Well, NOW I've REALLY done it! :-(

So, yesterday I decided to take a drive out into the desert and check for wildflowers.  Everybody else is having a banner year and we've had some pretty good rain.  I headed out toward Thousand Palms Canyon, which is a huge wash and it has lots of hiking trails.  The San Andreas fault runs right there and it has a lot of palm oases.  The Coachella Valley Preserve is along this area and I figured there would be verbena out there.

I stopped at the hiking trailhead and got out.  I found verbena, lupines, and different yellow flowers among the rocks in the wash when...SUDDENLY my right shoe came off!  It just slipped off and I went tumbling down!  SPLAT!  My camera lens landed against a rock, but it appeared to be okay and it DID work later.  However, I landed on a rock with my left knee and I somehow did something to my right ankle.

I'm going to have to go to urgent care today.  There were people on the trail and they stopped to assist me, but I WAS (thank goodness) able to walk back to my car before things stiffened up.  In fact, I drove down to the edge of the Coachella Valley Preserve and took photos of the verbena along the sand dunes there (I didn't walk much...), then home to put ice on both legs.

However, my right ankle has severely stiffened up (I didn't even land on that leg...go figure...) and I'm going to have to go in today to urgent care.  I can barely put any weight on that leg.

Here are some of the photos I got yesterday, both before and after my fall...sigh...

 Pretty lupines in the wash out by the San Andreas fault

 This is right after I fell down...see the rocks?

 Verbena

The sand has blown over one whole lane of this road.  I've NEVER seen it like this before.  Another gentleman was also here, taking photos, but he was able to hike out and over the sand dunes.  I didn't even try to do that.  I went home and put ice on both legs and fell asleep watching "Independence Day".