Day 1 - The Living Desert

This week I am on vacation out in Palm Desert. While I do come out this way several times a year, I generally do not play tourist and go see different sites around here. Well, this time, that has all changed. Our first outing was to The Living Desert. I had only just heard of this place a few months ago...why, I will never know! What a truly amazing place this is! They have lots of cool animals here, as well as beautiful fauna and flora, all set against a backdrop of the San Jacinto Mountains. Beautiful. They also have a miniature train set-up that goes all over the place, traveling through miniature towns and national monuments...it's pretty cool! Below are a few photos of some of the highlights from our day at the Living Desert.

This Bobcat almost posed for our cameras!

They had two Mexican Gray Wolves. Need I say that they were my favorite? I love wolves! How beautiful is he?

 I loved this picture of the baby giraffe against the backdrop of the San Jacinto Mountains.

 We were taking photos of all the goats and sheep and as we were leaving this guy lifted his head and seemed to be saying, "hey, don't you want a pic of me?"

 This is a photo of an Ocotillo cactus. I thought this whole picture looked like it could be under the sea...maybe in a yellow submarine?

 We came around a corner, and, WOW...this is what we saw. So beautiful!

 A pretty Monarch butterfly in the butterfly garden.

 They have a model train set running all over this place. It goes through little towns with little people and cars and it goes through some national parks and monuments too. It was really cool!

 I loved the cop pulling over the hippie VW van in this scene.

 Miniature Mesa Verde.

 Another giraffe set against the mountains.

 Cheetahs!

 I loved the Fennec foxes..but they were hard to photograph from the front. They were not cooperating with my photo-taking! I kept getting their bums in my shots! They are pretty darn cute though, when you finally do get a somewhat decent shot!

 Big-Horned sheep on top of a mountain.

 Havalina

 Yawning Bobcat.

There were a lot more animals and beautiful scenery here as well. It's a great place to go on a not-so-hot day out here in the desert. It was a really fun day! I will definitely be back!

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