the sun runner's 2011 desert travel issue

February/March 2011 – The Sun Runner 3

4 The Sun Runner – February/March 2011


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The Sun Runner

Dry Heat, by Steve Brown ... 13The Tortoise Telegraph News gathered from around the desert – at our own pace ... 14Coachella Valley Confidential, by Denise Ortuno Neil ... 17Desert Art News, by Barbara Buckland & Steve Brown ... 20Desert Artist Profile: Elise Kost ... 27A Joshua Tree National Park Perspective,by Nalini “Ash” Maharaj ... 29Minerva Hoyt, Early Desert Conservationist, by Paul Smith ... 30The Dust Devil’s Tour of the California Deserts, 10 Days, 1,000 MilesThe 2011 “Desert Dozen” Real Desert Events ... 32The Dust Devil’s Tour of the California Deserts, by Steve Brown ... 33Ramblings From Randsburg, On the Trail of... Time Travel ToRandsburg, A Living Ghost Town, by Lorraine Blair ... 37River of Life, Valley of Death, by Mike Cipra ... 48Changing Times in the Desert, by Brian Brown ... 53On the North Shore - Adaptive Re-Use at its Best,by Kris Reynolds & Jennie Kelly ... 59The Living Classrooms of our National Park System,by Seth Shteir ... 63DeRanger Steve: Ramblin’s for a New Year, by Steve Salkin ... 64Desert Theatre Beat, by Jack Lyons ... 65Film Talk, by Jack Lyons ... 66Festival of Native Film & Culture Celebrates 10 Years of Indigenous Sto-rytelling Through Film, by Jack Lyons ...68Hi-Desert Music News, by Judy Wishart ... 70Out of the Sand, Joshua Tree 13 ...71Gilding Gram ... 71Simple Times in a Simple Place: One Old Hippie, by David Brown ... 72Positive Living: Muffin Hill, by Lou Gerhardt ... Hot Picks from The Sun Runner Calendar ... 74The Last Word: So... What is the Good Life?, by Dave Miller ... 75The Best Places to Stay in the Real Desert ... 77

Inside this Issue:

The Magazine of the Real California DesertFebruary/March 2011 The Desert Travel Issue

Cover Art — Joshua Tree National Park’s 75th Anniversary

The Sun RunnerThe Magazine of the Real California Desert

February/March 2011—Vol. 17, No. 1

Publisher/Executive Editor:Steve [email protected]

Founding Editor Emeritus: Vickie WaiteTheatre/Film Editors:

Jack & Jeannette LyonsLiterary Editor: Delphine Lucas

Music Editor: Judy WishartCalendar & Social Media Editor,

Asst. Publisher: Barbara BucklandContributing Writers

Lorraine Blair • Brian Brown • Steve BrownDavid Brown • Barbara Buckland

Mike Cipra • Lou Gerhardt • Jennie KellyJack Lyons • Nalini “Ash” MaharajDave Miller • Denise Ortuno Neil

Kris ReynoldsDeRanger Steve Salkin • Paul Smith

Seth Shteir • Judy Wishart

Contributing Photographers:Brian Brown • Steve Brown • Donald Felton

Ming C. Lowe • Dave MillerDenise Ortuno Neil

Elena Ray • Seth ShteirTodd Vogel • Marsu Mateo Wild

Judy WishartAdvertising Sales:

Sam Sloneker, Ryan Muccio, Allison Simonis

Distribution Manager: Sam Sloneker

The Sun Runner Magazine features desert arts and entertainment news, desert issues and commentary, natural and cultural history, columns, poetry, stories by desert writers, and a calendar of events for the enormous Cali-fornia desert region. Published bimonthly.MAGAZINE DEADLINE: March 25 for the April/May Desert Ecology Issue, for advertising, calendar listings, & editorial. To list a desert event free of charge in The Cali-fornia Deserts Visitors Association Calendar, please send your complete press release to [email protected], or mail to: Calendar, c/o: The Sun Runner Magazine, PO Box 2171, Joshua Tree, CA 92252. Please include all relevant information in text for-mat. Notices submitted without complete information or in a wrong format may not be posted. Event information will not be taken over the telephone or telepathically.SUBMISSIONS: By mail to the address above; by email: [email protected], or stop us when we’re at the JT farmers market like everybody else does.SUBSCRIPTIONS: $22/year U.S.A. ($38/year International, $38 trillion Intergalactic)Copyright © 2011 The Sun Runner. Permis-sion for reproduction of any part of this publication must be obtained from the pub-lisher. The opinions of our contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the magazine, which is an inanimate object. We have made some effort to be ac-curate, but we are not responsible for errors or omissions in material submitted to us, nor claims by advertisers. Advertising, press releases, and public service announcements accepted at the mysterious discretion of the all-knowing publisher.

The Sun Runner Magazine PO Box 2171, Joshua Tree, CA 92252

(760)820-1222 • www.thesunrunner.com

We celebrate Joshua Tree National Park’s 75th Anniversary this year with special editorial coverage all year long. Are you a desert artist or photographer? Would you like your work on the cover of The Sun Runner Magazine? Send copies of work you’ve done that might be appropriate for our cover to [email protected]. Are you interested in The Sun Runner Magazine’s 17 years of growth as the only regional desert media for the California deserts? If so, join our Desert Readers Advisory Group (DRAG). To sign up for future DRAG meeting notifications, e-mail [email protected].


This subtly beautiful photograph of Joshua Tree National Park was taken by Todd Vogel, a mountain guide, outdoor educator, and photographer from the Eastern Sierra region of California. Todd teaches climbing, mountaineering, outdoor skills, and natural history, and is part owner of Sierra Mountain Center/Outdoor LInk. He also works part time for Friends of the Inyo. See more of his work at toddvogel.zenfolio.com.

Welcome to The Sun Runner’s largest and most widely distrib-uted issue ever! This Desert

Travel Issue begins our 17th year of publishing, and will be accompanying us, once again, to the LA Times Travel & Adventure Show, the country’s largest consumer travel show, this March.

This year stands to be an exciting one for us as we join in the yearlong celebra-tion of Joshua Tree National Park’s 75th anniversary. We’re both pleased and proud to support this national treasure, and feel blessed that we have its natural beauty and solitude available to us almost in our own backyard.

For this issue, I’ve put together a ten day itinerary that guides you around some of the best routes that cross the California desert region. Please note that I said “some.” I’m hoping readers will use all, or parts, of the itinerary to explore parts of the desert they haven’t visited yet, but do keep in mind that this is only an introduction. If we included every location we thought you would enjoy visiting, you’d be holding a book in your hands right now, not a magazine. And, it would still be incomplete.

When you explore the California deserts, please do it at your own pace. The desert opens up to visitors best when it isn’t rushed, and you aren’t either.

If you take your time, you’ll notice the desert isn’t a big, empty void, but is filled with expansive vistas, a diverse and tenacious variety of plant and animal life, broad, sweeping skies, ageless geology, carpets of wildflowers, and a unique mixture of people who have learned to adapt to this environment, in the process becoming as uniquely individual as the rest of the natural world here.

You can tell when someone really “gets” the desert. I remember driving through Red Mountain one evening, just before dusk. The mountain was com-ing alive with gold and red light, as the shadows darkened, making the contrast intensely dramatic.

There, outside a somewhat worn out looking trailer, was a guy parked in a folding chair, leaning back, facing the mountain. He was just sitting there watching the light slowly change.

That man gets the desert. Those of us who like to get out in the desert know the magic golden light of dawn and dusk here. If you’ve ever witnessed the giant rock formations of Joshua Tree National Park glow in the golden light of sunset, you know what I mean (and it’s not just there—Death Valley, Anza-Borrego, the Mojave National Preserve—you can take it all in from any or all of these locations).

I remember taking a “fam” tour of

concierge staff and media out into the desert and getting them all to stop and lis-ten. There was nothing to hear. Chances are none of them had encountered silence in years. It’s as if our society is afraid of silence, and fills it up with the most inane sounds possible at every opportunity.

But silence, as folks in the desert know, isn’t “empty” of sound, it’s full, well, of silence. And if you let it, your spirit will drink deeply from it and it will put you at ease in ways mankind’s noisy toys and distractions cannot.

I hope when you are out exploring the desert, you are treated to some of its strong but subtle magic. A quiet canyon where the beating of a raven’s wings and your heart is all you hear, the Milky Way gleaming at you on a lonesome road at night, quail erupting out of the brush as you pass by, or the calling of the coyote off in the night. That is our world, and we welcome you to come experience it.

Carrying the FlagRichard Noble, of Palm Springs, recently carried the rainbow flag to the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twen-tynine Palms as part of Connecting Rainfows, a volunteer group formed to bring idealism and a dream to the gay rights movement.

Noble plans to carry the flag from San Francisco to New York, and then on to a rally in Washington, D.C. this fall in support of The American Equality Bill, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Other walkers are taking the rainbow flag out on the road this year in support of the bill, and to call attention to the need to create a society where gays are not bullied or discriminated against, sometimes to the point of taking their own life.

An information line for those who would like to support Noble’s 3,500 walk is at (760)992-4172, or e-mail [email protected]. Noble is set to leave on his cross-country walk on March 12, after asking the city council in West Hollywood to adopt a resolution supporting AEB.

New Superintendent for Joshua Tree National ParkThe Sun Runner would like to welcome Mark Butler as the newly appointed superintendent for Joshua Tree National Park. Butler replaces Curt Sauer who retired in September, 2010, and, from his initial public appearance at the launch celebration for the park’s 75th anniversary this year, seems ready and able to carry on where Sauer left off.

Butler recently served as chief of the Project Management Division at Yosemite National Park, and as a member of the park’s senior leadership team, handling an operational budget of $2.5 million. He is a 34-year veteran of the National Park Service, and has pretty much done it all since signing on as a

wilderness ranger in Yosemite in 1976.Butler stressed his desire to see strong connections between

the communities around the park and the park administration, and we here at The Sun Runner will be doing everything we can to strengthen bonds of support for one of our favorite places on the planet. You can keep up to date on 75th anniversary events and more at www.jtnp75.org.



An Endangered Cultural Treasure of the Desert

On a wall inside the Amargosa Opera House Hotel, there is a mural depicting the ruins of the hotel stark against the sands, with a faint spirit, a ballerina, dancing gracefully in a swirling desert sky. One can only wonder if Marta Becket, the incred-ible woman who transformed a dying little mining town into a cultural treasure that has drawn fans from around the world for more than four decades, had glimpsed the not too distant future when she painted the scene.

Becket, 86, featured in a profile by Barbara Buckland in our Desert Treasures issue, first began performing in Death Valley Junction in 1967. A dancer, performer, and artist, Becket took a small mining company auditorium and transformed it into an exquisite opera house through her murals, her performances, and her indomitable spirit. But whether her cultural legacy will last out the year is unclear.

In December, 2010, we began to receive information pertaining to operations at the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel, which is owned and operated by a non-profit organiza-tion, Amargosa Opera House, Inc. The information included allegations of elder abuse or neglect, of possible improper business dealings, and more. Much of the information has been unverifiable, and varies, depending on who is providing it.

While we began looking into these allegations, the possibil-ity of an 86 year-old cultural treasure living in relative isolation being abused being taken seriously here, things began to unravel in Death Valley Junction. Sandy Scheller, a longtime friend of Marta Becket, and the performer who stepped in to help continue Marta’s legacy with performances of “If These Walls Could Talk,” a tribute to Becket’s work, and shows with Marta, canceled future performances over a contractual disagreement with Richard Regnell, the director of operations, among other titles apparently, at the Amargosa Opera House.

