Sunday, March 16, 2025 (Palm Springs, CA - PART 3, a drive up to Idyllwild-Pine Cove)

Sunday morning Steve and I decided to take a drive up into the mountains southwest of here to the little town of Idyllwild. Dennis and Suzanne (my brother and sister-in-law) had taken us for a drive up there in January, 2013 when we had visited them. All I remember is that it was a very windy road up and there had been a lookout with amazing views of the Coachella Valley.

After yesterday's busy day at the zoo, Chris and Angela decided to have a quiet day with Isaac at the pool.

We are leaving Palm Springs and starting up highway 74...

Here you can see how the road zigzags it's way up the mountain ahead...

The road has many switch-backs as it climbs up the mountain...

Then you reach a plateau where it levels off...

We've reached the snowline!

There's lots of snow but the roads are clear. It is really a beautiful warm day with the sunshine, in fact Steve left his jacket in the car. 

It's a very busy spot on a sunny Sunday afternoon during Spring break! We drove around and around for a while until we finally found a place to park...

Dodging the piles of snow...

Idyllwild has grown into a quaint town...not at all what I remember 12 years ago. It has a population of 3,870 and it's elevation is 5,803 feet. We just came from an elevation of 479 feet in Palm Springs!

There's lots of specialty shops and eateries...

We grabbed a coffee and sat outside listening to this fellow...he was really good...

A short 21 second video...

After walking around for a bit, we headed to the Idyllwild Brewpub. We took a shortcut through the service area and eventually found the main entrance...

There was a line-up of folks waiting for a table...luckily they were larger groups, so since there was just the 2 of us, we got in right away. 

The majority of the seating is outside...a fairly small area inside. You can see the beer fermentation vessels behind the bar counter...

When we left, Steve walked down to the parking lot for pictures while I took the shortcut...

Walking through the town square back towards the car...

Almost back at the car now...

Our drive back down the mountain...

We stopped at the Cahuilla Vista lookout along the way...

Amazing, in ancient times the Coachella Valley and beyond had five large lakes fed by the Colorado River lapping up against these mountains...

We continued to wind our way down the mountain to our next stop at the Coachella Valley Vista Point Lookout...

Coachella Valley in the distance...

Steve took a short 19 second video...

Next stop, home...

It was going on 4:00 by the time we got home. Here is a picture of our condo...it's funny, these are single car garages but they are too narrow to get the car inside. Our unit (#31) is in front of our white Malibu, through the archway and up the stairs to the left...

That evening Chris and Angela had a date-night...I dropped them off in downtown Palm Springs and they enjoyed dinner out by themselves, while Grampa, Gramma and Isaac had their own fun. We played games and then when it was bed time, I read with him for a bit. Grampa tried to sneak in to take our picture (lovely picture of me, LOL)...

Chris and Angela enjoyed their evening out and took an Uber back...turns out Gramma and Grampa didn't have to try to get Isaac to sleep, Mom and Dad were home fairly early. So glad they were able to have some time to themselves!

More fun tomorrow as we all take the tram up to the San Jacinto Peak...