Day Trip

We decided to take a drive this afternoon so I could introduce Sam to Pine Springs Ranch up in Idylwild. I used to drive up there when I lived here in the early '80s and I wanted Sam to see where I'd done some silent retreats and where some of my first speaking appointments took place. So we took off up the mountain.

You can see where some fires burned at the side of the road. This was on Interstate-10 out toward Palm Springs.

It was about 100 degrees up there and the sun was blazing down mercilessly, so we didn't stay there very long. We would have melted. The receptionist at the camp told us that the road down the back way home--via Hemet--was closed due to fire. We had the choice to either go back over those challenging mountain turns all the way back to the Interstate, or we could follow Route 74 over toward Palm Desert on a road unknown. We took that road less traveled and it was a wonderful albeit, a lengthy drive. The terrain changed from tall, stately pine trees to scruffy Manzanita bushes and finally, the rocky, dry terrain that you can see in the above picture. If you click on the picture and look closely, you can see the highway winding back and forth as it goes down the mountainside.

We stopped and took a picture of ourselves on a Vista Point. We were unsure what there was to see except for rocks, sand, and the rare boulder.

It was a terrific drive and a delightful time to get to be together.