“Verbal contractual agreements agreed to by Mr. Rich Regnell have now been broken,” Scheller wrote in a December 30, 2010 e-mail message. “What started out to be a dream and extension of Marta’s legacy has turned into a nightmare. Each week as I arrived to perform the shows created and performed by me but inspired by Marta, I observed things that I could no longer accept. To see a woman alone in a room with no phone, no television or music stimulation, isolated from the outside world, new falls and broken bones and bruises, it breaks my heart why Ms. Becket appears to be punished.”

Regnell and others have pointed out that several investi-gations into Becket’s care have not resulted in any apparent findings of wrongdoing, and that Marta is living in a room at the hotel, and none of them have telephones or televisions.

“We have been checked out and visited by many agencies that have been called by people whom act upon or listen to the crazy post [sic] these individuals put out there and by the way we pass with flying colors,” Regnell wrote in an e-mail on December 31, 2010, in which he noted Becket controls whom she meets with and has a “long list of people she meets with on a regular basis.” He offered to provide the list, but we have not received it to date.

The cancellation of Scheller’s show was quickly followed by Larry and Theresa Cantwell being removed from operating the Amargosa Café in Death Valley Junction, by Regnell. The Cantwells had been operating the café at the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel, serving up their legendary pie to a growing clientele, when Regnell reportedly broke into the business just before New Year’s in a bizarre and confusing turn of events.

Regnell insists that Theresa Cantwell, who had been running the café, was an employee of AOH, Inc., while the

Cantwells insist they were leasing the café from AOH, Inc. and operating it as their own business. The Cantwells have a Fictitious Business Name Statement their A. Valley Enterprises, LLC filed with the Inyo County Clerk on December 21, 2010, and they have provided a copy of a purported lease agreement for the café through May, 2015. Regnell denies any lease exists and claims parts of the copy came from another contract he had with Larry Cantwell to do some work a couple of years earlier.

“There are no agreements for a lease written or oral for operations as it is owned and operated by Amargosa Opera House Inc., All employees are and have been on the payroll of Amargosa Opera House,” Regnell wrote on January 1. “All equipment is owned by the Opera House.”

Requests for documents from Regnell that would prove Theresa Cantwell was on the payroll of AOH, Inc. instead of operating her own business as the Cantwell’s claim, received no response. The Cantwells assert much of the equipment in the restaurant is their own property, and have filed suit.

The situation at the café apparently came to a head when the Cantwells obtained their own merchant account and credit card machine, no longer running credit card transactions through the hotel. It is hard to imagine employees audacious enough to set up their own credit card transaction system and thinking management would not notice it, but we’ll have to leave it at that. For now.

Meanwhile, this is only the frosting on top of an extremely confused board of directors situation, where there appears to be two competing boards of directors, along with allegations of proxy votes cast by former board members with no voting rights, and even, perhaps, according to one source, a vote being cast by proxy by a deceased former board member.

While the agent for service from the original board of directors appears to still be listed on the California Secretary of State’s website, a new board was apparently formed in May, 2010. There, Marta Becket was named president, Regnell was named secretary, and Gail Marie Petty was named treasurer. Mary Lee Chavez, Regnell’s reported partner, also signed


documents tha t day as a member of the board, if not an officer. Docu-ments from that day are somewhat confusing in that Regnell is named as secretary, and signs as such, and later he is not men-tioned, but Chavez is. Becket also, evidently signed one of the docu-ments as “Beckett,” but questions about why she may have signed her name wrong went unan-swered.

Unfortunately, the original board of directors, while seemingly assert-ing they are the legitimate board, have not provided documentation, nor have they answered questions about a host of issues per-taining to opera-

tions of the non-profit, promising to fax documents, but never doing so.

The new board of directors, repre-sented by Clifford & Brown, a law firm from Bakersfield, hasn’t exactly been forthcoming either, with the attorneys citing legal action by the Cantwells as their reason for not providing any organi-zational information whatsoever. Ques-tions to Petty, an Edward Jones financial advisor in Ridgecrest, named as the new treasurer, resulted in a hostile return telephone call where she said she was not treasurer and didn’t know who was. She also strongly emphasized she wasn’t up to date on happenings in Death Valley Junction as Ridgecrest was three hours away, but within a day or two posted on the Amargosa Opera House’s Facebook page that she had recently been visiting with Marta in Death Valley Junction. Additional requests for clarification and answers about the board and operations of AOH, Inc. directed to Petty were met with a referral to Clifford & Brown, and a comment from one of their attorneys that attempts by us to obtain information about the non-profit from Petty “bordered on harassment.” Petty was not in her of-fice when we attempted to reach her in person in Ridgecrest.

While all this is just scratching

the surface (trust us, you’re getting the briefest, most uncomplicated version of this controversy), and much of it is up in the air (a January court hearing for the Cantwell case was continued due to the judge calling in sick for the day), and a long list of pertinent questions remain un-answered by most of the parties involved.

A court declaration by Theresa Cantwell in the their case against Regnell and others, raises allegations of Regnell carrying a handgun and calling himself the “sheriff” of Death Valley Junc-tion, and reported e-mail statements by Regnell that are alarming (“I may need backing real soon… Adult Protective Services is here right now interviewing marta [sic] got an inside heads up call that somebody filed some kind of elder abuse report with the state and is hopefully go-ing to find out she is well taken care of … we are freaked out ML is livid and I am worried they may try and take her or get control of the hotel!! IF THEY TRY TO TAKE HER OR KICK ME OUT I WILL PROBABLY BE GOING TO JAIL AS THEY WILL NEED BACKUP AND AN ARMY TO DO IT.”).

With lawsuits and competing un-cooperative boards of directors, no live performances, allegedly questionable expenditures and business deals (from penny stock algae farms to purchases of trucks and motorcycles) that may or may not have been approved by either board of directors, the future of the Amargosa Opera House and the cultural legacy that Marta Becket has built up over more than 40 years, is very much up in the air.

Allegations of every type and nature continue to arrive, adding to a very long list of questions we have been asking over the past six weeks, without getting much useful information in response. At this point, based on information we have been receiving over the past couple of months, we cannot recommend visiting the Amargosa Opera House, nor support-ing it in any manner until the questions we have been asking are answered. This has been a most alarming turn of events, and it is clear that this story is not over at our press time.

We hope to have more detailed information and possibly results of the Cantwell’s court case and other actions, by press time next issue.

It is our sincere hope that Becket is well cared for and this situation is resolved in a positive manner, without damaging Marta’s legacy in any aspect, and that the creative spirit of her work will continue to live on in Death Valley Junction long into the future.

– Steve Brown, Barbara Buckland

Mark Wheeler, representing the Joshua Tree National Park Association, presents Mark Bagley of the Owens Valley Committee with the Minerva Hoyt California Desert Conservation Award during the launch event for the park’s 75th anniversary this year. National Park Service Regional Director Christine Lehnertz and master of ceremonies Huell Howser, look on. The Committee serves as an advocate for the Owens River and has fought for restoration of the river system and Owens Lake bed as a wetlands and migratory bird habitat. Historic attempts by Los Angeles to steal the water are legendary.


As you take a drive into Palm Springs and look past the manicured streets, modern

boutiques and quaint eateries, you’ll find, well…the past. It might take a little effort and you may have to squint a bit, but I as-sure you, it is there, and what a past it is. Perhaps it may be hard to imagine what it was like in this desert playground back in the day, but it’s well worth an intentional look. I personally had always thought that I was well informed about my beloved desert, knowing pertinent facts like when the Town Center Mall (now Westfield Shopping Center) was built, and what the story of the Sex Life of the Date over at Shield’s Date Garden was really about (yes I did watch it). But alas, I was actually a little uninformed. Okay, a lot. But I recently have been rec-tifying my arrested history development with my friends over at The Palm Springs Historical Society.

I started volunteering over there back in December of last year. It is an absolutely eye-opening experience. I can joyfully sit there for hours uncovering historical gems of information about this most intriguing place that I call home. For me, it’s a sort of meditation. The Palm Springs Historical Society was founded by Melba B. Bennett back in 1955 and is

housed in The McCallum Adobe at The Village Green Heritage Center on iconic Palm Canyon Drive. With each visit I am enveloped by the stories of the people who came to the desert, and I leave with a yearning to find out more.

There are all kinds of stories to uncover, some of which are laced with tragedy, a byproduct of greed and poor judgment in associates. Like the one of Palm Springs pioneer, Mr. Palm Springs himself, (people really did call him that), Ray Ryan. Ryan was an eccentric oil tycoon from Evansville, Indiana, and helped establish Palm Springs as a Hol-lywood hangout Mecca. From storied accounts, the man was well known for throwing over-the-top shindigs at his crown jewel, The El Mirador Hotel in the 1950’s, now the home of Desert Regional Medical Center. Ryan had un-deniable vision for the future and spread his developer’s arm to the east side of the valley with the creation of the Bermuda Dunes Country Club, and all the way to the Salton Sea with the North Shore Yacht Club, all of which were some of Ryan’s many endeavors.

With Ryan’s big bucks, and even big-ger persona, he was able to hobnob with the swankiest hobnobbers in town. He even convinced his good friend William

Holden to go in with him on another one of his vision quests, The Mount Kenya Safari Club in Africa, which is still in existence today and run by Fairmont Hotels. The Safari Club’s guest list read like a roster of legends with Walt Disney, Winston Churchill, and Clark Gable just to scratch the surface….impressive! One thing Ryan also had a taste for, besides developing tourist communities, was gambling. Honestly, he couldn’t be a developer without being a bit of gambler anyway.

But Ryan took it a step further and played the tables with high profile stakes and high profile people, with some lowly ones thrown in for added flavor. In 1949 Ryan entered a card game with one of these characters and won a ton of dough, but unfortunately also won years of trouble from the player he won it from. Something tells me that he shouldn’t have been playing with someone named Nick “The Greek” Dandalos. Maybe it’s just me, but anyone who has a title as a middle name might be a problem. And I would be right. Sorry Ray.

As it turns out, Ryan was accused of winning his cash by enhancing destiny with a sleight of hand, and as a conse-quence, was pursued by Dandalos and his mobster friend Marshall Caifano.


Although Dandalos died in 1966, Ryan still managed to get himself killed in a car bomb explosion 11years later in his hometown of Evansville. Talk about a long standing grudge. The mob was highly suspected in the murder. I mean, when your car explodes and the hood ends up in the next area code, chances are, it’s wasn’t the alternator. The case remains un-solved, and Ray Ryan remains a shining star in Palm Springs history.

On a slightly lighter side, there’s the story of artist Peter Russ, the creator of Snow Creeks, The Hermitage. The Dutch- born Russ came to the desert in 1931for the same reason people have been coming here time and time again: his health. He had a lung infection and the clean dry air of the desert was a perfect remedy.

Russ found peace and serenity in the Snow Creek area just west of Palm Springs, and slowly began building his home. He toiled for five years, and when he needed more materials he’d produce beautiful wood carvings to sell in town to help pay for his creation. He became a legend in the area, frequently receiving random visitors. He was revered as an artist, a philosopher, and a pioneer in his own right. In article written about him by Helen Gerry in a 1947 issue of the Palm Springs Villager, Gerry admitted being envious of his carefree lifestyle and lack of urgency that he seemed to have acquired, to which Russ responded, “…but I am a captive too in a way—a will-ing captive, though like Ulysses, you remember that he heard the call of the siren. Well I heard it too, my siren is the desert. My odyssey ends here.” I hear too Mr. Russ, the call to find out more wonderful stories about the desert and the amazing, kooky, famous and infamous people who have existed here. My odyssey has just begun.

