The cycle north out of Palm Springs is easy using the concrete paths laid everywhere for golf buggies! Finally we are back out in the desert heading past an enormous wind farm and then on up and up through bare stony mountains, to the small town of Morongo Valley. We have a picnic lunch in their Canyon Preserve, alive with birds.
The road today is generally a good tarmac surface, but in places sand has blown across the carriageway.
Onwards and upwards through a lunar sand, rock and Joshua Tree landscape until around 3200 feet we reach the town of Yucca Valley. Another 500 ft up a steep road, and out onto a sand desert track to the our hosts' wooden holiday cottage, high on a ridge, with breathtaking views of the desert all around.
Hummingbirds, Jays , Phainopepla & hawks abound in the native trees and shrubs around the house. There are coyote paw prints in the sand around the house, and next morning we sit outside watching a coyote walk across the opposite hillside.
Our host Craig is a keen birder, taking us birdwatching locally, and then he lends us his jeep for a side trip into the Mojave desert at Joshua Tree National Park.
One of the highlights of the entire trip, this beautiful high desert area is full of granite stones in giant heaps, interspersed with Joshua Trees and other native plants. At 5000ft the view back down, over the San Andreas fault and Coachella valley, to Palm Springs, is breathtaking.
We mostly have the park to ourselves, especially the sand roads, apart from climbers tackling shear rock-faces.
Tour miles to date: 2,958
Location:Palm Springs to Yucca Valley
