Palm Desert Hiking Park and beyond!

Day Forty Three

After hiking up the green hills near Snow Creek,  I thought I'd go to the Palm Desert Hiking Park and see how green the hills above Palm Desert are.  Unfortunately, the answer is: not very.

I head up the Gabby Hayes trail and this time decide not to take the offshoot trail but to remain on the main trail.  I still don't really know who Gabby Hayes is and why this trail is named for him but that's OK.  They can name any number of trails for obscure Western movie actors as long as they keep building them.

Someone has decided to create this trail art by piling up rocks on other rocks.

Not wanting to hike to the cross today, I head to the right and take a trail by the fence near Stone Eagle Golf Club.

There's a trail that climbs the side of the mountain above Bump and Grind.  I've heard a ton of names for this mountain but I call it COD Mountain because when I first moved here someone had painted the letters COD on the face of it.

There is some green along the hillsides but nothing to compare to the hills near Palm Springs.  The golf course doesn't count.

I climb high on the mountain on a pretty good trail.  Someone had obviously put some work into it.

The view of the golf course from the top.

Someone put some art at the top of the mountain.

Instead of going down the same trail I decide to go straight down the mountain face to the top of Bump and Grind.  That way if it gets dark on me I'll be able to follow the herd trail down.

This hill is steep and rocky and I keep thinking I would not want to do this in the dark.  Coming down this was fast but it wasn't fun.  My teeth are still clinched.

The lights are coming on in the city.

I got down just a bit after dark but my night vision must be improving with all my after sunset adventures.  I didn't even have to reach in my pocket and get out a light.  Although it was much longer than I anticipated, I'm glad I did this hike.  I'll sleep well tonight.