At the top of the gondola, we got out into a much nicer climate, weather-wise, although it was still hot and dry. A really strange change, though. There were trees all over, and rocks and sandy terrain, and birds, wildflowers, life all around, but it still seemed to be dry and parched. The word "forest" means something really different to me, coming from the lush east coast. Out here "forest" can mean a mass of scrub brush trees at a maximum height of 4 feet covering a desert, like in Angeles National Forest. Not exactly the thick, deciduous greenery you can barely see in for tree density back in New York State.
Well, we were in the sub-alpine zone- about 10,000 feet, I think. I take pictures of the signs at these places because I love the information. I was comparing the topography and the flora to that which I saw in Lassen, where I was at about the same elevation. Jeffrey pines were the mainstay in Lassen, as they are in this forest in Palm Springs.
On previous trips, mom and I seem to get into a certain pattern where we find something to keep making an inside joke about the whole time. Sometime ago we started this wheezing thing like an old man which causes bursts of laughing fits, but I can't really remember the origin of that one for sure... this trip we were making fun of the latino accent. I'm not sure how this started, I think with the introduction of a woman named Rosa who sat next to me at the conference one afternoon. She was speaking this flawless English and pronounced her name with the scrack-sounding throat noise of the spanish language. It's like newscasters who speak different languages who can speak flawless English then pronounce a name perfectly in another language.. I'm not exactly sure why I picked t his stand-clear-of-my-spit throaty sound to make particular fun of, but I did and we had a hayday pronouncing "San Chhhhhhhhhuahceeeento" but we did. Dad, who actually speaks Spanish was shaking his head the whole time and gave up trying to correct our gross ignorance of the sound. I think we were laughing too hard to really listen to him, anyways. Sorry dad... ha ha ha
Well, in the long valley, you get to do a self-guided tour and see the sights, take pictures and read the placards about flora and fauna along the way. There were some really breathtaking views along the way.
I love those Jeffrey pines because they're the one tree I can actually recognize, and I saw them all over in Lassen, so I felt like I was some kind of rugged mountain queen with an extensive knowledge of local geography and plant life. What i learned, from reading the placards, is that you can actually sniff the Jeffreys and they have this absolutely lovely, vanilla-like piney smell to them! So we sniffed the Jeffs in the area to see and sure enough!
