An Oasis

Carol and Roger and I went down to the Coachella Valley Preserve today while Ron was playing water volleyball. This is an amazing 17,000 acre site ten miles east of Palm Springs which is actually part of the Colorado Desert. This was created to protect the fringe-toed lizard and protects the last undisturbed sand dune and valley floor habitat of the Coachella Valley.
For as long as 600 years the Cahuilla Nation held this whole area as their home. They were tranquil, traditional and productive and this waterpoint, the Thousand Palms Oasis enabled them to do so here.
It was discovered by an early trader in 1900 who received the deed for 80 acres around the 6 oasis from the U.S. President, and swapped this land for 2 mules and a buckboard wagon in 1905 to Louis Wilhelm. His son Paul built a "log' cabin but not like we know. It is made from palm tree lengths standing upright, all the logs cemented with clay to construct the one room cabin. Today it's a 3 room cabin used as an interpretive center with vast information about the area and 6 oasis here. We hiked 1.4 miles on the McCallum Trail, first through a fan palm grove that was so thick you could get lost 5 feet from your neighbour, but couldn't get through the dense spiked palms fronds without getting a hundred bleeding cuts. We left there to cross hot desert to get to an amazing crystal clear oasis with clams, salamander and native pup fish. You couldn't even see this from the road, a hundred feet away and it was incredibly interesting and 20 degrees cooler in the shade of the oasis than on the open trails. You can see previous flooding water cut a 5' wash through here some time ago.