The Coachella Valley has started to heat up over 115 degrees in the afternoon, so we drove out of Palm Springs to cool off in the town of Idyllwild, which is a mile high in the adjoining San Jacinto mountains.
Passing a freight train and power generating windmills, we drove west onto the scary Interstate 10 and turned off in Banning...
...where you can pick up the truly terrifying two-lane Highway 243...
...which quickly ascends up the mountains in a series of death defying curves.
We uttered serious thanks to the deities when we finally entered pine forests and didn't have to look straight down into the Coachella Valley.
I'm glad that the deities of safe driving were looking after you. I've been on that road and I think it took a year for my heart rate to get back to normal. Fabulous photos and reporting - as usual! I HATE hot places but your photos and captions make even me want to visit Palm Springs - maybe in the winter.
ReplyDeleteIdyllwild! I went to music camp there for a summer back in high school, and it brings back memories of 8 hour rehearsals and lots of nerdy, musical fun...
ReplyDeleteDear Jolene: Of course you went to Idyllwide Arts Academy for a summer. That's a funny coincidence.
ReplyDeleteDear Nancy: We would have turned around and given up about halfway, but there was nowhere to turn around.
I've idly thought, every once in a while, that it would be nifty to blow off Northern California entirely and own property in both Idyllwild and PS! Unlike your typical snow bird, who has to drive hundreds of miles to switch between their summer and winter homes, I would face little more than an hour's drive, and could move back and forth on a schedule dictated only by weather and whim!
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