Sunday 15th Feb: The Oasis

The San Andreas Fault has some other side-effects. In a few places water seeps to the surface through the fault line thereby creating an oasis. Such an example is to be found only a few miles from the campsite: the Thousand Palms Oasis, managed by the State.

The pools of water are surrounded by Californian Fan Palm trees. This is the only palm native to California although a closely related palm from just over the Mexican border also grows in the oasis. Jane’s saying her palms are related only to her hands.

 Both types of palm present a shaggy appearance due to the previous year’s fronds falling down in layers as the tree grows in height. The walkway below looks like it’s passing under a (tuskless) woolly mammoth’s head. Notice how sturdily the wooden walkway is made, an example of how well the park is run. Even the woolly mammoth looks well groomed.

As might be expected, the park habitat provides a lush environment for numerous birds and creatures. Being a holiday weekend when we visited, the park was busy, so the wildlife made itself scarce. We were fortunate enough to spot a cactus wren in a palm tree near the entrance. It’s much bigger than an English wren and coloured more like a starling.

You don’t have to move far from the water source for the desert scrub to reassert itself. Within 50 metres we’re back to powdery earth and  bleached out thorn bushes like the one below. However, the informative park label states that it’s a dye weed, used by Native Americans to produce a yellow dye, something you just would not have guessed.

So an interesting visit, reminding us of oases we saw in Morocco.

We carried on after to Walmart for grocery shopping, and then driving by Palm Springs airport on the way back. President Obama had flown in the day before for a few days’ vacation, and I took an opportunist snap of his official plane, Airforce One, as we drove past. It’s a bit far away, and getting dark, but here it is for what it’s worth. We were hoping to take one of the man himself but he never dropped by for a cup of tea. There again, maybe we were out.