3 Days of Wind

When I was looking for an RV park in the Palm Springs area I had heard that anything north of the I-10 was subject to some windy days, but this is getting ridiculous.  The Coachella Valley is framed by 2 mountain ranges, the San Bernardino Mountains to the north and the San Jacinto Mountains to the south.  In between lies the San Gorgonio Pass and to the east is the Coachella Valley, our home.  The Pass and Valley form a perfect funnel for the winds coming off the ocean.  The cities south of the I-10 which include Palm Springs, Indian Wells, etc, are in the shadow of the San Jacinto range and are sheltered from the winds.  In our first 6 days we had one day of winds with gusts of up to 70 kph.  In the past 3 days each day has been so windy that it would take my slice and turn it into a hook.  As in many places this year it would appear that the weather in the southwest has had a few more extremes than normal.  The weather systems coming off the Pacific have had a lot more moisture and winds than usual.  To make myself feel better about our weather I check the forecast in Winnipeg.  -28C with high winds and blowing snow and -43C tonight.  Ok.  Feeling better now.

Monday, to get out of the wind, we decided to take a drive around the valley, take in some sights and pick up some information at the Tourist Informations centre.

As we left the RV Park this was the view of Mt San Jacinto to the south west.  Most days the peak is shrouded in cloud but when clear you can see the snowy peak.  Somewhere up there is the Cable-Car ride that we have planned.

To the north-west is the San Bernardino mountain range.  The highest peak, which is covered in snow, is Mt San Gorgonio and at 11,489 ft it is the tallest peak in southern California

In the middle is the San Gorgonio Pass which is covered in windmills.  Hundreds, perhaps thousands, spinning madly keeping the lights on.  

On Tuesday we headed to La Quinta to take in their Old Town.  We were expecting much the same as we had seen in Albuquerque, Yuma, Sedona and Cottonwood.  Lots of quaint little shops  restaurants and bars.  To say we were disappointed would be an understatement.  The buildings and streets were very nice but outside of a few restaurants/bars and a very few shops there wasn't much to get excited about.  The rest of the buildings housed real estate and other offices which would be of little interest to tourists like us.  We had a nice lunch at the cafe pictured above and then headed to Costco and then back to our windy side of town.  

Wednesday there was rain and more wind in the forecast so we decided to take a drive down to the Salton Sea.  As we left we spotted this rainbow over the San Goronio Pass.  As often happens when rain is in the forecast, it rains in the mountains but all we get in the valley is some clouds and of course, wind.  

Th Salton Sea is situated south and a bit east of our home base and lies directly on top of the San Andreas Fault.  The lake's surface is 234 ft below sea level and is fed by a few small rivers and creeks as well as irrigation runoff.  There is no exit point so what comes in stays or evaporates.   Currently the evaporation rate is greater than the rate of inflow and the lakes level has been dropping consistently.  Over the centuries the Sea has periodically been fed by the Colorado river as flooding and the build up of deltas have changed its course.  The last time the Colorado fed into the Salton Sea was in 1905 when the irrigation canals overflowed its banks.  It took 2 years for engineers to stop the flow of water.  

This is the backside of the North Shore Beach & Yacht Club.  The docks are long gone as are all the Yachts.  All that remains is the beach and the piers for the docks.  The building now seems to be more of a community club.  

Perhaps when water inflow to the lake was greater this body of water supported more boating and fishing.  As the lake evaporates it leaves behind water that has a salinity content higher than the Pacific ocean.  Charli found that out in short order as she ran for the water when we took her out of the truck.  She did her usual dash, head down, mouth open ready to inhale a nice drink of fresh water.  She got one mouthful and came up sputtering, coughing and spitting the water out of her mouth.  Was quite funny to watch.  The beach is littered with the carcasses of fish, I assume, freshwater fish that come in from the streams feeding the Sea and then can't survive in the salty water.  

A closer look at one of the remains.  Charli was of course quite happy to roll in the mass of skeletons.  Happily for us they were well dried out and the smell of dead fish was gone.   The Sea does have a certain musk of its own but is not overwhelming.

We were walking along the beach on what we initially thought was sand.  But the sound of our footsteps was more of a crunch and when we looked down we noticed we were walking through shells and bones of millions of crustaceans and just perhaps a few fish. 

Lots of Birds.  Over 400 Species have been catalogued.  Cormorants, Egrets, White and Brown Pelicans  Grackles, Western Grebes and all varieties of Ducks.  

We found them gathered en-mass in a few spots and a couple of local bird watchers told us that these were sites of fresh water streams entering the Sea.  

Not sand but skeletal remains of perhaps Billions of animals.  They are from 1-2 feet deep and ran for miles down the length of the beach.  Our neighbour used to drive truck down here and said a few years back the Sea came right up to the road.   Now its probably almost a 1/2 mile of sand, mud and crunchy skeletons. 

Thursday we were planning another hike but got up and it was cloudy and forecast was for rain and cool weather so we stayed in the campground.  Thankfully the wind had died off so until the rains came in the late afternoon it turned out to be a nice day to walk the park and sit outside.  I also attended a photography class which proved to be quite informational.  I even have a homework assignment.  We each got a hard boiled egg and are to take 3 pictures of the egg under different lighting conditions.  The point is to learn how light affects the subject.

Thats it for now.  More from the desert later.