Judging by how fun it was to write this title pretty sure I need to name my offspring Hulda and Jacinto.
Around these parts one fun activity is to hike the trails above Hulda Crooks park. I've had a few friends check it out so I thought it was about time I did too.
When I say "trails" remember that this is California. And not the Yosemite part. Love me some dry dusty trails! You can't quite tell in this photo but this one is really steep with soft dirt. And not in a fun angora rabbit way. It was tough! But all of a sudden we were pretty high about the city.
Due to it's unfortunate location San Bernadino is often plagued with pretty nasty air quality.
Mmm. Looks so ... palpable.
J/k. I'm 100% sure that is smog. After some exercise we headed back home, stopping at this fruit stand by our place, San Jacinto Farms.
Yeah that one. And almost every weekend after that when I thought I might make it happen.
Well, earlier this week I took a look at the week's forecast. I saw it was supposed to be in the mid-70s.... in the middle of the desert... in May. Pretty much a sign from the heavens above that it was do-or-die. After the heatwave we had I thought I had missed my chance and that all the wildflowers would be gone anyways.
I guess the previous suffering was worth it, because Ross and I were in for a treat!
Like we do, we packed a lunch and plenty of water and headed out... on the all too familiar road down to Joshua Tree this time just for a day trip. Here is quick recap of the day.
Our first stop was the "World Famous Crochet Museum." Funny, I had never heard of it until I dove into Yelp one day.
But being the world famous crocheter that I am, I figured it was worth a look. The museum is a tiny little closet shed. You walk in and... holy crochet Batman (there probably was one)!
We are talking thousands of crocheted things. Kachina dolls, mushrooms, gnomes, tacos, oreos, flowers, frames, mermaids and poodles. Oh the poodles! A whole wall of them.
It was awesome, my new goal in life. We poked around the area, where there were other art umm.... projects?
Including a wall of hubcaps and a trailer full of busts. And never to be forgotten -but impossible to explain- "art" involving at least a hundred brightly colored and different sized dildos.
We headed into the park, pretty cocky (oops) that we already had an annual pass. Ross picked out the "Dead Horse Mine" hike for us.
The park was pretty busy but I guess our hiking trail was long enough and deep enough in the park where it wasn't packed. It was a beautiful day.
Surprisingly not as many Joshua Trees in this part of the park, but still beautiful.
I don't know how recent the fire was, but you could see the landscape trying to recover. It was kind of crazy to see that definite parts had burned. One side- lots of vegetation, the other- recovering.
When we got to the mine we stopped for a cold pizza lunch. Only the best lunch ever.
Then walked around the mine. I could only think of Zorro.
It was kind of breezy up there so we had to bust out the sweatshirt and jacket.
Ross gave me crazy eyes when he saw me staring at the rocks. Sorry I am a weirdo that things rocks are cool.
Speaking of rocks... After our hike we drove through the park a little bit
and found a big ol' pile o' rocks.
I mean really big.
I also found a little billy goat who loves to scale rock piles.
This slow-mo video isn't nearly as hilarious as I think it is.
But it looked like so much fun I thought I would try some climbing too.
We got a little scripped and scrapped up, but it was pretty challenging and really fun.
Next we made a little walk to a lookout point. It's crazy. You can see all of the Coachella Valley. The Salton Sea, Signal Mountain (close to the Mexico border), Palm Springs, Mount San Jacinto, and San Gorgonio.
We decided it was time to head home, mostly because we were pretty worn out from all the hiking and climbing. But we couldn't resist one more pile of rocks on the way out.
Ross caught me in my zen place. The air was so cool and fresh, it was nice to just lay down and zone out.
And no trip to the desert would be complete without someone standing next to a joshua tree. So there you have it!