If you’re jonesing for another film fest to go to, your fix has come. The 10th annual Agua Caliente Cultural Museums Festival of Native Film & Culture takes place March 2-6. The festival ranks high on the cultural circuit and is an important addition to other film festivals in the Coachella Valley as it brings to light the indigenous people of our area and their sto-ries. Movies made by, and acted by Native Americans and other indigenous peoples, will grace the local silver screen with such titles as, Migrants—A Journey (Mexico, documentary), Two Spirits ( United States, documentary) and Wapawekka ( Canada, short) just to name some of the 17 films that will be screened during the festival. For more information on the festival and a list of movies and show times, visit www.accmuseum.org/Film-Festival.

The months of February and March are a couple of the busiest months in the Coachella Valley and our hi-desert coun-terparts. Businesses are bustling, people are reveling in the gorgeous weather and what can I say, life is good! So let’s see what in store for you, and let the GREAT times roll!

If you’re feeling vibrantly agile, then you might want to participate in the 13th annual Tour de Palm Springs bicycle event February 11 & 12, www.tourdepalmsprings.com. Feb-ruary 14 ushers in Valentine’s Day…so kiss your sweetheart, come on now!

Modernism Week celebrates the wonderful architecture in the Palm Springs area from February 17 -27, www.modern-ismweek.com. And if it’s tennis that you’re looking for, then the BNP Paribas Open will surely satisfy March 7-27, www.bnpparibasopen.com.

For more information about the events happening through-out the desert area, simply go to www.thesunrunner.com. Have an event you’d like to share? Send your desert event info to [email protected].

Until next time!

Director Yolando Cruz of 2501 Migrants: A Journey, with artist Alejandro Santiago, above. The film documents Santiago’s monumental installation art piece - 2,501 life-size sculptures paying homage to each individual migrant who left his village in Oaxaca, and will be featured at the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum’s 10th annual Festival of Native Film and Culture, held at Camelot Theatres in Palm Springs, March 2-6.

ART CLASSES & MORE6847 Adobe Road 760.361.1805

Located across from Barr Lumber

www.29PalmsCreativeCenter.com


367-1174 • 73487 29 Palms [email protected]

Custom Framing & Matting

D.L. BOWDENFRAME MAKER

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TWENTYNINE PALMS

29 Palms Art GalleryStudent Art Show at the 29 Palms Art Gallery. February 2-27. The 29 Palms Art Gallery will be highlighting local young artists with the 2011 Student Show. The show is open to junior high and high school students enrolled in the Morongo Unified School District.

A reception, including an awards presentation for the artists, takes place at the Gallery on February 6, from noon to 3 p.m. The show was judged by Louisa Castrodale, Visual and Performing Arts Specialist, Palm Springs Unified School District. Ribbons are awarded for draw-ing, painting and other.

The Ada Bigler Scholarship Award goes to the senior student who is judged to show the most potential as an artist.February Art Classes:Audrey Gillick holds a “Watercolor Landscape Painting” class on Tuesday, February 8, 9 a.m.-noon. Adults class, $10. Bring your own watercolors, paper and brushes if you have them, but the Gallery can supply.Ester Shaw, “Drawing From Nature” class for young artists (3rd grade and up), Saturday, February 19, 10-11:30 a.m. $10.

March Art Show: March 2-27, Per-ry Hoffman (Mosaics and Photography), Guild Members, and Regina Kirillov (Photography). Artists’ reception, Sun-day, March 6, noon to 3 p.m.

Elegant Junque Sale, Saturday, March 26, 9 a.m.-2 p.m.

Gallery hours: Wednesday through

Sunday, Noon to 3 p.m. 74055 Cotton-wood Dr., 29 Palms. (760)367-7819. www.29palmsartgallery.com.

29 Palms Creative CenterArt Classes:The Artist’s Book with Inks, February 5, Saturday, 11a.m.-3 p.m. $60.Paint Your Own Pottery. February 12, Saturday 11 a.m.-1 p.m. $30.Hand Building with Clay, February 19, Saturday 11 a.m.-1 p.m., $30.Mosaic Madness, February 12 & March 12, Saturday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. $75.Stained Glass with Copper Foil, March 5, Saturday, 11 a.m-1 p.m. $30.Viscosity Printing, March 19, Saturday, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. $50.Gal lery hours are Monday-Sat-urday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. 6847 Adobe Rd., 29 Palms. (760)361-1805, www.29palmscreativecenter.com.

The 29 Palms Inn, Oasis of MaraCheryl Kandel and Rosa Poulsen, through February 28. Joshua tree land-scape, new paintings with a bright palette, original acrylics on canvas, or framed giclee prints. Embroidered landscapes, framed, fully stitched. Open daily. Oasis of Mara, 29 Palms Inn, 73950 Inn Avenue (off National Park Dr.), 29 Palms. (760) 367-3505. www.29palmsinn.com.

29 Palms Art in Public PlacesZander Hardin and Lyn Sells, through February 28. World photography by Hardin and desert paintings by Sells are featured in the Art in Public Places exhibit at Twentynine Palms City Hall.

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MOUNTAIN EQUIPAGE

Your gear specialist forHiking • Backpacking • Climbing

NOMADVENTURES

61795 Twentynine Palms Hwy. Joshua TreePark Blvd. & Hwy. 62 (760) 366 4684

Zander H. Hardin is a transplant to Twentynine Palms via the U.S. Marine Corps, and is a world traveler. Seeing art in things and places wherever he goes, he has photographed the Great Wall, the Tera Cotta Warriors at Xian, the pandas at Chendu, as well as the Grand Canyon and Hopi Indian dancers in the Southwest. But some of his greatest work is from the Morongo Basin. His masterpiece, “A Desert Rainbow,” is part of this showing at Twentynine Palms City Hall.

Lyn Sells retired in 2006 from a teaching career of 40 years, the last 19 of which were spent teaching art for the Department of Defense Dependents’ Schools in Germany. For her own work, Sells has studied watercolors with Gary Morrell in Baltimore, watercolors and pastels with Beverly Nevers in Germany, and oil painting while living in Baltimore and Germany with artist Ulrike Rowe. The highlight of her career was painting with well known French abstract color-ist Pascal Magis in his atelier in France. Currently, she is painting with acrylics.

Sells and her husband, Paul Stackel, divide their time between their summer home on Chase Lake in Glenfield, New York, and a winter home in Twentynine Palms. In spring 2009, Sells launched her website: www.lynsartandcrafts.com.

March & April feature Kelly O’Sullivan desert nature photography. The Art in Public Places exhibit is sponsored by the Public Arts Advisory Committee. Monday-Thursday, 7 a.m.-6 p.m. 29 Palms City Hall, 6136 Adobe Rd., 29 Palms. (760)367-6799. www.ci.twentynine-palms.ca.us.

JOSHUA TREE

Joshua Tree National Park Visitor CenterJoshua Tree National Park 75th An-niversary Artists in Residence Retro-spective. February 1- April 30. Artists included in the exhibition: Jessica Dunne, a mixed media artist from San Francisco, Michael Shankman, a painter from San Francisco, Erin O’Connor, a Plein Air & Studio Fine Art painter from Wilson, WY, Dianne Bennett, a mixed media artist from Ojai, Georgia Frankel, a photographer from St. Paul, MN, and Michael Teters, an iconoclastic artist from Plainville, NJ.

The purpose of the Joshua Tree National Park Artist-In-Residence & Affiliate Artist Programs, now in its 10th year, is to provide artistic and edu-cational opportunities to promote deeper understanding of and dialogue about the natural, cultural, and historical resources

of Joshua Tree National Park and the des-erts of Southern California. The Visitor Center is open daily from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. 6554 Park Blvd., Joshua Tree. www.joshuatree.org.

Joshua Tree Gallery Crawl and Land Trust Grand Opening.Saturday, February 5, 5-8 p.m. The first gallery crawl of the season for Joshua Tree features six galleries: Art Queen, Joshua Tree Art Gallery, Mt. Fuji General Store, The Arrow Lounge and Gallery, True World Gallery, and Woods in the Desert. The Mojave Desert Land Trust is having the grand opening of their new of-fice one door west of True World Gallery.

True World GalleryFeaturing Perry Hoffman and Tina Blue-field, through February.

The Arrow Gallery and LoungeGeoff Tuttle, through February. ‘Circle of Quiet:’ Karine Swenson, March 5-27.

Art QueenJack Pierson, through March. By ap-pointment, or stop by Tuesdays-Saturday, 1-5 p. m.

Joshua Tree Art Gallery (JTAG).Karine Swenson, Karen Florek, Tina Bluefield, Drew Reese, through February.

YUCCA VALLEY

Hi-Desert Nature Museum“Water in the Desert:” College Pho-tography Exhibition. Through March 6. Photography prints by 26 college students from Copper Mountain & Mt. San Jacinto Colleges. Personal interpretations of water in desert environments, including oases, desert streams, pools, thunderstorms, and flash floods, as well as how water can be used or conserved. First Wednesday Program, Artist Noah Purifoy. Wednesday, February 2, 5:30-7 p.m. $5 donation to the Morongo Basin Historical Society at the door. Long-time resident and local artist, Kit Brooks, will talk about her friend and mentor, Noah Purifoy. Noah was an internationally known artist, sometimes called the “Father of Assemblage.” One of the founding members of the California Arts Council appointed by Governor Jerry Brown, and co-founder of the Watts Towers Art Center in Los Angeles, Noah lived and created an art legacy in Joshua Tree in the early 1990s. Well known for an art project he created with six other artists using debris from the


Open: 12 to 3 PM Wednesday–SundaySummer Hours: 12 to 3 Friday-Saturday-Sunday

74055 Cottonwood Dr.(off National Park Dr.)

Twentynine Palms, CA 92277www.29palmsartgallery.com

(760)367-7819

Desert ArtNative American Jewelryand Southwestern Gifts

TWENTYNINE PALMS ART GALLERY AND GIFT SHOP

Watts Riots, called “66 Signs of Neon,” he garnered awards and recognition from such prestigious institutions as the Pollock Krasner Foundation, the Gottlieb Foundation and Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. His work has toured across the United States showing in galleries and university campuses and is in art collections all over the world. Working as his apprentice, Kit has a rare insight into his unique personal-ity and art process. She will share her personal anecdotes and stories about this local, little known superstar. Hi-Desert Nature Museum, 57090 29 Palms Hwy,Yucca Valley. (760)369-7212. www.hidesertnaturemuseum.org.

Tamma’s Magic MercantileArtists featured in Tamma’s include nature and wildlife pho-tography of David McChesney, Christy Anderson’s license plate and “junk art,” Christopeher Pheyk glass blower and art, Divine Design greeting cards by Barbara Penney, Claire Montrose stained glass windows and bottle crosses, Frederick Ruldolph leather art, and the gourd art of Ronald Churchwell. The Sun Runner Store, our shop inside of Tamma’s, features the work of desert artists such as Judy Wishart, Billy Makuta, Cheryl Kandel, desert survival bandannas from DeRanger Steve, photography by our publisher Steve “Shanghai” Brown, and others; plus desert music CDs and books, including signed books by Deanne Stillman and our Randsburg contributor, Lor-raine Blair. In addition to all the artists, we have Sun Runner Southwest cards, organic jojoba oil, Southwest t-shirts, and desert-made candles and candle holders. The Sun Runner Store is a great place to support independent media, the arts, and non-corporate retail. Tamma’s Hours are: 10 a.m-5 p.m daily. 55727 29 Palms Hwy, Yucca Valley. (760)228-0700. Desert artists, musicians, authors, and others who would like to offer their work through The Sun Runner Store should contact us through e-mail at [email protected].

