Princesses of Palm Springs

There was a traitor among us! A guard had sent a secret messages to an evil band of desert thieves to ambush our caravan before it reached the Palm Springs oasis.

The Sultan was wounded by an arrow and fell from his camel as it ran panic stricken from the battle. His head hit a rock when he fell and he lost consciousness.

The two princesses, who the thieves thought where going to be easy targets, jumped from their camels and were chased into the rugged desert canyons. They fought back to back against ten heavily armed thieves. Unknown to the thieves, the two princesses had secretly trained to be warriors and defeated the would be kidnapers.

By the time the princesses returned to the scene of the battle, the sun was rising and only a few camels and wounded guards remained. Queen Mindy had been kidnapped and all the treasure was gone! Princess Kelsey found the unconscious sultan and revived him; bandaging his wounded shoulder and getting him water.

The sultan and princesses sent the wounded guards home and then set out to rescue the kidnapped queen. Princess Whitney was an expert tracker and picked up the trail of the evil thieves, which led directly into a hidden canyon oasis. Whitney would hold up her hand for us to stop; with two fingers, she would point to her eyes and then at a palm tree or rock overhang. Princess Kelsey was an expert in archery and would pick off any lookouts watching the trail. She would pull back on her imaginary bow string and yell out, “BANG, I got one.”

This was the imaginary story/game that developed as the girls and I hiked along the Andreas Canyon Trail near Palm Springs. The story was inspired by the incredible desert canyon landscape and the huge palm oasis at its center. The girls quickly told me that we were hiking at the oasis where Aladdin was filmed; which helped launch their Arabian Night themed adventure.

The story also had some real objectives; we had to find Mindy, she was out there somewhere in the canyon. As soon as I had put the RV into park, Mindy was out the door and charging up the trail carrying all her camera gear. She said she wanted to catch the sweet light as the sun set and needed to quickly get into position. I didn’t even have time to open my door to get out before Mindy disappeared into the palm trees. It took me a while longer before I could start hiking; I had hydration packs to fill, snacks to pack, and sun screen to apply.

The girls wanted to catch up to Mindy and watch her photograph the landscapes. Kelsey was concerned Mindy might get lost and while I tried to explain the trail was a big loop, Kelsey was insistent on catching up. We fought our way along the trail; crossing streams, ducking under rock overhangs, climbing large boulders, and sneaking through groves of giant palm trees.

We eventually captured a thief who told us where the secret thief lair was and we found Mindy. We had a fierce battle to free her and fought the thieves up and down the trail and deep into the palm groves. Meanwhile, queen Mindy seemed very unconcerned with her predicament and had set up her tri-pod in the middle of a stream. She was jumping back and forth popping her off camera strobes before the shutter closed. Mindy grinned with delight as she took pictures of the oasis; she was completely oblivious to the battle going on around her.

After realizing Mindy was not going to join in on the imaginary battles, the girls insisted on finishing the adventure by tracking down the thief leader who fled the battle on a magic flying carpet. So off we went stalking the fierce leader of the desert thieves.

Much to my confusion, the Arabian Night themed adventure took a dramatic twist towards the end of the trail when Princess Kelsey turned into an elf archer. We were suddenly battling orcs and goblins! As we battled down the trail it donned on me that Kelsey had recently watched the first two installments of the Lord Of The Rings trilogy. She had never even heard of the series until her little cousins introduced it to her a few days before our hike. And just like her daddy, she loved them.

Once back at the RV, we were brought back to reality when the park ranger drove up and told us the park was closing and we had to leave… NOW. We realized Mindy was still trekking about the oasis. She was taking advantage of every second of light she could. When she finally emerged from the trail head, I had the engine running; she jumped in and we headed to our campsite at Joshua Tree National Park.

The only problem with our plan to camp at Joshua Tree National Park is that the campsite was closed. We arrived after dark to find a sign saying the trails and campgrounds were closed due to flooding. Bummer. We had planned on hiking a trail in Joshua Tree but like everything else on a road trip, plans change. We did however take some fun night shots of some crazy cacti and the brilliant night sky.

I felt like we were back in college, running around the desert at night goofing off. Every time Mindy would get down low to position the camera up at the cactus, I would remind her of all the times we had found scorpions, spiders, and snakes crawling the desert floor. She would instantly jump back up and use a flashlight to look around. Nothing creepier than thinking poisonous critters are crawling around in the dark. And being in Keen sandals, I kind of creeped myself out too.

I’m not sure if Mindy is going to release her night pictures without a little peer pressure. So feel free to help me encourage her to “show and tell” her night cacti images.