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"It's Our Fault" Tour - an upliftng experience!

2012-02-11T14:04:32Z

From giant birds to unusual reptiles, our San Andreas Fault Tour proves to be an "uplifting" experience! The desert wildflowers are in full bloom and the spectacular geology is perfect for the camera bug!

Temecula Wine Tasting Tour!

2012-02-10T14:07:30Z

A group of friends booked our Temecula Wine Tasting Tour and it proved to be a perfect day out. Their guide, Bruce, took them to four award-winning wineries where they got to taste many unique wines. Bruce also presented them with a gourmet picnic lunch at one of the wineries (included with the tour).

New Jersey family explores the San Andreas Fault!

2012-02-09T13:32:43Z

This wonderful family from New Jersey enjoyed a nice day exploring the San Andreas Fault! Their guide explained how the earth is in constant motion and how that motion created all the spectacular canyons. In addition to the geology, they also enjoyed seeing all the wildlife that lives in and around the fault area. Their favorite was the desert horned lizard who looks like a little dinosaur!

Breathtaking scenery on Joshua Tree Adventure Tour!

2012-02-08T14:11:18Z

In our guest's own words, "the landscapes are a photographers dream with beautiful shots in every direction".
The Joshua Tree Adventure Tour is one of our more popular tours. We visit a remote area of the park in the Mojave Desert. This is where we view the densest population of Joshua Trees and the most wildlife. In one of the photos below, you can see California's largest lake, the Salton Sea.

Palm Springs Windmill Tour is all the rage!

2012-02-07T13:50:18Z

Who knew that giant wind machines could bring so much joy to our visitors? The tour guests are not only in awe of their massive size, but also how they operate automatically with such ease. The informative tour includes the history, mechanics, productivity, environmental aspects, future developments, and more. After this excursion, your friends and relatives will be amazed and impressed at how much you know about wind energy!

A Honeybee on a Barrel Cactus Bloom!

2012-02-06T14:38:50Z

These stunning photos below were taken by one of our guides during a recent San Andreas Fault Tour. Honeybees are somewhat variable in color but are some shade of black, brown or brown intermixed with yellow. Honeybees are social insects. There are three castes of bees: queens, which produce eggs; drones or males, which mate with the queen; and, workers, which are all non reproducing females. Honeybees are usually very gentle creatures who mind their own business. They're too busy to worry about people or other animals.

Another amazing San Andreas Fault Tour!

2012-02-05T13:35:25Z

Every tour we do is wonderfully unique. We never know what will appear or what is going to be blooming. It makes our job as tour guides fun and unpredictable. The photos below were from one of yesterday's San Andreas Fault Tours. As you can see, the biodiversity is amazing!

GOT NATURE? We do!!

2012-02-04T14:34:45Z

Whether you choose our Joshua Tree Adventure, San Andreas Fault Tour, Desert Sampler, or any of our other desert excursions, one thing is for sure - we'll show you the best nature has to offer! Our expert guides know where to look for wildlife and how to find the most scenic sights. Our tours are a smorgasbord for your senses!

Desert Sampler Tour is a plethora of nature!

2012-02-03T14:37:35Z

The photos below are from yesterday's Desert Sampler Tour. Nature sure came out to say hello! The guests saw an abundance of desert critters and wildflowers. A field mouse was even caught taking a nap!

Balck-tailed Jackrabbit Nest! Joshua Tree Adventure Tour

2012-02-02T14:09:31Z

This was one of those mysteries we were able to unfold. Our Guide, Craig, was giving a tour when he saw a black-tailed jackrabbit run into an area under a creosote bush. He followed the jackrabbit only to discover it was a nest and that the nest was well protected. The jackrabbit had surrounded it with pieces of cholla cactus. This cactus has lots of spines so it would be very difficult for a predator to make its way into the nest area. Nature is amazing! The photos below are from a recent Joshua Tree Adventure Tour.

Nice couple from England on a Joshua Tree Adventure!

2012-02-01T15:55:11Z

This nice couple was on holiday from England and wanted to see Joshua Tree National Park so they booked our Joshua Tree Adventure Tour. It was a beautiful day and they had the good fortune to see lots of wildlife including hawks, black-tailed jackrabbits, quail, horned lizards, white-tailed antelope squirrels, coyotes, and more!

San Andreas Fault Tour is a crowd pleaser!

