Thousand Palms

Today's hike was less than l/2 hour from home. It was called the Thousand Palms Oasis Preserve in the Coachella Valley Preserve System. Water from the springs along the San Andreas earthquake fault feed the California fan palm, which creates the desert oasis. It felt odd to be walking along a fault line but we were reassured that it only moves 2-3 cm per year! We got a real workout hiking 5 km on the sandy McCallum trail to the Thousand Palms Oasis. The Preserve was designed to protect a threatened reptile, the fringe-toed lizard, but we only saw the garden variety lizard.Read more