Cabazon Again – Tilting at Windmills

Here we go again, another stop at the Cabazon dinosaurs. Maybe the silliness of the story told here is simply a relief from the billboards of musical artists that you thought might be in retirement but no, they are playing at Fantasy Springs or the Morongo. In the entry for the last visit, we discussed some of the freaky facts presented at Cabazon.

In this visit, it was just flat out windy and we walked around for a few minutes or so and made a dash back for the car. Speaking of wind, it was ripping but many of the windmills (turbine generators to be more precise) on the way to Palm Springs were motionless. Why is that the case? From what we’ve read, it was too windy. The turbines operate automatically and algorithms in the electronics determine whether the turbine turns or not. The San Gorgonio Pass is one of the windiest places on earth but the turbines only run when the wind is blowing between 10 and 55 mph.

The wind farm that you pass through as you travel east (on Interstate 10) to Palm Springs is called the San Gorgonio Wind Farm. The San Gorgonio Pass is the mountain pass between the Greater San Bernardino area to west, and Palm Spring and the Coachella Valley to the east.

San Gorgonio Wind Farm on a Very Windy Day – Mt San Jacinto in the Background – View from North Indian Canyon Drive