Palm Desert, California, January 28, 2017

Sometimes, you need a walk with some length to it that’s also fairly easy on the knees. This was about 4 kms long, but it took over 2 hours, because there are so many interpretive signs and so many plants and animals to admire and photograph. The paths were concrete or dirt, with no real elevation change.

Check out the facility’s website.

Map Information

We parked at N33 42.020 W116 22.525 .

This Google Maps shot shows where the facility is in relation the cities in the Palm Springs area.

This Google Earth shot shows our trek through the facility. The red arrow shows the starting point for 3 additional hikes, loops of 1/4 mile (flat), 1 mile (gentle rise and fall), or 3.5 miles (strenuous). We did neither of them.

Flora

Lots of cacti, shrubs, and so forth. The one we really liked was this cactus in bloom.

Fauna

An egret.

A coyote sleeping.

A wolf dozing.

Some bighorn sheep.

Some oryxes.

A giraffe. If you were so inclined, you could pay an additional amount for the privilege of feeding them. We saw a couple of kids who found the experience quite exciting.

A gorgeous hummingbird feeder with a hummingbird partaking thereof.

Model trains

As we were approaching the end of our stroll, we came upon this HUGE model train setup with moving trains. These photos show just a portion of it. A lot of effort has gone into this display.

Conclusion

I was definitely ready for a non-strenuous day, and this worked for me.