Hiking volcanic area four years ago

Atop the northern dome on Red Island,
the Salton Sea visible in the distance

Four years ago yesterday (April 15, 2009), we went exploring the remains of volcanoes in the desert! We drove all the way to the south end of the Salton Sea in California and hiked through four different areas, picking up rocks on the way.

Several thousand years ago, lava flowed up out of small volcanoes in this part of the world. Obsidian and basalt still can be found on the ground.

There's still lava not far underground, and it causes the water there to boil and steam up. Sometimes that water escapes to the surface in what are called mudpots, and we walked through a whole field of them!

After our adventure, we went to nearby Palm Springs, where we ate at Ruby's Diner and shopped at the downtown stores. I bought you a captain's hat at the hat store!

Here are a whole bunch of photos from our adventure!

Your two big trips to Palm Springs

Donning the trainer's helmet
at Palm Springs air museum.

Last night while watching a "Six Million Dolalr Man" DVD, I noticed the episode was filmed in a place we'd gone before: the desert road north of Palm Springs where the tram goes to the top of the mountain.

You may not remember visiting Palm Springs, as you were very young, but we went there twice. The first time, we visited volcanic features on the Salton Sea and then enjoyed dinner downtown. I purchased a captain's sailor cap for you in the hat store.

The second time we went was to visit the airplane museum. The weekend was very rainy and cold, an oddity for Southern California, and the only place I could find that was moderately dry (though it was a little cloudy) was Palm Springs. We ate lunch at Ruby's Diner downtown.

I actually lived in Palm Springs for a couple of years and worked at the newspaper there as its editorial page editor.