The Coachella Valley Preserve - A Natural Wonder

Just a couple of miles from our park is the Coachella Valley Preserve. We visited one day this week and found this place very peaceful and beautiful. The Preserve is positioned over part of the San Andreas Fault and is one of only three areas in California where native Fan Palm Trees grow. The trees here are ancient and grow naturally because the fault lines have created a wet oasis in the desert. After looking at "cultivated" palm trees in the city for the past few weeks, it was strange to see these "unkept" trees. Through two of these giants, you see another off in the distance and the neighboring mountains.

This one looked like stems in a vase to me.

Here I am standing in the middle of the path surrounded by palms; very little light gets through. Note I have my trusty walking stick with me; it is the same one Mike found for me years ago on Lake Kabetokama (a Canadian border lake).

I stuck the camera under the long growth of dried up palms and this is what the lens saw under there.

It doesn't seem like this is a sign you would see in the middle of a desert region...

This little guy was very busy building a nest with material from the palm trees.

At the end of a 2 mile trail, we found this all natural pond. There was even a bench for us to use as we soaked in the area.

This little guy lives in the pond, along with pup fish like the ones we saw in Death Valley last year. The crayfish was as interested in us as we were in him. I don't know if they build nests, but he sure was busy taking little sticks and grasses from the side of the pond to a spot under a "shelf" just a few feet away.

Once again I realized the importance of looking closely. I nearly passed by this plant. And if I passed it by, I would have missed these beautiful and delicate little flowers.

This was a "dead" bush I nearly walked by.

Until I saw the flower growing at its base. This is a desert chicory or angel's wing flower.

More on the awakening of the desert in a later post.