My Christmas gift to my mom was to plan a day out together to the greater Palm Springs area. A good mid-week break in our schedules aligned and I booked us tram tickets. We started by driving out to Cabazon for a chance to stroll through the fancy fruit wares at Hadley's Fruit Orchard. A mention of my mom never having tried prickly pear jam before stuck with me. I was initially thinking of a picnic lunch at Whitewater but it was sufficiently windy outside that we decided to eat at Hadley's, enjoying tasty sandwiches and generous servings of banana date shakes. After lunch we drove up Whitewater Canyon to the Whitewater Preserve, the first time I had actually strolled the grounds proper. It was a neat spot, a world apart with its layered sedimentary cliffs towering overhead the blue-green fish ponds (frontispiece).
After a short walk up the valley to the river, we drove onward into the desert, our next stop the Thousand Palms Oasis. Here we walked the short boardwalk trail through the heart of the palms next to the spring-fed pond, which had changed since my last visit, presumably from a strong windstorm. With a little time to spare we hiked up to the top of the lookout hill for views over the San Andreas and oases.
Next on the list was the Palm Springs Tramway, which we arrived at a little earlier than planned. Happily the parking lot was as empty as I had seen it, allowing us to park right next to the top and to take the next half-empty tramcar up the mountain. The scenery on the ride never gets old between the towering cliffs of jagged granite with cross-crossing dikes and sills, the shift from desert vegetation to pines, and the low desert views stretching out below. Once up, we opted to put on our coats and go down the concrete switchbacks for the short Long Valley loop hike. There was no snow around at this point in the season but some nice ice coating the margins of the small creek. We both enjoyed breathing in the crisp mountain air and the quiet of the pines.
Back at the mountain station we caught the sunset from the lookout perch just above, with particularly nice views looking southeast towards the Salton Sea. I was debating dinner in the station but after our earlier discussion I wanted to find a place in downtown Palm Springs with prickly pear margaritas.
We ended up having to wait about 30 minutes to get a table at the place I selected but this worked out fine as it gave us time to walk through the night market taking over downtown. Eventually we got seated and enjoyed a fancy sampler flight of prickly pear, pineapple, watermelon, and spicy margaritas with tempura avocado tacos. I'm not one for taking pictures of food but the margarita flight was hard not to snap a picture of. All in all I thought it was a great day with pleasant weather and a good variety of new places and tastes to enjoy together. Thanks to mom for a fun day out.
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