Mountain Climb

The last couple of years we have gotten into more hiking when we are out in Palm Springs. This year we decided to climb the mountain that has the trail starting at the end of Ramon. We decided to go early in the morning and we made sure we had a good supply of water with us. We started just as the sun was coming up and the temperature was just right for the climb. It was a good climb and a challenge in places but the views were worth the effort and we had an enjoyable couple of hours of exercise. We climbed up for about one and a half hours and got to some pretty high elevations. We reached the sign that said if we wanted to go furthur we needed to be well prepared and experienced as people had died on the trail. That was at about 1700 ft or so and we decided that we 'd better turn back. In some ways going down was easier, but we sure used different muscles. I also really enjoyed the variety of flowers we saw growing on the mountain, some were large and bright while others were so tiny they would be easy to miss. Kerry saw a snake and a lizard, but seeing as how he was walking ahead of me, they were gone by the time I got close, so I just have to take his word for it. Once we got back down it we were pretty hungry as we did this all before breakfast. We decided that maybe next time we would have to take our breakfast along and eat it at the top .

This is a collage of views from our hike up the mountain. At the top we could see the whole length of the valley from the windmills at one end, and the whole of Palm Springs spread out below, to the golf course at the south end of the valley. Gorgeous, though pictures don't really show it very well.