With my morning hair and a coffee in hand, I took a leisurely stroll through the desert park with my wonderful husband (who also had morning hair - but who could tell!).Had we been in synchronized apparel and walking a little yappy dog we would have looked like all the other senior citizens doing exactly the same thing except that it was probably their second lap around...

We decided to go to Salton Sea - an accidentally man made sea 227 feet below sea level. It was a fun drive down a narrow highway which kept the contour of the land and kept us gasping and squealing as our equilibrium was continuously challenged. The sea was remarkable, surrounded by mountains and desert and the history was quite amazing but beaches were literally littered with dead fish! As it is not a God-made sea there is no natural drainage or replenishing of the water which now has 30 times more salt (salinity?) than the ocean and over time has caused all kinds of issues for the evolving ecosystem. Needless to say we didn't stay long.

Instead, Tim had the brilliant idea that we should hike through the desert to some uncharted bat caves he had read about.I, in my not-so-snake-proof flip flops was not as excited as the others in our little expedition! A mile we trekked, through sand and rocks, gullies and ravines, tumbleweed and snake dens, until we came upon a cave! A cave which had in fact no sign of bats nor any other creature (thankfully), and so we returned through the desert a mile again over sand and rocks, gullies and ravines, tumbleweed and snake dens!I'm not sure I'm a desert girl.It's such a dusty, creepy, something's-on-me, kind of place.

However, with the Happy Highway to look forward to on the way home and the reward of soaking my successfully unbitten feet in the mineral springs at our campground, it was ultimately a very triumphant day.