Palm springs seems to exist for golf, everything is golf here, but if you go just beyond the developed areas there are thousands of square miles of undeveloped wild lands.

Growing up in Southern California we often took camping trips out into the Deserts, Joshua Tree and Anza Borrego, but I never really appreciated how cool and unique these places are.  So on this trip I devoted every free minute to appreciating the native plant and animal life.  With all the effort that people spend to dive tropical reefs,  visit Africa savannas, and other heavily exotic places , I wonder how many overlook all the really strange and exotic plants and animals that live about 60 miles from the LA basin. Have you ever looked closely at a Barrel Cactus, or seen the only native palm in california in the Palm Canyon Oasis. On our visit, we started at the base of Palm Canyon and quickly skirted up the side foot hills of Mt San Jacinto. As we followed a little side canyon up into the San Jacinto mountains  my attention was focused on how high in elevation will the small groves of Palm Trees grow.

Located close to sea level in elevation, Palm Springs proper gets an occasional frost,  so it was already established these native Palm  trees will not wilt on a hard freeze, otherwise they would not be here.  Obviously they have a limit for  prolonged minimum cold  temperature they can withstand, otherwise you’d see Palm Trees in Iowa or Colorado.   As we rose up above the valley floor to 2,000 feet, I surprised to see a grove or two of Plams clinging to the side of the mountain in protected spots.  Two thousand feet higher and the first alpine pine conifer groves start to appear , so somewhere in between Palms cannot survive.

There does not seem be much literature on what is the range of cold a Palm can survive, but certainly it is quite a bit hardier than the pumpkin plants in our garden that wilt and immediatly die on the first frost.  In Kansas and Colorado we have Prickly Pear cactus, and these plants survive exposed to the wind and cold to temperatures of at least -20 F.  I wonder if our variety is much different than the several that live in low deserts Plam springs

On our first afternoon we asked around for a good trail to run, and after searching for a while on the Internet of options, I noticed there really is no metro park with level running trails, every square inch of area in the valley seems to be a golf course, so our attention was directed to the bump and grind trail.  In a little under two miles it gains 800 feet of elevation, which is fine for hiking but really put the hurt on my calves.