Heat Wave.
Well everyone, we survived the desert. A week in that heat felt like an eternity and luckily for us, only a few things melted in the car. The desert is actually a really cool place filled with weird cacti, small and colorful plants and sand in places you didn't think it would be. Sounds interesting, right? Right. Now, let's keep in mind that Thatcher and I were there during a heat wave that usually only occurs in July or August. We could literally see the heat hovering above the ground like a thick waving ribbon of hot air. It was daunting. Should you ever be caught in the desert during a heat wave, here's some tips for what to do.
1. Go to the movies. Say it with me - "air conditioning."
2. Slow down when driving through shade and soak it all in, it may be your last bit of relief for miles.
3. Make sure you have enough freon in your car. Seriously, we had to go to three Jiffy Lubes until we found one that had some in stock.
4. Stay hydrated. Fill enough water for one person then double it. No, scratch that, triple it.
5. Avoid the desert in a heat wave so you don't have to worry about #1-4.
Before we make it into the desert, I do have to you all about Petrified Forest National Park. The south end of this small park, in my opinion, is the best part. The Painted Desert on the north end and the remnants of the 1953 Studebaker now standing where Route 66 once cut through the park, the only national park to have a piece of The Mother Road running through it, is interesting for sure, but the Crystal Forest is the place to be. The paved, one mile loop wound around the hot desert sand and was lined with slices of fallen tree trunks. Getting closer, we discovered they weren't just ordinary tree trunks, they were petrified. Fun fact, the wood is not even wood at all, it's fossilized wood that is now stone, a.k.a. petrified. Amazing stuff, science. Here's what happened; downed trees during the Triassic period started to accumulate in river channels where the park is now. Over time, volcanic ash buried these trees and the groundwater dissolved the Silica from the ash and carried it into the logs which formed quartz crystals. The iron oxide combined with the Silica and created the amazing colors we saw when we were there. Hence, The Crystal Forest. Looking closely and veering off the path slightly, we saw every vibrant shade of purple, green, yellow, blue, red, orange, you name it, it was there. The bark, still on the shell of the logs, seamlessly combined with the multicolored quartz like it was always meant to be there and small colorful stones up close were actually small pieces of the larger petrified wood turning the desert floor a pretty shade of rainbow.
After that colorful trip back in time, we headed to our next destination, Thatcher, Arizona. The drive there was long and hot and only slightly out of the way. That's what road trips are all about though, driving two hours out of the way in 105 degree heat to take a picture with every sign you can possibly find donning "Thatcher." When I first sat down with my map back before I started this trip, I discovered the small town, got way too excited, and highlighted it for later knowing I'd stop there, hopefully with Thatcher by my side. We got there and I'm here to tell you all that Thatcher was walking around like a goddamn king. "My city, my limits" he kept saying proudly while pointing to every sign and stopping at each one to take a picture. The fire department, the high school, he even had his own snapchat filter. I can't make this stuff up. Needing something physical for proof we had been there, we went into the local grocery store thinking maybe they had something, sometimes they have postcards and such. We ended up finding a shirt that was kelly green, had an eagle on it, said Thatcher above the eagle and attitude below it. Turns out, it was the t-shirt for Thatcher High School's football team, The Eagles. It was meant to be. Walking up the register, Thatcher had yet to tell anyone his name was Thatcher and jumped at the chance. After inquiring about a Thatcher discount he followed it up with the creepy, hilarious question I was waiting for, "So how's it feel to live in Thatcher?" He smirked, pleased with himself. The checkout woman laughed and responded, "Wait, you're from Philly, you're football team is the Eagles, and your name is Thatcher? That's it, you have to move here." After that ridiculous conversation I honestly thought I would never be a part of, we finished the few blocks left of Thatcher and headed to Tucson where we were couch surfing for the evening. The sky as we left Thatcher was a brilliant bright burst of orange and red. The warm colors took over the clouds and looked as though they were pouring out of the mountains behind Thatcher, like a volcano had erupted in the sky.
We didn't see too much of Tucson but we did stop by Saguro National Park. We did the short scenic drive on the west side of the park and an even shorter hike since we were trying to limit our exposure to the scorching sun. Each of the ancient cacti giants scattered among the park were different than the last. Their arms out and curved, some long and some short, looked like characters we kept jokingly applying voices and sayings to. The small flowers on each arms' tip were deep pink and red and very pretty, some more in bloom than others. Even the ones that had fallen to the ground were still vibrant and lovely. Despite the fact that most cacti are thought of as being the tall trunk up the middle with an arm or two shooting off like a number four, they are not very common to come across. Towering above at forty to sixty feet and weighing almost seven tons at their max, the Sonoran Desert is the only place where the Saguro grow naturally. It's interesting, from the viewpoint at the end of the short hike we did we looked out over the horizon and it wasn't until we looked closely that we realized all the green we were seeing was a giant field of Saguro cacti. The park is not very big which was also evident from this viewpoint. The park boundary was easily distinguished by the homes curved along the border in the nearby distance, a place we had come from not twenty minutes before the entrance to the park.
