Our good friend Karen let us use her condo in Palm Desert for a late January vacation.  We had intended to be there in early February but based on the availability of her place we moved our vacation schedule up a week.  Boy, are we glad we did that!  Just as winter decided to really ramp up the cold and snow we had arrived in the southern California desert.  While it was minus 30 or so at home we were enjoying day time highs of about 80 for the most part.

We visited The Living Desert – a display of animals and desert plants that takes you along a 1.4-mile stroll.  The trees canopied the walkway and various oasis was set as you walked along you to sit and rest if you needed.  The foliage from the desert was fascinating and we enjoyed the animals too.

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If you’ve ever watched the television program MASH you’ll know the kind of topography – dry dusty hills – mountains as a matter of fact – but with the desert foliage and lack of rain they are very brown but take on a lovely shade of purple as the sun sets.

Towards the end of the walkthrough, The Living Desert is a remarkably large train display.  I was really taken with the work that had gone into making this look like a town in which the train flowed through and serviced the area.  They had set up canyons with long trestle bridges and running water as well as farms with all the sound effects of the animals being in the barnyard.

 It was a great place to visit and we would recommend it if you were visiting in the area.