Last summer, we got the opportunity to spend the Fourth of July holiday weekend in Palm Springs. It was hot, very very hot, and so there were many bugs.

It was also very, very bright.

I was trying out the Zeiss 18mm ultra-wide-angle lens for the first time.

And I also brought a Canon 200mm lens, and a Zeiss 2/50mm lens.

Right near the Palm Springs Amtrak station is a impossible-to-miss collection of wind turbines.

We stopped by at Sunset, the most orange time of day.

This was unplanned — but I was quick. My favorite detail in this shot is the conductor's face, lookout out towards the camera.

Back in town, looking towards Mount San Jacinto.

Early the next morning we woke up at got in the car, heading to the Salton Sea. I have driven past several times before, and have seen the Documentary, but this was my first deliberate attempt to get some photos from that area.

Unfortunately, this morning it was un-seasonably hazy and musty.

The air was thick with foul smells and humidity.

For information about the Torres-Martinez Tribal Council, click here. (We did not trespass on their land.)

And the sun never really rose; rather it just faded in from behind the haze.

The shorelines were covered in dead and decaying fish.

And toxic waste garbage.

But that's the Salton Sea.

We headed back to Palm Springs, only to find that the haze followed us.

The thick brown stinky air was really quite unsettling. Apparently, this happens to Palm Springs only a few times a year.

Later, we headed to downtown Palm Springs and checked out some antique shops.

Then headed home, through Yucca Valley and Barstow.

This person had such an amazing collection of signs and bottles, we just had to stop.

Between Barstow and Boron, at a place called "Kramer Junction," there's a huge solar energy plant. Trying to get photos of it was difficult as it was so flat in the area, but it is visible above as the dark strip on the horizon.

And above is a photo of Kramer Junction, the town next to it.

Thanks for checking out my photos!