Walking among the ancient Saguros was awesome and it was incredibly different from the cacti we explored while hiking in Joshua Tree National Park. It's amazing how not knowing anything about the desert can have a positive effect on your experience. Not every cactus or ecosystem within each desert is the same, even if the temperature and climate seems to be similar. On our way to Joshua Tree we stayed with a family friend, Jack, who was very welcoming and didn't mind one bit when we decided to not go into Scottsdale to wander and instead hung by the pool for the day. A little break from the heat was exactly what we needed. Thanks again for having us, Jack! Send Dad the bill, haha. A relaxing day, delicious dinner, and rattlesnake lesson later, we continued on to California, my twenty-third state and Thatcher's third. We couch surfed that night with a really cool guy, Steven, who introduced us to some delicious teas, spooked Thatcher with his ghost hunting tales, and took us to have our first In-N-Out Burger. Pro tip - get the bun extra toasty. Since I avoid fast food like the plague, it will be my first and last In-N-Out burger although I'm sure not Thatcher's last. Joshua Tree was a cute, small and colorful town with one main road and is the gateway to the national park. Like Saguro National Park, it's named for the trees that reside there. The Joshua Trees resemble palm trees in some ways as they bend and curve as though they have a mind of their own. The trunk splits into a few and off shoots of the palms look like fingers reaching out to the sky. Their weirdness is mesmerizing and compliment the giant boulders stacked throughout the park, piled high in shapes that look like they're pretending to be mountains. Hidden Valley was a hike we both really enjoyed, seeing the round boulders up close, jumping from one to the other, and discovering the yuccas and other cacti growing in between the crevasses up close. Praying for shade, there was one area just off to the side of the picnic tables where two giant boulders met and were split down the middle. Stepping inside and looking up, the sunlight brought out the warm colors of the smaller rocks wedged in the opening and we relaxed in the rare shade they brought to our mid-day hike. Before we left, we made sure to see the Barker Dam, an odd find in the middle of the desert and man made from back when cattle were herded here. Lastly, we stopped by live oak, an even odder find. The oak is massive and looks like a tree you would find in the middle of a lush forest. How it's growing in this dry climate, I have no idea. Deep roots, I suppose.
Our last day in the desert was definitely my favorite. We headed for Coachella Valley Preserve on the early side since the day was suppose to reach close to 120 degrees and discovered a shady and cool oasis in an otherwise melting desert. The Preserve actually sits in the San Andreas fault and driving up to it, a state of disbelief came over me seeing the huge desert palms appear in the distance like a mirage. The San Andreas fault, for the majority, runs vertically north and south but around Indio, California it turns and becomes a split east to west, horizontally. This transform fault is just before the San Andreas fault ends and the preserve is on the Mission Creek branch of that fault. This shift also means that instead of a giant crack in the earth, which I'm not going to lie is what I was expecting to see coming into the preserve, the ground is pushed up and surface water is revealed from the weaknesses in the earth. That's where the lush groves of tropical palms come from as well, the transform fault. Fascinating and a really amazing find. The mile walk out to McCallum Pond, a prime example of the surface water, started on a short boardwalk through the massive palms with dragonflies fluttering all around, and continued through the hot and unforgiving sand before it ended at the small pond. Owls call this oasis home as well as many fish, crawfish and lizards, and I can see why. The palm's reflection on the still water was beautiful and peering through the palm trunks we could see the desert on the outskirts, the heat lurking all around it ready to creep in at any moment.
After pit stopping for lunch in Cathedral City, we were on our way to Palm Springs when all of a sudden a sign appeared that said "movies $5.75 all day - reclining seats." That was all it took for us to change plans for a few hours and catch the two o'clock Wonder Woman. Two hours later and dreading the outdoors, we headed where we meant to go originally, the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. One of only three in the world, this rotating cable car takes you from the Sonoran Desert up to an alpine forest in twelve minutes while making two full revolutions on its ascent up the mountain. Each section of the quick climb reveals something new; Palm Springs below, painted mountain rocks covered in trees, birds swooping all around. The round cable car took off at a faster pace than I originally thought and the platform inside started to slowly rotate. It's pretty amazing how you never have to move but can still see 360 degrees. One of the things I really dislike about ferris wheels is the way it sways freely, it makes me uneasy. The rotating platform sort of distracting me from that, I was brought back to reality with every bump over the towers along the way, the cable car swaying forward and a loud and dramatic "whoaaaaa" from the crowd in unison. It seems like a pricey thing to do for a trip with a budget but honestly this was one of the cooler things we've done. The tram was not only a way to escape the heat since the mountain top was at least thirty degrees cooler than the sauna below, but the light boulders and massive pine cones down the backside of the mountain created a whole other world. Fun fact, the weather in Long Valley is so drastic throughout the year there are only four species of trees and a limited number of plants and animals that can survive there. We ended up being there for the perfect time, sunset, and met a lovely couple that shared a bottle of wine with us and great conversation. Surprisingly a little chilly, we sat with our Trader Joe's red wine in Pepsi paper cups and watched the sky change from a crisp blue to periwinkle and fade to pink. The ride down was beautiful and we regretted ever leaving immediately when the heat weighed down on us like a heavy blanket. We couch surfed that night with Jake and Maya who told us all about their travels through Southeast Asia and living in the desert and got a full nights rest before we headed to San Diego the next day.
I've been to San Diego a few times over the past few years for work and every time I remember why I enjoy visiting. I'm excited to show Thatcher around and for him to meet Jenna and Daniel, my friends that we are going to be staying with for the weekend. Off to cooler weather!
- G.
The Photo:
A tree in Long Valley atop the tramway.
Palm Springs, California.
6/20/17.
