AN ADVENTURE!

We left Wilderness Lake on Sunday morning and drove to Palm Springs. We didn't have a place to park on Sunday night because our reservation at Indian Waters didn't start till Monday. Luckily we were able to pull into Palm Springs TT for the night. The best part of this stop was we ran into Louise and Smitty. We hadn't seen or heard from them since they pulled out of Orlando to purchase their Phaeton two years ago. They are vending Coil and Wrap and had just done the FMCA rally at Indio and were on their way to Quartzite. Smitty still enjoys a game of pickleball.On Tuesday 18 of us took a 5 mile hike to the "Grotto".

The hike was here at Mecca. Driving here we saw acres of lettuce and amazing geology.

Larry stayed at TT and played pickleball while I went on the hike. Louise went with me and I was so glad we had the time to visit. The metal post she is standing beside were the trail markers.

When we parked there were many horse trailers. It was a horse club going on a ride. There were 28 of them. We wished we were on horses by the end of the hike.

We started up the trail and into the canyon.

We were almost to the top.

I didn't realize we were so close to the Salton Sea.

Resting and enjoying the view after our climb up the trail.

The trail we had to go down to the Canyon floor. (What we didn't think about was we had to climb back up it when we returned!)

We spy the horses on the ridge. It reminded us of a movie and you see the Indians in the distance.

The horses coming down the trail. The only problem the women were using the bush at the bottom as the outdoor restroom (oops, I think those riders were just mooned)

We started our walk on the Canyon floor. The only problem the horses went left and we went right. After walking about a mile we didn't see any of the landmarks or markers we were suppose to be seeing and realized we should have also gone left. So we added a few miles to this hike!

Shade at last! It was an unusually hot day, upper 80's and it was past noon by now. But after a little lunch and rest we were ready to continue our hike to the grotto.

The entrance to the cave. You had to climb over the rocks, across a plank, and down a rope. No way! So this was as far as most of us went.

We dragged ourselves up the trail, a long hot tiring mile climb. I wasn't sure we were going to make it back. One foot in front of the other, a little water, and climb some more.

We all made it back safe and sound. Next time just going to the top and the view of the Sultan Sea would be enough. Lynn, our hike organizer told us he hadn't done this hike before (our first warning!) An easy dinner, a shower and it was early to bed for me.