January 28, 2012 - Haiku Desert Walk - Coachella Valley Preserve

back (l to r): Greg Longenecker, Marcyn del Clements, Sean Kolodji, Deborah P Kolodji, Billie Dee, Consuelo Marshall, Brosnan Rhodes, Jie Tian, An Xiao, Ashley Baldon, Patrick Gallagher, Joann Frey

front (l to r): Peggy Castro, Cindy Rinne, Ruth Nolan, Olga Garcia, Julie Brossy

not shown: Genie Nakano, Susan Rogers, Wendy Wright

Ruth Nolan and Deborah P Kolodji led a haiku walk on January 28, 2012 at the Coachella Valley Preserve.

It was a lovely day for a walk - the sky was blue, the Gambel's quail were plentiful, and cactus wrens sang in raspy voices from the tops of fan palms. We walked from the visitor's center in the Thousand Palm Oasis, one of the largest groves of desert fan palms (Washingtonia filifera) in California to the McCallum Oasis, crossing the San Andreas earthquake fault and a desert wash during our two mile adventure.

We saw smoke trees, dye weed, indigo bush, cattle spinach, alkali goldenbush, sandpaper plant, palo verde, creosote, honey mesquite, and an octotillo in bloom. We also saw a black phoebe and a Northern Flicker, among other birds.

Some fabulous haiku was written by the 20 people who travelled to the Coachella Valley from a wide variety of places, ranging from the border of Mexico to San Francisco!