Merry Christmas Eve. I can't believe that it is already Christmas Eve. And guess what... Rissa is still here! And she is still having fun... I think. I'm still having fun having her here at least! :D
Tuesday our tentative plan was go along the south side of the island to Laura's Spice Garden, Royal Mt. Carmel Waterfalls, and then La Sagesse. All I can say is, good thing it was tentative. Because it didn't exactly play out like that. TIG.
The drive down the south side is very beautiful. The road is for the most part, a decent size with less cliffs you could potentially drop off of if, heaven forbid, something bigger than two golf carts need to drive in opposite directions (I'm look at you Grand Etang Road).
Rissa took these pics during the drive.
Lots and lots of green, which I am sure is different from the lots and lots of snow that Rissa is used to seeing this time of year.
Although we navigated there well, Laura's Spice Garden was closed. I had a feeling it might be, because public holidays are more like Public Halt-days in Grenada. Don't get me wrong, I think it is way cool that the country respects holidays in that way.
So we moved on to Royal Mt. Carmel Waterfalls. I guess the Christmas Spirit is all around because usually I am greeted by at least a couple very enthusiastic entrepreneurs when I roll up to Mt. Carmel "trailhead." This time we got off scott-free. No gate use fees, no car watching fees, no water spigot fees. Which of course, just made me want to give him more of my money, funny how that works.
I've been to Mt. Carmel numerous times, once of which I blogged about here, almost exactly a year ago. The hike consists of two different waterfall spots. I don't know if they are all Mt. Carmel waterfalls or what.
It's a fun, short hike, but pretty muddy. And of course, even the most inexperienced nature scout can see some wildlife.
Aaand, sometimes it does take a keener eye.
The first waterfall you come to is pretty large.
We did some climbing around and Rissa went swimming in the crystal clear pool at the bottom of the waterfall.
Then we hiked down and across the river to get to the bottom falls.
No matter how many times I slide down the lower falls, it is still pretty fun. The first time I was a little apprehensive, but the pool is deep enough, the rock is smooth, it's not very tall, and the water isn't very fast.
It's pretty fun! So we all went down a few times. We had a picnic lunch in the beautiful scenery before we started the hike back.
Taking a few pics along the way of course.
You have to cross this sketch little bridge. Ali, I'm sure you don't approve of the structural soundness of this.
As we were cleaning off our sandals at that convenient little spigot I asked the Spigot Master if there were any cocoa fruits in season. He grabbed a cutlass and headed back into the jungle to grab us some. He showed Rissa how to smash it on the curb to get it open and eat the delicious fruit from the inside. It still blows my mind every time how that is where chocolate comes from!
Like I mentioned, I remember without fondness where I have been in past Januaries. And I would rather be loving "winter" Grenada weather than scratching ice off my car in sub degree weather!
Our next adventure was to Mt. Carmel. I have also been to Mt. Carmel, earlier last term.
Mt. Carmel involves a short-ish hike, a big waterfall (not jump-able), and a natural rock water slide!
The trail was an absolute sloppy mess. It was insanely muddy and the best tactic in some portions was to give up and slide.
I took this picture from my friend Nicole. I love little Baby Leia hanging on for dear life. Sean is a trooper.
First we hiked to the huge, gorgeous waterfall.
Did I mention that it was really muddy? The water was pretty muddy too.
Next we hiked to the water slides! It was fun, the water was just a little muddier and pretty cold. Ross loved it. I think he could've stayed in all day.
To get to the top of the slides you have to hike up the trail a little bit and over. Because there were so many of us going back and forth the trail turned into such a mess. The only hope we had was to grab on to random vines and roots hoping that they wouldn't snap prematurely. Haha. I thought it was hilarious and tons of fun but others, I guess not so much.
Fortunately much of the trail got some good sun and had dried a little. The trail is that really thick clay type mud.
On this hike you can see the ocean peaking out every once and a while!
Once again I am so grateful for friends who give us rides to have fun adventures like this. Living in the Caribbean Ross and I have a once in a lifetime adventure, we just have to make the most of the short time we have.
