Highway 74~Our World Tuesday~090611

Highway 74 is the route which I take from Palm Desert to our local mountains, where I board my 5 horses.  I drive this road every weekend and holiday that I have off from school to be with them.  It used to be called "The Palms to Pines Highway" since it goes from the desert floor to the pines of Idyllwild, but now it's the Roy S. Wilson Memorial Highway...I still call it the "Palms to Pines Highway".  I spent 5 hours this morning with the horses and it RAINED!  Yes, real rain!  It was wonderful!  I went to the feed store to buy more alfalfa pellets and I could see the rain slowly moving across the valley.  I thought I had plenty of time to get back to the ranch and unload it all, but nope!  Great big drops began to splash on the windshield right as the guy loaded 4 bags of pellets into my car.  Oops!  So, I took a chair and sat in the open part of the tack room and watched the rain come down and the horses all roll in the wet dirt!  They really enjoyed the rain today!  Our World Tuesday for Tuesday, September 6, 2011. To visit Our World Tuesday, please go to:  http://ourworldtuesdaymeme.blogspot.com/

Homme-Adams Park

I went out early yesterday morning to scout out some new hiking areas, since I had the time to do so.  There is a desert park in town, the Homme-Adams park and I wanted to check out the trails there.  I noticed a few cars parked at the parking area, so off I went.  There is a shelter at the top of the trail and one at the bottom, but no restrooms.  ACK! And, the steps look pretty steep for somebody like me who has balance issues and knee issues, so I think I'll stick to the flat areas.  But, it was such a beautiful morning, I couldn't resist getting out and enjoying the views and the clouds.  It was very humid, however, and by 7:45, I went home.

Palms and clouds~SkyWatch Friday~090211

Clouds and palm trees along Highway 74 last weekend.  Skywatch Friday 090111. To visit Skywatch Friday, please go to:  http://skyley.blogspot.com/

Thunderheads~Nature Notes~090111

A fellow blogger asked if I could post more photos of the gathering thunderstorm, so I looked through my photos from last weekend and remembered that I had taken many during my drive down the mountain.  By the time I got home, let the dogs in, and ate lunch, these clouds had all formed a huge thunderstorm over the canyon and our house, which is at the bottom of the canyon, in the flat desert.  For me, it is just a 15 minute drive up to the pinyon forest of Deep Canyon.  That's the Starbucks corner on the bottom photo and some palms next to a condo development on Highway 74.  The monsoon humidity has disappeared now for the last couple of days and, while it is still hot (111 yesterday), we don't have the humidity.  Phew!  I can stand the heat, but not heat WITH humidity.  Nature Notes for September 1, 2011.  To view Nature Notes, please go to:  http://ramblingwoods.com/

Clouds and road

For some reason, there was very little traffic going up Deep Canyon over the weekend.  Just me and the clouds and a few vehicles.  I like the top photo. This guy was just humming along!  We are DONE, for now, with our monsoon clouds and are back to having dry heat.  I can't wait for the weekend...3 days off school!  Whoo, whoo!  I'll be like my kids last Friday...the door opened at 3:00 p.m. and they ALL ran out!  I'll be running out this Friday!  I'm SO ready for a long weekend!  Temps are "dropping" here...from 114 down to about 109 or 108 over the weekend!

This is how a thunderstorm starts

It started as just a couple of clouds peeking over the mountain.  A couple of hours later, BOOM!  CRASH!  KABOOM!  The thunder was vibrating all over the desert.  This has happened the last two days.  It will be another hot day here in the desert~114 degrees...sigh...it's hard to be outdoors in this kind of heat. 

Thunderhead~SOOC Sunday~082811

I noticed just a couple of thunderheads when I was up at the horse ranch yesterday.  Just two peeking over the mountains nearby...By the time I was driving down the mountain, from the ranch to the desert, through the pinyon forest, more had developed.  NOBODY was on the road, so I was able (for once) to stop and take photos mid-road.  I sometimes do that if there is no traffic and I have my camera right beside me.  It was so quiet yesterday (I'm not sure why...) that I was able to get photos in places that I normally just zip by (like this one).  By the time I got to the desert, the sky was clouding up and we had a thunderstorm by 11:30 a.m., which is very early in the day for us.  No rain, just a lot of thunder.  SOOC Sunday for August 28, 2011.  To see other participants, please go to:  http://www.murrieta365.com/