Two Sisters Tour 2013

The best cell tower disguise ever!

Notice the crystal clear blue skies in this picture. This is a normal sky every single day for the Palm Springs area. The clouds you see in the next photos are unusual.

My favorite traveling partner and I won the contest, The Quietest Place on Earth sponsored by General Mills and Nature Valley. General Mills supports the National Park System through the Preserve the Parks program and work projects. Go to: http://quietestshowonearth.com/ to learn more.

Two musicians were chosen to perform a concert in Joshua Tree National Park to a private audience - us!

Here is a teaser of the performance of the featured artists, Andrew Bird and Tift Merritt:

Since the National Parks are closed, the filming took place implementing Plan B. Through connections with the Mohave Desert Land Trust and the National Park Conservation Association, General Mills received permission to use land that was just sold to Joshua Tree NP but has not "officially" been deeded to the park yet. Joshua Tree Park will add these 40 acres in 2014 and that is where we hiked and spent all day filming. A production crew, the General Mills team and the ad agency McCann, came from Los Angeles, Boston, New York and Minnesota to Yucca Valley, California. There were about 35 people in all. Then the musical artists and their crew arrived.

The film crew set up a time lapse camera that filmed from 5 am until 7 pm. They also did personal interviews with us. Just 7 of us in all - 4 winners and 3 guests. Nice small group and very manageable.

Film location near Joshua Tree

We had so many favorites during our week in Coachella Valley and Yucca Valley that it's hard to choose just one. I fell in love with the date farms and tour. Did you know that the date farms in Coachella Vally produce 95% of dates for the US? At the date store they had many, many varieties out and I could eat as many as I wanted. I love dates and these were extra special - so fresh and tasty.

Date palm grove Coachella Valley

While staying in Palm Springs, we took the Aerial Tram tour. It is the largest rotating aerial tramway in the world and took us up 8,500 feet to Mt. San Jacinto State Park.

The view can stretch almost 200 miles northward.

We were fascinated with the wind turbines that generated enough power for the entire Coachella Valley.

Our view driving through the western end of Coachella Valley with the San Jacinto mountains in the background.

This was our view arriving and departing from the Palm Springs Airport and is typical of the city of Palm Springs:

Photos by Susan