Metaphorically, the word Oasis is often over-used these days. I hear it frequently in every regard, from when a friend enters an air-conditioned car, to somebody describing their church or a library. These are all quite relevant descriptions of course, for the term signifies a welcome change in an otherwise bleak or banal situation, but while I do not mean to disparage the beauty that the desert itself carries, let's face it. After hours crossing a mostly sand-colored expanse it does seem like you've encountered a real oasis coming into the Coachella Valley. Especially from the east or south.

Today I dropped into the valley from Hwy. 74, a twisted two-lane road which winds into the hills to the south of Palm Desert, and I was dumbstruck by the sea of green before me. I've done this drive many times, but for some reason this day the air was crystalline (recent rains maybe?) and the glorious greens almost had me looking at Ireland.

Okay, sorry, a little embellishment there. but still. The aquifer which sits underneath our valley and provides us with much of our water, making us less dependent on the Colorado River than much of Southern California, also has the effect, the true effect, of creating a magnificent oasis in the desert.  A garden valley.

A few years ago I picked a friend up from the airport and she was near tears when I met her. Tears of joy. Being from the east coast, and basing her expectations on a cartoonish popular image of a desert where tattered men crawl across sand dunes dying of thirst, she was shocked to arrive in a place that was not only green, but had walls of spectacular mountain vistas beyond. She said it was one of the most beautiful places she's ever seen.

Today she lives here. And maybe you should too. Ask a Palm Springs Real Estate Broker or a Palm Springs Real Estate Agent to help you find your Oasis in the desert.