DESERT HOT SPRINGS

Cabot’s Pueblo MuseumMata Ortiz Potters Demonstration, Sale and Exhibit. March 5-6 . The famous Mata Ortiz potters are returning. Meet and buy directly from the international award-winning artists who create this beautiful, handcrafted pottery in the Casas Grandes style. Entry to the grounds & event is free. Limited guest tours will be available at regular price. 67-616 E. Desert View Ave., Desert Hot Springs. (760)329-7610, www.cabotsmuseum.org.

PALM SPRINGS

Palm Springs Arts Festivals Traditional and contemporary artists, arts, crafts, jewelry, food, wine, music, more. February 18-20, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

Palm Springs Art MuseumAnnual Delovely Gala, February 11. Photographing the American West: Selections from the Permanent Collection, through February 27. Classes, workshops, films, more. Tues-day, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday & Sunday 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Thursday 12-8 p.m., free from 4-8 p.m. on Thursday and 10 a.m.–5.p.m. 2nd Sunday each month. 101 Museum Dr., Palm Springs. (760)322-4800. www.psmuseum.org.

Palm Springs First Wednesday Art WalkFebruary 2 & March 2. Hosted by the Backstreet Art District. Galleries and studios featuring modern and contemporary fine art. Wednesday, 6-9 p.m.


Dezart One GallerySolo Show “Modern Architexture:” Kim Chasen. February 16-March 27. Artist Reception, February 19, Saturday, 7-9 p.m. Encore Artist Reception, March 19, Saturday, 7-9 p.m.

Agua Caliente Cultural MuseumSpirit Keepers Program – Panel Discussion: sov•er•eignty (-tē) n. Tuesday, February 8, 6:30 p.m. “…the word nobody can spell correctly, everyone understands, and nobody can de-fine…” – Ray L. Patencio, Sr. Most newspaper articles about Tribal Nations mention the word sovereignty at least once. What exactly is this all-important concept? Why is it fought for every day by tribes? How have the courts dealt with the issue of sovereignty? A notable panel of experts will discuss aspects of sovereignty, both in the past and in the present. Song of the Basket, through October 16. Prior to European contact, baskets of the Cahuilla women were made for utilitarian purposes. They were woven with great skill and beauty, regard-less of their intended use. Through careful study of their form, color, and design, it becomes apparent that these baskets are a work of love. To Indian women, fine baskets are their poems, paintings, and sculptures... their songs. Flora Patencio Collection. Permanent. Flora Patencio was a strong leader in the history of the Agua Caliente people. She participated in some of the most important political and cultural decisions of her time. Exhibition studies basket making techniques and materials. Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Sunday, 12-5 p.m.

The Mata Ortiz Potters Demonstration, Sale and Exhibit returns to Cabot’s Pueblo Museum, March 5-6 . Meet and buy directly from the international award-winning artists who create this beautiful, handcrafted pottery in the Casas Grandes style.


Closed Monday & Tuesday. 219 South Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs. (760) 323-0151. www.accmuseum.org.

PALM DESERT

First Thursday El Paseo Art WalkGallery stroll. February 3 and March 3, 5-7 p.m.

TECOPA

Tecopa Hot Springs ResortNew Works by Mary Burke King and Gregg Woolard. Febru-ary 26, 3-6 p.m. Artists Reception. Show runs through April 6. Gallery open daily 10 a.m.-8 p.m. 860 Tecopa Hot Springs Rd., Tecopa. www.tecopahotsprings.org.

LA QUINTA

Art Under the Umbrellas.Saturday, February 12 & 19. 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

RIDGECREST

Maturango MuseumMembers’ Art Show. Through March 9. Lin Moore – Pho-tography. March 10 - May 4. Reception Saturday, March 12. Annual Membership Meeting February 26. Open daily 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Friday until 8 p.m. Admission is free to the store and information area, admission to exhibits and art gallery for members; non-members admission is $5 adults, $3 students, seniors. Maturango Museum, 100 E. Las Flores Ave. Ridgecrest. (760)375-6900, www.maturango.org.

BORREGO SPRINGS

Borrego Art InstituteBorrego Springs 5th Annual Plein Air Festival. March 14-19. Borrego Art Institute & Various Locations. Gala and reception, March 19.

DEATH VALLEY

12th Annual Death Valley Chamber Art Show.March 12 & 13. Furnace Creek Ranch in Death Valley. Big event at a beautiful time of year, featuring fine arts, painting, photography, jewelry, woodworking, weaving, and pottery. Special room rates available for artists. Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. On the lawn in front of the Furnace Creek Ranch entrance inside Death Valley National Park. For more information, please contact Phyllis Nefsky at (760)786-3353, or [email protected].

Note: Submit your desert art news to us at [email protected]. Images are welcome, as are photos of gallery openings. Photos should be submitted as JPG, TIF, or PDF files, at 300 dpi. The photographer’s name should be included, as well as clear caption information for people shown in the photograph, and other relevant information (date, event, etc.).Artists can help support The Sun Runner’s Desert Art News by shopping for art supplies online at Dick Blick Art Materials and other art supply outlets at www.desertfuncoupons.com/html/art_supplies.html. Readers can now support The Sun Runner when they shop for everything from travel and hotels, to ink cartridges, printing, and office supplies—as well as reach all our regular advertisers—at www.desertfuncoupons.com.

Joshua TreeHealth Foods

“The Community’s Natural Foods Store”

61693 Twentynine Palms Hwy., Joshua Tree, CACorner of 29 Palms Hwy. & Sunset Rd.

Fresh Organic Produce • Refrigerated & FrozenBulk & Packaged Foods • Herbs • Supplements

Body Care • Books • Apparel

[email protected]

9:00-6:00 Monday thru Saturday

(760)366-7489

Your Informed Mind, Healthy Body Connection


Elise Kost, a desert creator of mod-ern tribal jewelry, has been hand-heart creating artistic adornment

for over a decade. She crafts custom intentional pieces for collectors to “sup-port their process of self-expression, ex-pansion, courtship rituals, initiation, and anything else they desire to dream into.”

Kost says she carefully and con-sciously hand selects each stone, strand, talisman, and treasure made by crafters in Tibet, Nepal, India, Afghanistan, Thai-land, Vienna, various cultures throughout Africa, and many others, including Na-tive Americans, along with other North and South American artworks.

“In this mind and of this moment, breath by breath, individual by individual, I seek the essence of who we are and what is needed,” Kost notes. “I use natural, organic and recycled materials; stone, wood, bone, metal, leather, feathers, an-tique, unique amulets, talismans, prayer beads, and one-of-a kind pieces to create ethnic, ancient to modern tribal, symbolic, sacred, sexy jewelry with wings.”

In an interview with Present Es-sence, Kost discusses what “modern tribal” means to her.

“Although there are many m o d e r n t r i b e s t h roughou t t he world, when I name my work ‘modern tribal’ it is from an energetic intention to combine our in-dividual gifts for the purpose of love, honor, and respect for ourselves, each other, and the nat-ural world,” she explains. “I aim to merge modern ways of being with ancient indigenous, tribal philosophies and talismans to influence a culture of transformation—of energetic nour-ishment, of self-actualization, as I believe that any and all powerful posi-tive change begins within the core of each individual.

“Traditional jewelry is tribal jewelry in so far as how cultures t h roughou t t he

world and time have used sacred, inten-tional adornment to help bring us into more balanced ways of being and focus awareness around how we desire to be understood (personality, beauty, initia-tion rights; rights of passage; amulets for protection; courtship rituals; symbols of life, status, fertility). Unfortunately, many modern ways have taken us away from that source of consciousness because we are in a hurry and have many distrac-tions to keep us functioning on surface survival levels. Modern tribal jewelry brings traditional reasons for adornment into current time.”

Kost’s approach towards her cre-ations of “ArtMedicineAdornment” is clearly more involved than just creating attractive jewelry for those who wear her work, though she isn’t opposed to people just wearing it because they like how it looks on them.

Kost’s jewelry has been featured in galleries and shops across the country, including those in New York’s Trump Plaza; Hawaii; Joshua Tree (of course) and El Paseo in Palm Desert. Visit www.elisekost.com for available pieces and store locations.


I can truly understand and share people’s joy and fascination with the high desert, having lived here for six years myself. The high desert has a natural seductive beauty that grows on

you rather speedily. She can wear her best weather for you, cool, calm and temperate, or allow you to enjoy her beautiful blooms, or just ignore you by isolating herself in her stark wilderness.

The high desert certainly enthralls you with her dramatic rock formations (in the Joshua Tree National Park). It is as though each unique formation has her own history waiting to anxiously reveal her story to you, given the opportunity to speak. According to many geologists these rock formations erupted from the desert floor more than 100 million years ago, giving us a unique sight-seeing adventure.

Often the desert invites the outdoor traveler to climb her magnificent formations high up in the desert mountains. This gives the energetic rock climber a great amount of joy to be able to experience the desert’s magnificent beauty from high elevations, with breathtaking views of natural landscapes.

It’s 6.am, my favorite part of my day. It is my time with the desert, and I savor every moment of desert’s luxurious mornings she graciously gives me each day. I am sitting on the patio of my desert home, eagerly awaiting the Sun to make her majestic rise. She rises slowly and steadily this morning at dawn, spreading her beautiful rays of red and deep orange throughout the east side above the horizon, illuminating the sky with her brilliant colors, the Sun mesmerizing me as she turns into a deep golden yellow, allowing daylight to lazily peep onto the world.

The Sun creates an enlightening, warm, bright picture of her full magnificence on the desert landscape. Her beauty is truly authentic, and she is not shy to flaunt this in front of me. I breathe in her rays of vitality, and she energizes my entire being, making me ready to experience a day full of joyous energy. I salute her presence and significance to my life each morning.

I smell the fresh earth of the desert, and I am enchanted at our beautiful desert gardens when I spot my quail family walking merrily across them on this beautiful breezy summer morning. Mama Quail and her little darlings are a very pleas-ant scene to watch in the mornings, the little quails seeming so obedient and attentive to their parents; I almost hear Mama Quail telling her little ones, “Come along dears, there is no time for your quibbles, we need to hurry up to get to breakfast.”

Also located in the high desert is our the wildlife we often encounter at our homes or in the national park, including bunny rabbits, quails, roadrunners, hummingbirds, lizards , bighorn sheep and many more. The high desert embraces her wildlife as any parent would, and provides them with the nurturing and

comfort that all parents do for their young.My attention is suddenly awakened to my present mo-

ment as I observe a desert lizard, with his beautiful shiny, grey, chunky body, bolting across the patio, running furiously on his hind legs for a juicy bug he has spotted for his breakfast this cool morning. He means business, and wastes no time in being the “predator of the patio.” These creatures will play the entire day, even in the hottest part of the day. They scurry around rapidly in total joy, enjoying the intensity of the sun on their backs, harmless. All I hear for most of the time as I walk on the pathways of my home are their rapid movements in the oleander bushes; they duck and dive as though playing hide and seek with their fellow mates.

Oh! There is Mr. Roadrunner, a rare delight, popping in, to say “ Hi,” to his friends in the garden. He is truly a magnificent bird who prefers walking the grounds of our home, giving everyone his morning wishes rather than flying around. My eyes move to the naughty bunny that is chewing away at my beavertail cactus. My annoyance at the bunny is momentarily distracted, as I hear my favorite hummingbird sounding her morning tune, perched high in the beautiful green fig tree of the garden. Her humming resonates with me and reminds of what a wonderful place I am in right now.

