Bear Creek Oasis

 Drove to the La Quinta Cove to hike up to Bear Creek Oasis in the Santa Rosa & San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. With our extra exploring, this was a 9 mile round trip hike with 2,100 ft of overall elevation gain.
We saw a jack rabbit, lizards, a western tanager and hummingbirds.
The first part of the hike is fairly flat. We started early and watched the sun rise over this ridge.

The early part of the trail was well marked. I think they are trying to decrease the amount of social trails in this area.

 There are some nice rock formations along the way.

 Interesting rocks

Lots of quartz in these hills

More rock formations as we continued to gain elevation.

 There were several side canyons

 To the north was a cloudy Mt San Jacinto

 To the south, the Salton Sea in the far distance

About 1/2 mile from Bear Creek Oasis, we could see the oasis from the trail, as the trail descends a bit.

At the oasis, we climbed up the rocky ridge to the north to enjoy our lunch. Then explores some of the boot tracks at the oasis.















Some of the flora we saw along the trail today: