Here is a view of the San Jacinto Mts from the front of the place.

Since we really weren't feeling up to anything strenuous the first day, we decided to explore the west side of the San Jacinto Mountains by car.

Basically, we made a big circle from Palm Springs to Banning, then up in the hills, then back around to Palm Springs, roughly an 88 mile loop.

The blue line is the route on the west side of the mountains.

The small mountain town of Idyllwild extends up this canyon, to the left of that roundish knob. The peak of this range is Tahquitz Peak at about 8800 ft. Idyllwild is at about 5000 ft.

We were completely unprepared for the cold weather here.  Basically, we froze!

We drove up the canyon to about even with the roundish knob in the previous image.

At the end of the road is a trailhead which leads up to San Jacinto peak at over 10,600 ft. It is about a 10 mile hike (out and back). Maybe some day.

The other side of the canyon, the peak at 9600 ft.

This carving is the centerpiece of the town.

Here is a closer look at the carving.

I think I saw this at WalMart for $99.

Panoramic of the west side of the mountains

We did manage to get in two rounds of golf.

This is Cathedral Canyon.

190 yds, 4 iron; I barely cleared the water.

Cimarron Pebble Course

Golf is not cheap in Palm Springs. But fortunately, we have a good friend in the trade.

Thanks golfnow.com!

June finally persuaded me to visit The Living Desert. It looked like a petting zoo of sorts, so I was a bit reluctant.

Unbelievable!

Ankole Cattle

Gazelle

Ostrich

Serval

Mountain Lion

We decided to explore a hike called 'Cactus to Clouds' from Palm Springs up to the Tram near San Jacinto peak.

The trail is very rustic, sometimes groping up rocky crevices like this one.

Here is a nice site that describes the hike.

We walked until we had our fill, I think about 3 miles up.

Here is about where we turned around.

And so ends our Dec 2011 vist to the desert.