Nalini “Ash” Maharaj immigrated to the US in 2001 from South Africa, a year after tragically losing her mum in the violent crime in South Africa. She is currently the proud proprietor of the Harmony Motel in 29 Palms, where she sees Joshua Tree National Park every day. For more of her writing you can visit her website www.harmonymotel.com and click on the Blog tab. We invite locals who live around Joshua Tree National Park to submit short essays on their perspective on life near the park. Please send them to [email protected].


2011 marks the 75th anniversary of Joshua Tree National Park. The Park is noted for its vast wilderness of Joshua trees, complex and rugged mountains, rock formations,

and its vast open spaces located less than two hours from the skyscraper city of Los Angeles.

Minerva Hamilton Hoyt is widely credited as the founder of Joshua Tree National Park due to her successful efforts to convince President Franklin Roosevelt to set aside the area as a National Monument in 1936. One would logically expect that Mrs. Hoyt would have been a rugged individualist who loved the Southern California desert and would be most comfortable in a well-worn pair of Levi jeans, riding a wise and nimble horse through the sands, draws, and mountains of the area. And you would be correct in that assumption. But, Minerva Hoyt was far more complicated than that.

Minerva Hoyt was born on March 27, 1866 on a cotton plantation in Holmes County, Mississippi, to Emma Victoria Lockhart and Colonel Joel George Hamilton. One of her great grandfathers was Nathan McGraw who served as major in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Her father was a descendant of Alexander Hamilton, the Treasury Secretary under George Washington.

Her father commanded a Confederate regiment during the Civil War and after the war became active in state and national politics. He served 12 years in the State Senate of Missis-sippi, served as a delegate to the 1872 National Democratic Convention, and was a delegate to the 1890 Mississippi State Convention which drew up the state constitution.

Minerva Hoyt was a genuine cultured offspring of the chivalrous deep South who developed a sense of traditional Southern hospitality. As a young woman she was educated by an English governess, studied at Ward’s Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee and went on to music conservatories in Cincinnati and Boston.

After her education, young Minerva married Dr. A. Sher-man Hoyt of New York City. Dr. Hoyt enjoyed professional

success and they went on to reside in Denver, New York City and Baltimore. In 1897 they answered the lure of Southern California and moved to a five-acre estate in South Pasadena where Minerva created an estate of trees, spacious lawns, and gardens which soon became her next love.

Minerva Hoyt was a great entertainer and the South Pasadena estate was visited by prominent members of the art community and notably for her, serious botanists of nationwide stature. She hosted social parties which attracted hundreds of prominent guests and her New Year’s celebrations became famous annual events. Minerva was active in a wide range of philanthropic activities and served as president of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra and president of the Boys’ and Girls Aid Society of South Pasadena.

Minerva Hoyt volunteered with the Red Cross during the First World War and initiated a party for 22,000 people at the Busch Gardens to raise revenue for that effort. She had mem-berships in the United Daughters of the Confederacy, United Daughters of Colonial Dames, the Zonta and Shakespeare Clubs of Pasadena, and a number of other organizations.

But her consuming interest through these years was desert flora and fauna. And that is where her ultimate fame became established.

In 1929, she had this to say about her love for the desert in a special appeal to conservationists who were witnessing the loss of precious native cacti and other plants to the home gardens of California and Arizona.

“Over thirty years ago I spent my first night in the Mojave desert of California and was entranced by the magnificence of the Joshua grove in which we were camping and which was thickly sown with desert juniper and many rare forms of des-ert plant life. A month ago, when we were forming the Desert Conservation League, I visited that spot again. As a conserva-tion officer interested in prospective desert parks, imagine the surprise and shock of finding a barren acreage with scarcely a Joshua left standing and the whole face of the landscape a desolate waste, denuded of its growth for commercialization.

“A spur of the old trail made in those early days by the gold-seekers found its way out through Horse Thief Canyon into a wagon road which has since become one of our national highways. Over this highway I was interested to note the pass-ing of great numbers of automobiles, making it more like a city boulevard than a sequestered desert road—an ever-increasing procession of tourists, many of them thoughtlessly devastating the desert areas through which they pass.

“This highway likewise, I found, makes easy of access the road for the commercial collector, one of the great despoilers of the desert, taking from this arid region, as he does, truckloads of rare plant life to satisfy commercial greed. An arid growth is slow growth, hence the irreparable loss which only immediate conservation can check.

“When the country was in its undeveloped state the im-portance of conservation was not so apparent as now, when automobiles cross-section it; the roar of the airplane is a familiar sound and where by night, not only the stars shine out but we have on the mountain top the beacon light for the airplane, showing the pilot his pathway through the desert skies and a safe landing at a desert airport If needed.”

In 1929 Minerva Hoyt was writing as president of the International Desert Conservation League. This was no social event by a South Pasadena matron and southern belle, but a very serious effort to save the flora and fauna of the California Desert. Requested donations ranged from $.50 for a Junior Member, to $25,000 for a Benefactor.

Her campaign would achieve great recognition and success.


We love all of the California deserts, so take these picks as suggestions for great excuses to head out for a desert adventure. And yeah, there are more than 12

fun things to do out here. Way more. Check our online cal-endar at www.thesunrunner.com for the most comprehensive desert-wide events calendar.

1. Joshua Tree National Park. OK the park isn’t an event, but this year marks the 75th anniversary of Joshua Tree National Park’s designation first as a national monument, later as a national park. The park is hosting a variety of events all throughout 2011, so come join in the fun. www.jtnp75.org.

2. The Ridgecrest Wildflower Festival. April 15-17. Ridgecrest. When the California deserts erupt in wildflower blooms, it’s always cause for celebration, and if the timing is right, just the drive to Ridgecrest up Hwy 395 is quite a show itself. This year, the Maturango Museum is hosting the Wild-flower Festival to celebrate the desert’s natural seasonal bling. www.maturango.org.

4. Agua Caliente Cultural Museum’s 10th Annual Fes-tival of Native Film & Culture. March 2-6. Palm Springs. This excellent museum of Cahuilla culture and history hosts an incredible Native American and indigenous peoples film festival. Feature films, documentaries, and shorts from Native American and indigenous filmmakers, with the opportunity to hear directly from many of those who made or star in them. Na-tive American films will be represented, along with those from Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Canada, and Bolivia. A defi-nite desert cultural “don’t miss” event. www.accmuseum.org.

5. AdventureCORPS Badwater Ultramarathon/Fur-nace Creek 508. Death Valley National Park, Mojave Desert. The Badwater Ultramarathon (July 13-14) is known as the world’s toughest footrace, covering 135 miles non-stop from Badwater in Death Valley National Park (280 feet below sea level), up to the sides of Mt. Whitney (nearly 8,300 feet). The Furnace Creek 508 is known as the toughest 48 hours in sport, a premier ultramarathon bicycle race (October 8-10) across the desert with a total elevation gain of 35,000 feet. Is it all insane? Nah, just insanely popular, drawing the best endurance atheletes from around the globe. www.adventurecorps.com.

6. 70th Annual Gem-O-Rama. October 8-9. Spon-sored by the Searles Lake Gem & Mineral Society, this annual event is one of the most fun, family-friendly events anywhere. People literally fly in from across the country to participate. And we must admit—it’s pretty addictive and we can’t wait to get back to Trona again this October. Bring your grubby clothes and a couple changes of grubby shoes because if you don’t get muddy and/or briney wet on the mineral collecting field trips that are the heart of this event, then you aren’t doing it right. Grab yourself some pink halite, hanksite, borax, mud, and lots of fun! You can camp in Trona or stay in Ridgecrest. www.1.iwvisp.com/tronagemclub.

7. Joshua Tree Music Festival/Joshua Tree Roots Music Festival. May 13-15/October 8-9. Joshua Tree. The desert has its share of first-rate music festivals, including Coachella and Stagecoach, but while we love them, sometimes it’s a bit much. Tens of thousands of music fans, long walks from your car, heavy security, and crowds so big that you can’t get close to the stage. So, twice a year, up at Joshua Tree Lake Camp-ground, you can join a fun, smaller crowd for festivals that give you a great dose of music, art, and fun without the headaches associated with the mega-fests of the lower desert. These fes-tivals are reasonably priced, and independently produced in a laid-back Joshua Tree style. Two stages, non-stop music, art around the lake, vendors, food, on-site camping, and dancing into the night under desert stars. Does it get any better than this? Not much. www.joshuatreemusicfestival.com.

8. Malki Museum’s 47th Annual Fiesta. Sunday of Me-morial Day Weekend, May. The first all Indian museum on a California Indian reservation brings together Native Americans and non-natives in a celebration of culture and traditions with dances, arts and crafts, bird songs, and foods. A delightfully informal fun celebration at this gem of a museum. www.malkimuseum.com.

9. 62nd Annual Death Valley ‘49ers Encampment. November 9-13. Death Valley National Park. The annual encampment includes the Invitational Western Art Show, 4X4 tours, a mining, gem and mineral show, a pickin’ & fiddlin’ contest, trail rides, a wagon train, historical tours and talks, and much more, as the ‘49ers keep alive the spirit of Death Valley. www.deathvalley49ers.org.

10. Starry Nights Festival. October 1. Yucca Valley. This festival is really more a gathering of astronomers, both amateur and professional, graciously shared with the public, and provides a rare opportunity to hear about our night skies from those who make it their life’s work to explore them. Presenta-tions, discussions, and an opportunity to stargaze with some of the world’s top astronomers, thanks to the Andromeda Society and the Town of Yucca Valley’s Hi-Desert Nature Museum. www.hidesertnaturemuseum.org.

11. Tecopa Music & Arts Festival. April 1-3. Tecopa. Want to go somewhere in the middle of nowhere where there’s always something fun going on? Head out to Tecopa near Death Valley National Park for their first Tecopa Music & Arts Festival. Three days of music, art, star parties, hot springs, food (if the folks at Pastels are making it, it’ll be great), and fun. Rooms at the Tecopa Hot Springs Resort are already sold out, but there are plenty of RV and camping spaces left (or you can stay in nearby Shoshone, or Furnace Creek. www.tecopamusicfestival.com.

12. The 10th Annual Hwy 62 Art Tours. October. Joshua Tree, Twentynine Palms, Yucca Valley, Wonder Valley, Land-ers, Pioneertown, Morongo Valley. You simply can’t go wrong with two weekends, 100+ artists, and 62 studios and galleries waiting to be explored in the Joshua Tree National Park area. The informal nature of the art tours produced by the Morongo Basin Cultural Arts Council are welcoming to all, and you never know who you’ll run into, or what will be going on at each stop. We absolutely love the art tours, and cannot recommend them highly enough! Visit the artists, experience their work, share a laugh and a snack, and take home a unique piece of art and a lot of great memories. www.hwy62arttours.com.


Ah, Los Angeles, my old home town. Bustling freeways, sprawling homes, businesses, and roads everywhere you look. Bright lights, and the noise that only can come

from millions of people all around you.So, let’s say you’re a typical Angelino (or Angelina, I sup-

pose), or someone coming to visit California, and you’ve found yourself with ten days, a decent vehicle, and the hankering for something different, something almost a complete opposite to your daily existence. You don’t have a ton of cash to fly off to somewhere exotic, so the words “road trip” begin echoing inside your head.

