The story
Almost back to the top — and here's the secret of the whole place, worth carrying out with you. All this water in the middle of a desert is no accident: you've been walking straight up the San Andreas Fault. The grinding of the earth shatters the rock and lifts groundwater to the surface right along the crack — and the palms simply line up on the water, which is why the whole oasis runs in one long green stripe and not a scattered patch. The most dangerous fault in California is the very reason this paradise exists. The desert's full of that kind of contradiction. Last little pull to the overlook now.
Photo: KhanhLe2003 · CC0
