Spring hasn't sprung in Idyllwild

I only drove myself to Idyllwild once. That was after I insisted to Xing that the way to Idyllwild from San Diego is through state route 79 north. The next few times that I went to Idyllwild, I carpooled, the last time,  I think was with Ernest Sato. My babe who had enough of Überring, to my surprise, agreed to drive me on St. Valentine's Day since he's never been to this Southern California hiking mecca. So I navigated him into  SR 79 south from Temecula, then SR 371 into SR 74 and finally SR 243 where Idyllwild is. I was there to look for pussy willows. 
I was hiking with Che, Maria, Tim and some others of the Southern California Hiking and Photography group at the Devil's Slide Trail when I first encountered pussy willows. I remember how Maria LOL'ed when I told her that the pussy willows would go well with blue dicks. Since then I had always been on the lookout for pussy willows. 
I didn't see any pussy willows this time around. I was not wearing the crampons I got from Tim either so  I turned around giving up on the hope of finding pussy willows when I saw that a steep portion of the trail was heavily snowed in. The pussy willows were where the Devil's Slide Trail meets up with the Willow Creek Trail. 
I guess the willows will be in their pussy galore when I go back to the San Jacinto Wilderness in another month, through the Palm  Springs Aerial Tram. The Willow Creek Trail  seems to share its trailhead with the Round Valley Trail. The Long Valley Trail leads to the San Jacinto Peak,  said to the highest mountain in the California State Park system.
The cellphone shot of the Tacquitz Rock
also known as Lily Rock reminds me of a picture of an erupting volcano. The Mount San Jacinto State Park brochure does attest that the entire park sits on two major earthquake fault block: the San Jacinto Fault and the San Andreas Fault. Because of the major fault block, the state park is said to be seismically active and slowly rising in elevation. 









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