You begin to think it might be nice to see more than three stars at night, to hear what silence sounds like, and to breathe in fresh air as wildflowers and Joshua trees roll by. Then you realize you didn’t need those frequent flier miles after all - you have an exotic destination less than a three-hour drive from your living room - no need to dig out your passport, brush up your language skills, exchange currency, or get a full body scan (you can take off your shoes when you dive into the pool instead of when you go through security). The Dust Devil’s Tour of the California deserts awaits!

The California deserts aren’t for everyone. If you crave the überurban vacation where you order up breakfast to your 33rd floor suite, and have your choice of Broadway plays to attend that evening, you may be disappointed. However, if you’re feeling a little adventurous (not the dangerous kind, just fun), and you enjoy natural beauty, expansive vistas, history, the Old West, and stars glistening above you at night, instead of posing on the red carpet, you’ll love the desert. And, you’ll even find the best offerings of civilization and culture out here, sometimes in some of the most out of the way places imaginable.

The Dust Devil’s Tour of the California Deserts, in its entirety, takes 10 days at a minimum, and wasn’t designed

to show you “everything” in the desert. As those of us who live out here know, it takes a lifetime to really get to know the desert, and you’ll never know it all. There is always going to be something else to see, and another great reason to return. I hope that your visit will also leave you with a deeper apprecia-tion for the desert, its beauty, natural and human diversity, and the importance of respecting and preserving its unique place on the American landscape and the American soul.

This itinerary is really designed to give you a taste of some of the best of the desert, a variety of experiences that will introduce you to the beauty, the history, the quirky fun individuality that seems to thrive here, and lots of fun memo-ries and stories to bring home. There are endless options for additions and changes to this itinerary, so I’m hoping you’ll take these suggestions and use them to create new ones of your own that let you explore down roads you didn’t get to take the first time around. We’ll discuss some of those options as we go, so let’s hit the road!

Day 1:Los Angeles to RidgecrestDriving distance: approximately 200 milesDriving time: approximately 3.5 hours

We’re going to get an early start today, even though it’s only a 3.5 hour drive north to Ridgecrest. We’ve planned this trip with lots of stops in mind. After all, we can sit in our car all day in L.A., so we want to get out every now and then and enjoy ourselves.

I’ll let you figure out how to get up to Highway 14 (and 138) where we begin our journey north into the desert.

First you head through Palmdale and Lancaster, and then you’ll notice Hwy 138 splitting off to the west. If it’s poppy season, you may want to head that way to take in the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve SNR (State Natural Reserve). The visitor center usually opens around the end of March, but it depends on the state of the bloom.

There are eight miles of trails to wander about the gently rolling hills, some of them with wheelchair access. Birds, wildlife, and stunning California poppies. A suitable welcome to the California deserts.

When you’ve poppied yourselves silly, head back north-ward on Hwy 14. Not far up the road is Rosamond where a cat lovers delight awaits. Take the one and only Rosamond exit (also for Edwards Air Force Base and NASA‘s Dryden Flight Research Center, where you can take an all-day public tour requiring advance planning), go west 3.5 miles to Mojave-Tropico Road, turn right, go about a mile, then left on Rhyolite, which will lead you straight to The Cat House.

The Cat House, also known as the Exotic Feline Breeding Compound’s Feline Conservation Center, is home to more than 70 of the world’s most endangered felines, and operates as a breeding zoo and research facility. The Cat House is open most days 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and charges a small admission fee. You can get as close as five feet from some of the most magnificent felines of the world—leopards (including the Black leopard), jaguars, tigers, and more. Twilight Tours are held three times a year, allowing access to parts of the compound not usually open to the public.

After paying The Cat House a visit (I told you there were lots of places to stop and lots of things to see—even on Day 1!), continue north on Hwy 14 to the junction between Hwy 14 and Hwy 58, now outside of the town of Mojave.

Here the more aeronautically inclined may want to pay a visit to the Mojave Air & Space Port, where tours are usu-


ally offered at 2 p.m. for a small fee—whenever the fueler is available. No reservations are taken for the tour, just drop by the administration building. Cameras are not allowed on the half-hour tour.

The “space port” is home to Sir Richard Branson’s Ansari X Prize-winning SpaceShipOne and Burt Rutan’s Scaled Compos-ites aerospace company, developing non-governmental space travel. Unfortunately for Mojave, Branson (Virgin Galactic) selected a location in New Mexico for their commercial space travel facility, but research and development continues here at the first FAA licensed commercial spaceport.

From Mojave, head east on Hwy 58. To the south is Ed-wards Air Force Base, one of several large military bases found in the California deserts. Ahead is the small town of Boron, founded in 1927 by Pacific Coast Borax (now U.S. Borax) when one of the richest deposits of borax was found nearby (ironically, it was found under the route from Death Valley used to take their borax ore to market).

This little town, just off Hwy 58 (take the Boron Avenue off ramp to Twenty Mule Team Road), is well worth a visit. The local chamber of commerce has visitor information avail-able downtown, and you can pick up the latest copy of The Sun Runner at The Cunningham Store and Art Studio, and enjoy a complimentary cup of international gourmet coffee. Make sure to say hi for us!

Nearby, the Colonel Vernon P. Saxon Aerospace Museum, with its F-4 Phantom in front, offers up exhibits documenting the rich flight history of the area that has seen a host of unique accomplishments take place in the skies above Boron, from the X-1 breaking the sound barrier, to the X-15A’s world speed record for a winged aircraft, as well as NASA Space Shuttle landings nearby, and the X-43A. The museum is open daily, except holidays, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Next door is the Twenty Mule Team Museum, dedicated to acquiring, documenting and exhibiting the mining artifacts and memorabilia surrounding the history of borax mining around Boron and Death Valley. The museum is based in a restored staff house used at the Baker mining encampment and includes the railroad depot first used in nearby Kramer Junction, and later in Boron, as well as a variety of examples of mining equipment, and a memorial to the Vietnam veterans from Boron who lost their lives in that war. Like its next door neighbor, the museum is open daily, except holidays, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Nearby, to the north of Boron and Hwy 58 (Borax Road exit north), is the Borax Visitor Center, a little known but interesting location where you can get a look at modern open pit borax mining in the California deserts. There is a small admission fee (donated to local non-profit organizations). The visitor center is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day except holidays, weather permitting.

From Boron it is only a short distance to Kramer Junction where Hwy 58 intersects with Hwy 395. This intersection is frequently insanely busy with travelers and truckers, but is a good place to gas up as you head north on Hwy 395.

As you head north on Hwy 395, you’ll notice the Kramer Junction Solar Electric Generating Station, a 150 megawatt so-lar power plant that is part of a group of nine solar fields which currently generate most of the commercial solar power currently produced worldwide, but that’s about to change dramatically as the government hands out public lands and public money to fund giant solar power projects across the California deserts, destroying broad swaths of once priceless wildlife habitat, along with Native American sacred and cultural sites in a new “green” rush. These nine plants, however, were built between 1984 and 1990, shiny parabolic signs of things to come. A

The 20 Mule Team Museum in Boron, top. A scene from the Rand District Cemetery in Johannesburg, above. Quaint, fun Randsburg, a “living” ghost town, below. The X-15 flew over these skies in the 1960s, bottom. A memorial to Air Force Major Mike Adams, the first U.S. astronaut lost during a space mission on board an X-15 stands near Johannesburg and Red Mountain.


new solar project is planned for the south side of Highway 58 in Kramer Junction.

Driving up Hwy 395 you will first notice a building on a nearby hilltop with a very large ping pong ball on top. That site was the old Boron Air Station, or Boron Air Force Radar Facility, which was once part of the National Air Defense Com-mand. Most of the facility was later used as a federal prison camp which once housed over 500 prisoners. While most of the facility is now abandoned (but closed to the public), the ping pong ball is still used by the Air Force and FAA.

Soon, you will roll through the Atolia Mining District, a once lively area of dozens of square miles that included in its history, around 400 mine shafts and drifts. The area is filled with unstable buildings, pits, shafts, and debris, and is privately owned, so please do not wander around here. We want you to enjoy your trip to the desert, and mine shafts are great ways to spoil a vacation.

Next is Red Mountain, a “ghost town” like nearby Johan-nesburg and Randsburg, all part of the Rand Mining District, which is still being mined today. The area was first mined after gold was discovered in 1895. By 1896 the area boasted a population of around 1,500. By 1899 the population had risen to 3,500, and the next year newspapers reported $3 million in gold had been taken out so far. Soon, tungsten was found in Atolia bringing its population up to 2,000, and by 1911, the take from the Yellow Aster Mine reportedly had reached $6 million. Silver was found later, and in the 1930s, the area gained some notoriety for its illegal liquor and brothels.

Following Red Mountain, the next “ghost town” is Johan-nesburg (“Jo-burg“). Though you won’t see the tracks of the Randsburg Railway any more, you can take a left up the hill to the historic Rand District Cemetery. Here you can walk among the final resting places of miners, their families, and others from the district, near the King Solomon Mine. Be respectful as this cemetery is very much a part of the community. Walk quietly here and imagine yourself back 100 years ago, when this sleepy little town was bustling, filled with the business of gold.

Not far off Hwy 395 between Red Mountain and Johan-nesburg to the east is a memorial that stands honoring Air Force Major Mike Adams, the first U.S. astronaut lost during a space mission. On November 15, 1967, Adams piloted an X-15 on a suborbital mission. Adams had completed six atmospheric flights in the famous rocket plane, but this was his first, and last, trip into space, reaching an altitude of 266,000 feet (over 50 miles high).

A combination of technical problems and possible vertigo, resulted in tragedy that day, ending in the disintegration of the X-15, with the forward section of the plane hitting the desert floor near the site of the monument that came about through the initiative of an Eagle Scout candidate, John Bodylski, in 2004. If you want to visit, we suggest getting directions from the BLM in Ridgecrest.

Just past Jo-burg, take the left onto Redrock Randsburg Road that leads you one mile into the living ghost town (a min-ing community still mining today), Randsburg. Randsburg is a favorite place of mine to wander around. Visit the town jail on the way into town, and think about what it must have been like to live here during the town’s heyday.

Stop in at the Randsburg General Store for lunch and ask Karen to make you up an old fashioned phosphate, as well as ice cream, snacks, supplies, and a decent selection of local interest books and maps. Check out the old tin ceiling, and the bar that came around Cape Horn to wind up here, and pick up The Sun Runner while you’re at it.

Down the street (Butte Avenue), is the Rand Desert Mu-

Signs of mining dot the landscape up Hwy 395 through Atolia, Red Mountain, Johannesburg, and Randsburg, above. Mining still continues in Randsburg and elsewhere across the California deserts today. Mine shafts are dangerous, and visitors are warned to not enter them, or get too close to vertical shafts which can go down hundreds of feet.Ridgecrest offers an excellent base for exploring the northwestern Mojave Desert, and a good stop on your way to Death Valley National Park or up Hwy 395 into the eastern Sierras. Quality lodging, and great dining choices, including Tokyo House, below, are available, along with excellent museums and tours to Little Petroglyph Canyon.


seum, a definite stop for those interested in delving deeper into the area’s history. Learn about mining in the Rand and places like Burro Schmidt’s Tunnel and check out the nearby “Magic Bus.” Public restrooms are also available here. Drop in for a drink at Olga‘s “The Joint,” or walk around and take in the town.

