December 14th: Palm Desert with Rahns

 It's no wonder I didn't get a blog done in October and November. As I look back at the calendar, I was very busy! I still have COVID, unfortunately, but catching up on the blog gives me something to do. Plus it's fun to look back at the last couple months.

I was invited once again to join the Rahns at Palm Desert. Their time share is wonderful and its a great place for hiking and restaurants. We knew we would need some good planning. The forecast was for 102 degrees. We were up and out early, plus drove up into the mountains for our hike where it was cooler.

I really enjoy the drive up and over the mountains to get to Palm Desert.

View from the mountaintop,
 Palm Desert below

The drive into Palm Springs

View from my balcony

There is a huge pool complex. Not a lot of people braved the heat later in the day. But Craig did a good job of securing umbrellas for us to sit under. After exercising in the very nice fitness area, we sat outside, read our books and had lunch delivered to us!

As usual, Craig researched a nice hike and a visit to Pioneer Village. The terrain had more vegetation than below in the desert. Part of the time we were in the shade.

Here is a collection of pictures that speak for themselves. I included a lot of pictures because the terrain is quite varied and interesting.

One of many cliff walls

Karen and Craig

Hurricane damage

Hurricane damage

After our hike we rode into the Joshua Tree National Park region. The Joshua trees are unique as well as the other plants and trees growing at this altitude. Click on Photos. Joshua Trees

We were on our way to Pioneer Village. I had never heard of it and didn't know what to expect. We planned to go there for lunch and also to look around.

Of course lunch came first. The 

Rustic Old West motif Restaurant

Stage and dance floor

The place was quite large with a live band dance floor for use in the evenings. 

After lunch we toured the town. We learned that Roy Rogers, Dale Evans and others decided to build a western movie site in Arizona, close to Hollywood. The building were not fronts. They were actual buildings with people living and working there. They still have their own post office.

They showed videos of cowboys racing through town on horses. Who knew. We were told many movies were shot here, sometimes two at the same time on opposite sides of the street. Here are some good historical pictures. Can you identify the cowboys and cowgirls in the pictures?

Here's a list of movies filmed at Pioneer Town

On my last day we rode into Palm Desert to a very good Mexican Restaurant. We checked out some art at museum that displayed artwork from local artists. There was a lot of really nice art works.

On our way back to our time share we passed several expansive wind and solar farms.