Exploring the Living Desert

                                 When you are tired of the cold and snow, a road trip is the answer!One idea is a trip to Palm Desert.  To reach Palm Desert, you take the Palms to Pines Highway.  It travels from the mountains full of pines at 7,000 feet and higher at the mountain peaks...

                                         ...to the desert filled with palm trees close to sea level.

                               It is a beautiful drive as it goes through all the changes of habitat
                                                                     and elevation.

                                   This photo is the last stretch before you reach Palm Desert.
                       You will have sweaty palms the first few times you go down this windy road!
                                                                  At least, I did!
     Once you reach Palm Desert, an excellent place to enjoy Nature is the Living Desert.
Not only can you enjoy the desert wildlife and native plants that are part of the exhibits,                             you can go on a desert hike and look for "visitors" to the park.

                                         First, some of the cool stuff you can see on exhibit.

                                                 Where else can you see Meerkats?

                                        How about these cool reptiles - Chuckwallas
When in danger, they will hide between rocks and  inflate their bodies so predators cannot                                                                    get to them easily.

                                  Tarantulas..What else is there to say about these amazing spiders.
                   Besides all the exhibits, you can start looking for creatures that are                                                                                    visiting the desert on their own.

 This was the first time I ever saw a Roadrunner. It came to the aviary to "visit" another                  roadrunner behind the netting and communicated to it through the netting by                                         fanning its tail and making sounds to it.

                              The park has hiking trails in the desert for those who want to explore.

 This Antelope Ground Squirrel was interested in us when we stopped to have a picnic on the                                                         Eisenhower Mt trail.

                          This Rock Wren was equally interested in what we were eating.

                         Today the Ocotillo was in bloom which attracted this female Costa's                                                                                           Hummingbird.

                The male Costa's Hummingbird kept giving me his back but finally, I got a front                                                                               view of him.

           Being from the east coast, so many of the birds I see are first time discoveries.                                                   This is one of them. This beautiful bird is a Verdin. Wow!

                                                             Majestic Bighorn Sheep

                           The Living Desert has so much to offer! I highly recommend it!!