The best time to visit Randsburg is on the weekends when most of the antique stores and other businesses are open. If you want to spend the night here, the Randsburg Inn (you can inquire at the general store) offers simple but decent accom-modations behind an antique shop. Though we miss Cowboy Bob who used to hang out here, you can learn how to support the effort to posthumously award him with the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery in the Korean War. If you stay in Randsburg, you may need to drive into Ridgecrest for dinner, but then, that’s our end point for the day anyway. Before you get back in the car though, listen carefully for the sounds of long ago miners celebrating the end of the work day at the Yellow Aster, the Big Dyke, the California, or the Hard Cash mines with music and carrying on, coming out of Fiddler’s Gulch.

On your way from Randsburg to Ridgecrest, you’ll pass another site once frantic with prospectors all hoping to hit it rich. This is Summit Diggings, not far past the turn-off for Garlock Road, on your right. There’s not much to see from Hwy 395, but 100 years ago, you might have heard a railroad engineer playing a tune with the old steam locomotive’s whistle as faces

popped out from crude dugouts where miners lived.After you’ve crested the summit yourself, you’re almost

done with traveling for Day 1 of the Dust Devil’s Tour. Take the Ridgecrest exit and follow the road into town. A cozy room at the Carriage Inn awaits, and if there’s time, there’s more to do. The BLM has its Regional Wild Horse & Burro Corrals near town, where hundreds of wild mustangs and burros await adoption (You want an authentic souvenir of the Old West, something really American down to its soul? You can do no better than a mustang or burro. But they come with a lot of responsibility). Bring a bag of carrots and make a few friends. Tours are available, even if you don’t have a place at home for one of the residents. Hours run weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., except holidays.

Another good stop in Ridgecrest is the Maturango Mu-seum and Death Valley Tourist Center/Northern Mojave Visi-tor Center. The Maturango is an excellent small museum, in the process of growing into a larger facility. It encompasses natural history, cultural history, geology, and art exhibits for a small admission fee, and has a well-stocked gift shop. Family friendly, or rather just plain friendly, period, the Maturango also hosts tours to Little Petroglyph Canyon on the nearby China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station. Only U.S. citizens are allowed to take these “on-base” tours at this point, and you must make reservations at least 10 days prior to the trip as the Navy requires the paperwork for the trip in advance. Check all the requirements on the Maturango’s website, but the canyon is one of the country’s premiere petroglyph sites with 6,000 or more, and well worth the effort.

For those interested in military history and technology, the U.S. Naval Museum of Armament & Technology at China Lake chronicles the development of a variety of weapons systems at the base. There’s a great selection of aircraft on display outside the museum, and inside there are exhibits of missiles and bombs and fuel air explosive weapons and cruise missiles and the famous Sidewinder missile, developed here. Lots of weapons here, and rumor has it that the weapons developers at China Lake have come up with creations so violent and effective that even the military couldn’t stomach them.

The museum is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. As the museum is located on base, you must obtain guest passes from the base visitor center. Admission is free.

There are plenty of things to do in and around Ridgecrest, including visits to Red Rock Canyon State Park, Pinnacles National Natural Landmark, the Desert Tortoise Natural Area, Last Chance Canyon, Darwin Falls, and Fossil Falls. Check with the Ridgecrest Area Convention & Visitors Bureau for plenty of ideas to help you extend your stay here.

After a full day like this, you’ll probably want to fill up the tank—the car’s—and your’s. If you’re looking for a fine dining experience, you’ll want to head on over to Maddy’s Cottage, an excellent choice for dinner or lunch. A fun favorite is Tokyo House, with its wild sushi creations and teppanyaki grills. If its early enough, head out to Hwy 14 near Inyokern and taste the micro-brews at the Indian Wells Brewing Co., home of “Mojave Red,” and a personal summertime favorite, “Orange Blossom Amber,” and maybe grab a steak—the Diamond Jim Brady 22 ounce sirloin if you’re really hungry—at the Indian Wells Lodge. If you dine here, make sure to drink the water on your table—its from the same spring that saved the pioneers on wagon trains coming out of Death Valley.

Or just head back to the Carriage Inn where you’ll find Charlie’s Pub & Grill, a great place to relax and enjoy dinner and drinks among aviation memorabilia while you talk over the day passed, and adventures yet to come.

The waiting train with the beginnings of the eastern Sierras in the background near Ridgecrest, above. Randsburg General Store, below.


Been there-done that, right? You have flown, you have cruised, you have driven, you have hiked. Etc. BUT HAVE YOU TIME-TRAVELED?? Your chance to

do so lies right on the Mohave Desert with a simple visit to California State Historical Landmark Number 938: the Rand Mining District

Randsburg is not a movie set, it is genuine; people have lived here since the end of the 19th century. Uniquely, there-fore, Randsburg has been branded A Living Ghost Town. One dictionary definition of “ghost town” is a “town that was once full of people but is now empty”. Since Randsburg still has a number of living, breathing, human residents, the label of “living” Ghost Town seems thoroughly appropriate. A walk around what is left of a once booming mining camp is a great way to turn back the clock a hundred years.

Randsburg was home to very successful mining op-erations; the Yellow Aster Mine alone produced well over $25,000,000 in gold between 1895 and 1939. Buildings remaining on Randsburg’s Butte Avenue will definitely fulfil your fantasies of what an old western mining town should look like! Step into the two cell jail, have a soda fountain treat at the General Store, gaze at false front buildings. Two vintage churches still dot the landscape. Perched on the hills are mining relics from the early days which can safely be viewed from the main street. The Desert Museum holds more exhibits and is open most weekends.

Enjoy the memories embedded in the old buildings. Walk the streets of the past, shop in stores of the past…travel to the past.

Take only photos and leave only footprints. The Rands-burg ghosts will thank you.

We’re pleased to note that Lorraine Blair’s book, Dr. Rose, A Yellow Aster: and the Blooming Women of the California Rand, has been catalogued by The Huntington Library.


Day 2:Ridgecrest to Stovepipe Wells, Death Valley National ParkDriving distance: approximately 100 milesDriving time: approximately 2.5 hours

After breakfast at Café Potpourri at the Carriage Inn, head south down China Lake Boulevard, the main street in Ridgecrest, and make a left on Ridgecrest Boulevard, which is also Hwy 178 (and Trona Road). Head east towards Trona, and take a short side trip out to the Trona Pinnacles to see these unusual tufa formations (more than 500 of them) rising from the bed of the Searles Dry Lake basin. The Trona Pinnacles are a National Natural Landmark, and see if you can recognize them from a variety of popular Hollywood films.

Back on Hwy 178, you’ll soon roll into the mining town of Trona, once a company town, and home to the Trona Railway. There is a rest area and information kiosk in town, and this will be your last chance for gas for some time, so fill ‘er up, and make sure to load up on water and a picnic lunch or snacks. Trona is home to the terrific annual Gem-O-Rama in October, one of the desert’s best family-friendly events. Trona also of-fers the Old Guest House Museum and Searles Valley History House, Caboose and Train Museum, both well worth a stop.

You’ll head north on Hwy 178 (Trona Wildrose Road) out of town through the Panamint Valley, and ghost town lovers will want to keep an eye out for Ballarat Road. About four miles to the east lies the town of Ballarat at the base of the Panamint Mountains. The town got its start in 1897 supplying the mines in the nearby canyons. Once, the town included over half a dozen saloons, several hotels, a jail, a school, a morgue, and a post office, but no church. Now, the town is mostly ruins, with its old adobes melting back into the earth. Even Seldom Seen Slim is gone (as is Charles Manson who had hung out nearby for a time), but the town, which is privately owned, still has a resident or two, and welcomes visitors. Many hik-ing and backpacking opportunities exist nearby, including the magnificent Surprise Canyon.

Back on Hwy 178 and heading north, you’ll take Panamint Valley Road when it branches to the left, unless the weather has been very good and you’ve got a 4X4, experience driving it, and want a little adventure. Some of this route is high country, so it is not unusual to encounter snow or mud or washed out road conditions once you get off the pavement (we once had to back down the mountain several miles on our way to the Wildrose Charcoal Kilns after a car in front of us got stuck in snow—not a situation we want to put our visitors in if we can help it).

Eventually you will come to a junction with Hwy 190. Welcome to Death Valley National Park! You’ll turn right on Hwy 190 and head through the Panamint Range and on down to Stovepipe Wells. Book reservations at Stovepipe Wells Vil-lage Hotel ahead of time, as there aren’t other lodging options in the neighborhood. Stovepipe Wells also offers an RV park and camping, and the National Park Service offers basic camp-ing with no reservations (campers can use the Village pool and showers for a nominal fee).

Stovepipe Wells Village also offers quality dining options at the Toll Road Restaurant and Badwater Saloon. Menus in-clude a variety of options that incorporate foods from the desert region, including China Ranch dates and date bread, cactus, mesquite, pine nuts, peppers, and desert herbs and wildflowers.

The operations of Stovepipe Wells Village were recently taken over by Ortega Family Enterprises, a dynamic family business that operates a number of National Park concessions, historic trading posts, galleries, shops, and hotels throughout the Southwest. They feature Native American artists and artisans,

Once proud symbols of the American West, the mustang and burro populations of the desert region are now subject to management policies that are often controversial. The topic of slaughtering these animals within the U.S. has once again been raised. While there is nothing quite like encountering a small herd of mustangs as they roam free, or burros, ears forward as they pay close attention to you when you come across them on a desert hike, the BLM facility in Ridgecrest offers visitors an easy way to see these magnificent creatures. Bring carrots and make friends. Or, take a couple home and make lifelong friends. The BLM offers an excellent adoption program.



and are known for their innovative green business practices and sourcing of foods for their restaurants locally.

Today’s drive is short because Stovepipe Wells provides a great base for exploring the northern parts of Death Valley National Park. The polished marble walls of Mosaic Canyon are close by, as are the sand dunes of Mesquite Flat and the Devil‘s Cornfield. Gas up and head north to Scotty’s Castle and Ubehebe Crater, or if you have an extra day and a high clearance vehicle, take a day trip out to The Racetrack, a dry lakebed where rocks mysteriously move about, leaving long tracks behind them. Eureka Dunes are a bit further, and the Wildrose Charcoal Kilns and places like the old ghost town of Skidoo, await back toward Panamint Springs.

If you have a high clearance vehicle, and time, head on up Hwy 190, jog left toward Scotty’s Castle, then take Daylight Pass Road up through Hells Gate and on into Nevada on Hwy 374. You’ll eventually see a sign for Titus Canyon on the north side (left) of the highway. There you can turn and take a one-way dirt road for 26 miles through some of the most beautiful and interesting hills and canyons, filled with multi-colored hillsides, Leadfield ghost town, mines, petroglyphs, great hikes, and a drive-through slot canyon that will take you back into Death Valley National Park. If you take Hwy 374 a little farther toward Beatty, Nevada, you can also visit the ghost town of Rhyolite, and the Goldwell Open Air (Art) Museum with its fascinating sculptures and artwork. Beatty’s nearby too, if you need food, gas, or just want to see a town that isn’t a ghost town.

Dinner is best back at Stovepipe Wells, then check out the night sky. Remember the Milky Way? Well, if you look up at night, you just might jog your memory. Sweet dreams.

Day 3:Stovepipe Wells to Furnace Creek,Death Valley National ParkDriving distance: approximately 30 milesDriving time: approximately 30 minutes

You’ll notice that today’s drive is a real short one, if you just go from Point A to Point B, which is not my intention. Instead, I would encourage you to look at some of the possibilities listed in yesterday’s itinerary for suggestions of things to do, and I’ll

add some more to the list just in case. Today would be an excellent day for visiting Scotty’s Castle in the morning if you didn’t get the chance yesterday, just don’t feed the coyotes who often hang out begging for food.

