

Today will be our last full day in the Anza Borrego Desert State Park, and we ended it off with a bang! We were up again at the crack of dawn.... 7:00 a.m. and we got our lunch to go ready, and headed off for the Visitor's Centre. That was the trail head for the Palm Valley Trail. It was a beautiful morning here, and we knew it was going to get hot, so that is why the early start.....you get to finish early!

Here we are at the trail head.... a couple from San Diego took our picture...as you can tell, it was a pretty nice day here....


This ended up being a 6.3 mile hike from the Visitor's Centre.... a lot on a hot desert day, but we were ready for it.... lots of ice water, and a nice lunch all prepared in advance.

Oh oh.... I loaded this by mistake side ways.... lots of flowers anyways....



These rocks here were painted by mother nature... An incredible thin coating of microscopic bacteria colonies.... These may be the oldest life forms! These colours took over 10,000 years to form... man am I smart!


There was at least 300 people on this trail today, and about 100 of them asked Judy "where are you from"..... wonder why.... what an ice breaker that shirt is.... we ran into lots of Canadians!


The hike was up the Palm Canyon.... and there is an actual river running down the canyon...


Yes, there was a few boulders in the way between us and the end of the canyon.


The end of our run.... there was the Oasis.... a bunch of palm trees and some water!
Judy is showing her agility to cross the river....


The palms were getting closer!
Almost there!
We made it, over 3 mile out... I was glad to stop and have some food and water....

This guy knew how to keep cool in the cold mountain stream, he was right into it!

We never did see any long horned sheep that the brochure promised! But we did have a bunch of fun!

Made it back to the RV and had a nice skype call with David and Angela in Bracebridge!

Till tomorrow...

Would you like Salt on your Sea Sir?

Today was another great day in California... sunny and warm, just the way we like it!

We decided to go for a bike ride this morning, and due to the fact we have been getting up earlier each day here, around 7:00 a.m. we were on the road at 9:00 . We headed north up to a place called Palm Slot Canyon, to check out and see if we could find the Palm Trees... well, we couldn't... maybe next time. It is a great spot to visit though... here are some pics... it is a long way down....

This canyon is just off the highway! (S22) A great spot to visit... only about 5 klms from where we are currently staying...

Judy got me to pose with this Octillo which was in full bloom...


Life on the edge....

We looked for Palm Trees down there.... but.....
I did find a few old car tires down there.... people.....
We call this a rock scramble....

Nothing like spring flowers and a 300 foot drop to go together!

We carried on out to the edge of the park, and found some great vistas.... This area you are allowed to take your ATV, or jeep, or dirt bike and let her go!

You could see for miles....

One big playground... all these people are playing with their sand toys....

You can see the trails go up the canyons... very cool area...

It is about a 400 foot drop, right behind me.... no reverse please....

We left the sand pit, and headed up the S22 to the Salton Sea! There is a Town there, and it is very depressed. They have lots of land ready for development that never happened...

The Salton Sea is big, and was created when the Colorado River overflowed it's banks, and flooded the Salton Basin... the sea remained. The ruins beside me are an old marina or something....

This is a bit of a dry bed at the salton sea... we stopped here for lunch.

A bunch of birds on that break wall out there. We drove by the Salton Sea with the Morrisons back in January.

Found some pelicans on the break wall as well....

I had to be quick with my trigger finger, but I did it!

We were back to our RV by 1:00 p.m. It was getting hot and is now real hot at about 4:00 p.m. I have set up our Star Choice Dish to watch my beloved Leafs play the Rangers tonight! Go Leafs Go!

Judy worked hard on the internet this afternoon, and we have decided to go to a place called Desert Springs in California. It has over 8 hot springs, so it is time to relax and then we we start the long ride home! We will stay there a week.

Till tomorrow!