Wednesday, Feb 12
Another glorious sunny day. This will be a down day for us as Ray needs to rest up before our next adventure. He ended up taking his pain medication this morning and will go for another hot tub. Freya will be happy for us to stay home too. I spent several hours getting yesterday's post together while Ray did all the pictures. Pork Belly and Ramen noodle soup for dinner in the Instant Pot. Yumm.
Thursday, Feb 13
Ray had a rough night so he slept in. I was up at 5am as I'm still not used to the time change coming into California. lol Another beautiful day. Hard to believe this is our last day here before moving on. This week just flew by!
We are going on a road trip today up to Idyllwild. Looking forward to going up the mountain for the views. Ray and I went to Idyllwild 5 years ago from Hemet with some friends.
What a fabulous road if you like a very windy technical drive. I drove us up and up and up and around until we got to the top and started back down the mountain. I stopped at the top at the Coachella Valley View Point where you could see the road we came up.
Once we got to the top of the mountain the highway went down the other side into this valley, where there are quite a few ranches.
We carried on and then stopped at Lake Hemet for a few pictures. I am sure this is a busy place in the summer when Palm Springs and San Diego gets warm. There is a large private campsite on the lake with a huge day use area. They charge $25 just to go in and see it! The lady at the store told us that for $5 to park, we could go further down the road to the National Forest Service Day Use Area, which is what we did to get some pictures. Good thing we bought the pass as I saw 2 Forest Ranger trucks while we were there.
We could hear the Santa Ana winds through the treetops. It almost sounded like running water. Took us a bit to figure out what the sound was.
Talking with these fisherman they told me the lake is stocked with Lightning Trout. They are bright yellow. There is also carp in the lake so maybe these fish are stronger and don't get eaten as much.
The Lightning Trout is a hybridized Rainbow that: “looks like a rainbow trout, but is bright yellow-to-gold in color and sports a dark pink stripe that runs horizontally along the lateral line of the spotless body. The meat of the fish is bright pink, resembling more of a wild char or salmon filet.Apr 9, 2015
Finally we reached our destination at Idyllwild. You can see how close those fires came to them last September. The forest service did a great job of protecting the houses.
"After an arsonist lit fires in multiple locations in the forests below the town, winds carried the flames up the mountain, through pine trees, dry brush and chaparral. The fire scorched more than 13,000 acres surrounding Idyllwild before firefighters contained it on the edge of town. It destroyed five structures.Jul 22, 2019"
We ended up having their fresh Atlantic Cod and fries. Delicious.
After our lunch, Ray wandered around taking pictures and I wandered around going into the stores. Such an eclectic place. A lot of the artist jewellery is made from polished stones they get from the Tucson Gem Show or Quartzsite. They had a lot of the same stuff as "Q" just with a much bigger price tag. lol Definitely a tourist trap but pretty nonetheless.
There seems to be more restaurants here than stores. Another lovely day and now my "Mario Kart" driving us back home to camp. This road is excellent for Porches and motorcycles ... any fast car low to the ground. With our SUV I had to go a little slower around the corners. :(
Tomorrow we are off to North Joshua Tree BLM for a few days. Our week here went by super fast. Next time we will stay longer as we are missing out on the Date Festival next at the fairgrounds only a few blocks from here. It is a really big event that lasts all week.
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| It turned out great. |
Ray had a rough night so he slept in. I was up at 5am as I'm still not used to the time change coming into California. lol Another beautiful day. Hard to believe this is our last day here before moving on. This week just flew by!
We are going on a road trip today up to Idyllwild. Looking forward to going up the mountain for the views. Ray and I went to Idyllwild 5 years ago from Hemet with some friends.
What a fabulous road if you like a very windy technical drive. I drove us up and up and up and around until we got to the top and started back down the mountain. I stopped at the top at the Coachella Valley View Point where you could see the road we came up.
 |
| Looks like a great racetrack. |
 |
| See all the smog over Palm Springs. |
Once we got to the top of the mountain the highway went down the other side into this valley, where there are quite a few ranches.
 |
| Pine Springs Ranch |
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| Tahquitz Peak, the back side of the Indian Canyon area. |
We could hear the Santa Ana winds through the treetops. It almost sounded like running water. Took us a bit to figure out what the sound was.
Talking with these fisherman they told me the lake is stocked with Lightning Trout. They are bright yellow. There is also carp in the lake so maybe these fish are stronger and don't get eaten as much.
The Lightning Trout is a hybridized Rainbow that: “looks like a rainbow trout, but is bright yellow-to-gold in color and sports a dark pink stripe that runs horizontally along the lateral line of the spotless body. The meat of the fish is bright pink, resembling more of a wild char or salmon filet.Apr 9, 2015
Finally we reached our destination at Idyllwild. You can see how close those fires came to them last September. The forest service did a great job of protecting the houses.
"After an arsonist lit fires in multiple locations in the forests below the town, winds carried the flames up the mountain, through pine trees, dry brush and chaparral. The fire scorched more than 13,000 acres surrounding Idyllwild before firefighters contained it on the edge of town. It destroyed five structures.Jul 22, 2019"
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| The fire stopped within 50 yards of the top left house. |
Ray and I decided to have lunch first but were a little early for the Idyllwild Brewing Company to be open so snapped a few pictures first.
A very large statue with the white rock in behind. Thousands of visitor pictures have been taken here. lol
11am, time to go to lunch at the new Idyllwild Brewing Company, located along Strawberry Creek. It has only been open for 3 years.
We ended up having their fresh Atlantic Cod and fries. Delicious.
After our lunch, Ray wandered around taking pictures and I wandered around going into the stores. Such an eclectic place. A lot of the artist jewellery is made from polished stones they get from the Tucson Gem Show or Quartzsite. They had a lot of the same stuff as "Q" just with a much bigger price tag. lol Definitely a tourist trap but pretty nonetheless.
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| Of course Ray had to try the homemade ice cream. lol |
There seems to be more restaurants here than stores. Another lovely day and now my "Mario Kart" driving us back home to camp. This road is excellent for Porches and motorcycles ... any fast car low to the ground. With our SUV I had to go a little slower around the corners. :(
Tomorrow we are off to North Joshua Tree BLM for a few days. Our week here went by super fast. Next time we will stay longer as we are missing out on the Date Festival next at the fairgrounds only a few blocks from here. It is a really big event that lasts all week.
I've heard that the date festival is a must see, too bad you'll miss it but Joshua Tree is great too.
ReplyDeleteI put the festival on my outlook calendar so I will make sure the next time we head to Palm Springs area I can include it in our itinerary.
DeleteVery cool area, I bet it was nice to see some water after being in the desert for so long!
ReplyDeleteYes it was. A very magical place and very peaceful. We definitely would do this again if we are in the area.
DeleteLooks like you didn't have to fight for table at the Brew Company! Nice looking place.
ReplyDeleteIdyllwild is a place we haven't been, but looks like we better make a point of going.
We got there just as they opened at 11 am. It started filling up once we got our food. Great fish and chips.
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