2012-01-30T13:49:02Z

The videos and photos below are from yesterday's San Andreas Fault Tour. This was a family get-together from San Francisco. They were a lot of fun and our guides enjoyed showing them all the highlights of the tour including the extensive agriculture that grows right alongside the San Andreas Fault. The guides also had a few tricks up their sleeves which kept the group thoroughly entertained.

Cactus bees on a Desert Sampler Tour!

2012-01-29T13:55:34Z

Cactus Bees are solitary, ground-nesting bees that specialize on the flowers of various kinds of cacti. The photos below show a Cactus Bee buried deep inside a Calico Cactus flower. There are some 23 species of Cactus Bees in the U.S. Southwest, and they serve as major pollinators of these plants. They alight first on the flared, over-size, green stigma that is borne above the stamens - thus depositing some grains of pollen from the last visited flower. Finally they push down through the forest of stamens to get at the nectar deep inside. Their hairy bodies gather more pollen and their long tongues lap the nectar. Both are carted back to their nests in the ground which they build and provision solitarily, i.e. they do not live in hives. The photos below are from a recent Desert Sampler Tour.

Singleleaf Pinyon Pine on a Joshua Tree Adventure Tour!

2012-01-28T14:18:53Z

Our three guests below are standing in front of a very extraordinary tree. The single needle (leaf) is unique among pines of the world. Singleleaf pinyon needles are long-lived (5-12 years). Their longevity is considered an extreme expression of "evergreenness," giving the tree the ability to conserve nutrients to take advantage of short favorable conditions within a generally unfavorable period. Singleleaf pinyon is long-lived. Large trees can monopolize site resources over a life span of 350 years or more. Dominant pinyons are often 400 years old and have been known to reach 800 to 1000 years! The photo below is from a recent Joshua Tree Adventure Tour!

Over 400 species of birds! Secrets of the Salton Sea Tour!

2012-01-27T14:36:12Z

Birds are just one feature of the fascinating and unusual Secrets of the Salton Sea Tour! You'll also visit giant mud pots and erupting mud volcanoes. Obsidian Butte and Salvation Mountain are two more highlights of the Salton Sea Tour. And did you know that the Salton Sea is the largest lake in California? Find out how it was created on this one-of-a-kind excursion.

Next stop: Outerspace!!

2012-01-26T13:59:40Z

On our Desert to Stars Tour, you will come face to face with some of the largest antennas in the world! You will learn all about them and how they monitor so many objects orbiting our planet. It is one of the most fascinating tours we offer. It includes lunch at a ghost town before touring the 53 square mile NASA facility.

Wind tech at work - Palm Springs Windmill Tour!

2012-01-25T14:13:15Z

It's fascinating to see the wind techs strapped in their harnesses to the wind turbines 300 feet in the air. It's a dangerous job but an important job. They keep the wind turbines operating because a broken wind turbine means the wind farmer is losing a lot of money. Besides learning all about wind turbines and wind energy, our guests usually get to see many interesting sights in and around the wind farms. The photos below are from a recent Palm Springs Windmill Tour.

Mecca Aster: an endemic species on our fault tour!

2012-01-24T14:24:18Z

The Mecca Aster is a rare wildflower and is endemic to the area we visit on our San Andreas Fault Tour. It blooms from January until June. The photo below was taken on a recent tour.

The choice is yours...something for everyone!

2012-01-23T14:12:24Z

Elite Land Tours features over 30 tours in the Palm Springs area. This gives our visitors plenty of choices when it comes to sightseeing, thrill seeking, and adventure. Our Joshua Tree Adventure Tour and our San Andreas Fault Tour called "It's Our Fault" are two of our most popular tours. Other popular tours include the Palm Springs City Tour and the Palm Springs Windmill Tour. If those don't strike your fancy, be sure to check out our website as there are many excursions to choose from and there's something for everyone!

Return of the Phainopepla! Joshua Tree Adventure

2012-01-22T15:14:11Z

The Phainopepla is a striking bird, 16–20 cm long with a noticeable crest and a long tail; it is slender, and has an upright posture when it perches. Its bill is short and slender. The male is glossy black, and has a white wing patch that is visible when it flies; the female is plain gray and has a lighter gray wing patch. Both sexes have red eyes, but these are more noticeable in the female than the male. They are the most common bird in our desert and they come here this time of year to feed on the desert mistletoe berries. Phainopepla have a specialized mechanism in their gizzard that shucks berry skins off the fruit and packs the skins separately from the rest of the fruit into the intestines for more efficient digestion. So far this is the only known bird able to do this. The photo below was from a recent Joshua Tree Adventure Tour.