We stared the day with a hike of the Palm Canyon Trail the signature trail. It runs about a mile and a half from the trailhead. Pretty little oasis near the head of an canyon where some water is constrained by the rock formations and a palm grove has developed. Then we moved out of the campground to try our hand a boondocking. After setting up camp we joined the evening “hawk watch”. This area is a roosting site for migrating Swainson’s hawks. They are counted as they come in to roost for the evening. On a banner day they will have more than a thousand spend the night. The count for our night 65. Impressive to see and it must be simply amazing on the days when they get really good counts.
Today we were up before daylight to hike 3 miles up a canyon to a waterfall before the heat set in. We arrived at the falls around 9:00, spent an hour or so enjoying the solitude then started back down. By the time we arrived back at the trailhead it was getting pretty busy and approaching noon. I am sure there were lots of really hot and tired hikers by the time they returned starting in the hot part of the day. We drove around to visit the balance of the Galleta Meadow sculptures. A local has been investing in land as it comes available and commissioned sculptures resembling mostly the original inhabitants of the region to be placed along the road for the public to see. We saw all manner of dinosaur, sloth, mammoth, camels, turtles, lamas, and big horn sheep. They also included historical men of the area including the farm workers, a friar, native americans and a cowboy panning for gold. Pretty interesting and a little shocking when you are not expecting a life-size metal mammoth to be standing in a field. Afterward we went searching for bighorn sheep the namesake of the park. Success at last! We checked the sightings in the visitor center and the last couple reported were along the road over one of the mountain passes. So, off we went and we found not one but, more than 20 including several young grazing along the side of one of the mountains. Very Impressive to see.