A Desert Oasis Hike

2/13/09 Joe and Bev took us to an oasis.

Weather - Another beautiful day in the mid 70's.

Joe and Bev took us to a place in the desert called Thousand Palms Canyon. It was in the Coachella Valley in between the mountains and hills and is basically a nature preserve. The canyon contains a couple of springs that have created a true oasis in the desert. From a distance you see a green area with tall palms in the canyon surrounded by bare hills and mountains.

Saying bare is somewhat not true as we have come to discover that the desert is not really bare as it appears when seeing it from a distance but is actually covered with many types of plants. Since we have been in the southwest there have been a couple of rains and it has really started the desert to begin it's spring growth.

They say that in about 2-3 weeks the desert will be covered with wild flowers in bloom and will be beautiful. This trip has allowed us to spend more time in the southwest than we ever have before and thinking of the geography of Ohio we have come to realize that there is a great diversity in geography, plants, and animals in addition to humans in this world.

The palms here are not trimmed and are huge. They are huge in height and in circumference at the base with all the untrimmed frons attached. You could create a living space inside there. In the picture above Bev and Joan are standing at the base of the trees if you look carefully.

In this area with the available water there are bobcats and other animals in addition to lizards, and snakes.