Wild Is the Wind

DAY EIGHTY ONE

Today in the desert the wind was crazy. There were gusts of probably 70 MPH so it was not a great day to do much of anything. Even a kite would've gotten ripped to shreds. But that wasn't going to stop me from going hiking. I just had a figure out someplace that was somewhat sheltered from the wind.

While I was at work this morning, a palm tree was blown down and smashed a couple of cars. I decided that hiking to one of the palm oases might not be a good idea today.

Ouch. This car is not going to be driven home today.

I decide on this little canyon near my house. It is accessible from the bike path here in La Quinta near Avenida Montezuma and Calle Chillon.

My son, Nikolas, and some of the neighbor kids want to go along. We also bring Kahlua, our dog.

We work our way up the canyon past this large pile of rocks.

We hop over rocks for a while but I don't take many pictures because my eyes are on the kids.

I did manage to get ahead of them and get this one of them scampering up the canyon.

We get to this dry fall and work our way around it. The kids could've actually climbed this if I spotted them (and they wanted to) but the dog wasn't going up it so we figured another way. Kids are natural climbers but dogs, not so much.

We climbed up to a trail and made our way back home that way. Slow down, guys!

It's never too early to start your kid's love affair with hiking. I took both of my children when they were babies in a backpack. From left to right: Markus, age 5, Johnnie, age 6, Amaya, age 5 (and Markus' twin sister), Nikolas, age 10 and Kahlua, age 3.

It turned out to be a great hike because the wind was never a factor and there was not a palm tree in sight.