Palm Springs, California, February 6, 2014

Feb 6 - Moseying around Palm Springs

Today was not a strenuous day for us. This morning, we set out on foot from the hotel, chasing down a few geochaches, having lunch, and returning to the hotel. We walked just over 5 kms. By the time we got back to the hotel, it had really cooled down a bit, so that sitting by the pool called for a sweatshirt. Stephen did go for a swim, but the water was a bit cool, too.

But we did do something kind of interesting. A couple hundred meters or so from our hotel is the Moorten Botanical Garden, a living museum of desert lore.

This garden, occupying perhaps 4-5 city lots, was established by the Moorten family in 1938, and continues to be managed by a descendant.

It's kind of small - according to my GPS, we walked less than 400 meters in strolling through the grounds.

But there are many cacti on display.

Here are some photos. First, a few cacti in bloom or bud:

A relic of days gone by to provide some atmosphere.

This shows what the trail through the property looks like.

Interesting gnarls on this one.

Agave.

Purple prickly pear.

This puzzled me - the cacti are growing DOWN, out through the bottom of the pot.

A pond.