We again left the big highways and turned onto a little road, towards Acton, we had seen a KOA sign , for camping, but had no idea what to find or expect. The area is called the Desert View Highlands, and we had to go over the Soledad pass, which has an elevation of 3.179 feet!! the area is beautiful, giant Aspen trees sway in the wind, they still had their leaves but were turning color ,a combination of yellow, green and orange.
we found the KOA ,thank goodness, almost turned back, as the road became smaller and smaller, but there it was, nestled under these Aspen, close to the railroad tracks. By the way, no matter where we went , there were railroad tracks, and trains, all night long, but i did get used to them after a while, unless they blew their horn, right alongside the camp spot!!!!

While Bert went into the office to pay for our spot, the silence was broken by a roar…… Yes, a roar, so i am sitting there, trying to determine what kind of animal that was, somewhere in the back of my head it said….LION????….. yeah right, out here????
well, long story short, yes, it was a lion, out here, on Soledad canyon road, there is the Shambala Wild Life preserve.
There are tigers, lions , leopards, and many more other critters, they live here, mainly animals that have been rescued from a circus, or some kind of road show, they get to live their lives here in peace, and yes, you can see them, but you have to make an appointment, we did not, i just wanted to listen to them, i have a very hard time with animals in captivity, and yes, i know, these animals are treated very well, and they cannot go into the wild, but even so……
I will not go to a circus, the last time i went was when i was very young, i think around 8, and i saw some terrible things being done to the animals, this was in Scheveningen, in Holland.
Read about this preserve on Shambalawildlifepreserve.com Very interesting.

On route to Soledad canyon

LIFE IS ABOUT WHAT WE GIVE,NOT ABOUT WHAT WE GET!! KEN DUNCAN

THERE ARE ALWAYS FLOWERS FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO SEE THEM. HENRI MATISSE

THOSE WHO BRING SUNSHINE TO THE LIVES OF OTHERS CANNOT KEEP IT FROM THEMSELVES! JAMES MATTHEW BARRIE

Like i wrote, we loved staying here, the next best thing after out in the wild, the bathrooms are spotless, and contain everything you might possibly need, shaving gear, shampoo, conditioner, the laundry room has very good working machines, and all around us grew beautiful flowers. And a Roadrunner, what more do you possibly need???? Can anyone tell me the name of the orange flowers? i think its a nursery plant, and it looks familiar, but these in the photo were part of a huge hedge!!

Here, in Palm Desert, the name says it all, palm trees, there are 2600 species of palm trees, most well known ones are the coconut palm and the date palm. Some palm trees are in danger of dying out, one of them being the rattan palm, being used for making furniture, they are still harvested in the wild, instead of farmed, the trouble too is that the seeds of palm trees will die when cooled, so that makes it impossible to keep those seeds for the future. The wild seeds are being sold to collectors and growers, also a threat for the palm tree.
palm trees have either fan-leaves or feather-leaves, the leaves have a tubular sheath at the base that splits open. The California fan palm is the only palm tree native to western North America.
They are a messy tree, usually the old leaves cover the trunk, all the way up to the top, they are a great nesting place for all kinds of species of birds. While we were at our RV spot in Shadow hills Resort , surrounded by some palm trees, a large,strange looking object came thundering down, to me it looked like something from the Viking times, but when i picked it up, it had virtually no weight at all. So much for the thundering down bit, but heh, still dont want to be hit by one!!!

We have stayed in quite a few RV places, some ok, some not so great, but the one, we finally found in Palm Desert, after searching in the dark, is called, Shadow Hills RV resort, family owned,family operated, friendly folks that did not look down on our Westy, they gave us a nice quiet spot, surrounded by some greenery, and a friendly visitor, Woody the road runner, who would stand and watch, as Bert ate his lunch, hoping for a tidbit, Bert ended up giving him some Gouda cheese, and after throwing it up into the air several times, i guess he was checking to see if it would fly away, he ate it!!!! Actually, he would not leave Bert alone any more, a road runner, hooked on Gouda cheese!!!!!
The resort has beautiful landscaping, flowers every where, they even had a pond, with Koi fish, where a lone Egret tried to grab the fish!!

The Westy did great, slowly we started having a routine, remember, its a small space, for two big people, but it worked, mainly too, because the weather was nice , most of the time. Cold at night though, out there in the desert……

Its hard to believe, that there are all kinds of critters out there, a huge variety of wildlife, coyotes, mountain lions,bobcats,spotted skunks, and several snake species, one of them being the rattle snake, i tried to see one, find one, but no “luck”…… tarantulas creep around too, and the gila monster, no idea where he would hide, scorpions and roadrunners, now i did see one of them!!!!