Breakfast at Stovepipe Wells, gas up, and then set out for a day of explor-ing the lower 48’s largest national park. Heading for Furnace Creek, today’s destination, you’ll roll northeast on Hwy 190 and turn right where it does. Take time to stop at Salt Creek (one of several creeks with the same name out here in the desert). Here the rare pupfish swims about during spring. The interpretive boardwalk trail, wanders past pools, badland hills, and pickle weed, providing wheelchair access for visitors.

Farther on, you can stop at the Har-mony Borax Works and Mustard Canyon before arriving at Furnace Creek. Here you can stay at The Inn at Furnace Creek, or The Ranch at Furnace Creek (camping

Scotty’s Castle, which isn’t a castle and didn’t belong to Walter Scott—Death Valley Scotty, above, provides a great side trip on Day 3. Head north and take one of the living history tours provided by rangers in 1930s period clothing. (Don’t feed the coyotes that beg alongside the road up Grapevine Canyon to the castle!) Listen to the sounds of the Welte theater pipe organ, or take the underground tour in the quarter mile of tunnels below. The site is perfect for a picnic, but don’t forget to gas up first and bring food with you from Stovepipe Wells! Did Scotty’s secret gold mine really exist? Hear of his legendary spending sprees, his claims that it was money from his gold mine that built the castle, and one of the most unique friendships of the desert.Almost a castle itself, the historic Furnace Creek Inn provides all the luxuries of civilization in the midst of one of the most desolate, yet beautiful settings known to mankind (opposite page). Take a drive through Titus Canyon, and return to the Inn to relive your back country adventures over crispy fried cactus and prickly pear margaritas.


is also available). The Ranch, once home to the famous 20 mule teams (OK, actually, it was 18 mules and two horses, but…), offers three restaurants, a saloon, a general store, The Borax Museum, an airstrip, a spring-fed pool, tennis, horseback riding, carriage rides, and the world’s lowest golf course. The historic 1927 Inn, however, is my favorite, and though it isn’t cheap, if you can budget it in, you’ll enjoy staying in this historical property. In fact, you may want to stay here a few nights, or perhaps, until they kick you out, which they will eventually do, as the Inn is only open seasonally, from mid-October through mid-May. After that, it’s the Ranch for you (which is a lot of fun and a little more casual).

Dining at the Inn is delightful (dress code is casual elegance —no shorts, t-shirts, or tank tops allowed). The bar here is nice, social, and more casual, or a great place to order a prickly pear margarita and the crispy cactus appetizer and watch the sun set, if you aren’t up for a run out to Zabriskie Point or Dante’s View (the Inn also offers room service). You want fine dining and a round of golf out in the middle of nowhere? You’ve got it.

You can rent 24-speed bicycles (bike tours are in the works), get a massage, or rent a Jeep if your car isn’t suitable for the trip down Titus Canyon or out to the Racetrack. Have another prickly pear margarita as the stars come out. Tell me that this is not the life…


Day 4:Furnace Creek, Death Valley National Parkto Shoshone/TecopaDriving distance: approximately 70 milesDriving time: approximately 1.5 hours

If you’re an early riser, think about getting up before sunrise and going to take in the natural drama that’s just about ready to cut loose over at Dante’s View, over 5,000 feet up in the Black Mountains (Zabriskie Point is also stunning at dawn). You can watch the sun come up on the Panamints slowly, across the salt flats of the Badwater Basin and the rest of the valley. Then, head on back over to the Inn for a fantastic breakfast, and you’re set for another day exploring Death Valley.

Before you head south on Hwy 190, you may want to take the short drive to Zabriskie Point, and do the Twenty Mule Team Canyon loop drive as well. Then, after making sure the car’s got plenty of gas (the station’s down by the Ranch), head south down Hwy 190. First there is the Golden Canyon Interpretive Trail, and then you definitely want to take a drive around Artists Drive to catch the magnificent colors of the earth’s palette in the morning light. Further south you can turn off to the Devil’s Golf Course, visit a natural bridge, and stop at Badwater, the lowest elevation in the U.S. at 282 feet below sea level. This is where the AdventureCORPS Badwater Ultramarathon starts every July, as the world’s best endurance runners brave summer temperatures up to 120 degrees, as they run 135 miles non-stop up to the slopes of Mt. Whitney.

As you drive south, you’ll pass Funeral Peak to the east, and then Mormon Point, and on to Ashford Mill. Shortly after, you’ll turn east to Shoshone on Hwy 178 (you were probably wondering where it had gotten to).

Shoshone is a great little town. Founded back in 1910, Shoshone is the southern gateway to Death Valley National Park and is the junction for Hwy 178 and Hwy 127. Shoshone has a great selection of traveler amenities, including gas, a motel, an RV park and campground, a general store, restaurants, a very nice local museum and visitor center with gift shop and books (yep, you can pick up The Sun Runner there), and the headquarters for the Amargosa Conservancy.

The Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad used to run through here, and miners once resided in hand-hewn homes carved out of the hillside in Dublin Gulch, which makes for a fascinating walk. Think of all the handmade “caves” filled with prospec-tors. The Amargosa River runs here, and where there’s water, there’s wildlife. We were treated to a view of a healthy bobcat taking an evening stroll just north of town on one trip.

You can stay here in Shoshone if you want, or you can drive about half an hour farther to Tecopa Hot Springs.

Originally named Yaga, Tecopa once had the largest Native American settlement in the region with its wetlands, hot springs, and the wildlife that a steady source of water attracts. If you come here when it’s cold, make sure to get up and watch the steam rise off the water in the morning light as the mountains change colors with the rising sun.

Make your reservations at the Tecopa Hot Springs Resort, whose informal laid-back approach toward desert living should provide an enjoyable contrast to last night at the Furnace Creek Inn. Here, there is no dress code, but the natural hot mineral baths are perfect for the road weary desert traveler. The Resort also provides an art gallery, a labyrinth, an ozone steam sauna cabinet for detox and circulatory health (add a local mud facial for only $5), and is, well, just a fun place to hang out.

Pastels Bistro, featuring the cuisine of Executive Chef John Muccio (he held the same rank at award-winning Mama Jo‘s

Like a little surreal and whimsical art with your ghost towns? Then Goldwell Open Air Museum is for you, top. Just outside of the town of Rhyolite, Nevada, above, the art and the ghost town make for a fascinating Death Valley day trip.Dublin Gulch, below, right outside of Shoshone, is an interesting stop. Miners and prospectors carved out the soft hills here for their homes. Some are split-level, with chimneys, doors, and a garage! Visit the museum in Shoshone for more ideas of places to explore near here!


as wild and scenic in 2009, providing much-needed protection from off-road vehicle abuse in the sensitive river corridor. However, the area still lacks a man-agement plan, putting these hard-won gains at risk.

The greatest threat to the river is the deple-tion of the groundwater reservoir that feeds it and makes so much life possible. The Am-argosa Conservancy is continuing its work with local communi-ties in the Death Val-ley region to chart a future of sustainable growth—growth that preserves the beauty and life-giving flows of the Amargosa River.

To protect a place, first we must experi-ence it. We can’t know the peace of a desert oa-

sis without sitting in its shade for a while. We can’t comprehend the Amargosa pupfish without watching two brightly-colored males fighting for territory, and then seeing the victor sidle up beside a female, the two of them wiggling side-by-side, furi-ously, in a courtship sanctified by millions of years of evolution.

The Amargosa Conservancy invites you to come visit this spring to see for yourself. While it is impossible to predict a desert wildflower bloom with 100 percent accuracy, the amount and timing of winter rainfall are key factors driving the bloom. This past December, Death Valley National Park received more rain than it did during any December in the last decade—includ-ing the bloom of the century in 2005. If you were waiting for the right time to explore the Death Valley region, it has arrived. The hidden life just beneath the desert soil is primed to bloom. The Amargosa River, and the hidden riot of life that it supports, are waiting as well.

The Amargosa Conservancy invites you to explore this special place, and to join us in our mission to protect the land, beauty, and water of the Amargosa. A great place to begin your journey of our region is historic China Ranch, a sustainable date farm with hiking trails leading to the Amargosa River. More information is available at www.chinaranch.com or www.amargosaconservancy.org.

Remember, as you explore the desert, the glass is not half-empty or half-full. There is no glass. There is only the water, the life it supports, and your hands, reaching out to cradle it.

Mike Cipra is a board member of the Amargosa Conservancy and an education park ranger at Death Valley National Park.

The desert challenges us because it is both beautiful and inhuman. Its geologic history is exposed in raw relief, with millions of years casually on display—not like a

woman stripped of clothes but like a skeleton stripped of skin. Its spring blooms surround us with more flowers, literally, than we can count. And then suddenly the flowers are gone, to return on a schedule to which we are not privy and can only guess like hopeful children. The desert humbles our minds and our bodies. It punches us in the brainstem with its incred-ible scale and silence and heat and finally, the realization that diverse life thrives here.

Learning to experience the California desert isn’t a matter of seeing the glass half-empty or half-full; it’s as if the glass never existed, and you are holding your hands out to catch the water before it vanishes. Because the desert is defined by its scarcity of water, those places where water exists are extremely precious because they create a riot of life. One of the most pro-found and least explored of these oases is the Amargosa River.

The Amargosa is the only free-flowing river in the Mojave Desert. It begins underground, connected to the same aquifer that feeds the springs of Death Valley National Park. Water in this large underground lake has been dated to the Pleistocene era, more than 10,000 years ago. It is nature’s gift to the desert from an earlier, wetter time in the Earth’s history. Animals that benefit from this ancient source of water include not only iconic desert mammals like bobcats and bighorn sheep, but also unlikely desert dwellers like toads and pupfish that spawn in the waters of the Amargosa River.

The Amargosa River runs wild on Bureau of Land Manage-ment desert land east of Death Valley, its course eventually turn-ing north into the national park to end at Badwater, the lowest spot in North America at 282 feet below sea level. Through the efforts of the Amargosa Conservancy and local communities, 18 spectacular miles of the Amargosa River winding through an otherworldly desert landscape were federally designated


Trattoria in Las Vegas, which received an “excellent“ rating from Zagat‘s, and he received the prestigious 5 Star Diamond Award from The American Academy of Hospitality Sciences as one of the world‘s best chefs, but he‘s still a really nice guy), offers a friendly, tasty dining option, and the only one in town, not just being a place for travelers, but also where the locals hang out. Watching the nightlife here, you start to get a slight nagging sensation that maybe city life is overrated after all. Wouldn’t it be better to live out your life soaking in the natural hot springs and attending informal star parties at night? The Resort’s motto is “Leave your troubles behind,” and the folks there seem to have taken it to heart. Maybe the good vibe here is from the use of Aliix, after all the Resort uses it for impress-ing a good night’s sleep on the water they wash their guest’s sheets in. Or maybe it’s the water, comparable to the famous waters of Baden Baden. If you dream of a lady cooking in the house or looking out the window, that’s Beaulah who lived in a rail tie house here.

Though the Resort is as funky and lighthearted as the Inn is refined and staid, the two establishments both offer pretty much everything a desert traveler can want (RV hook-ups are available here as well as hotel rooms and cabins). If the magic of the desert hasn’t really hit you yet, well, there’s one more stop for today.

Down the road, just a few miles out from Tecopa on the Old Spanish Trail Highway, and a right turn on Furnace Creek Road, lies China Ranch. You’ll be driving along looking for it, and see nothing. A little sign will tell you where to turn, and then… magic!

You’ll wind down a little canyon (watch for oncoming traffic), into an oasis that takes my breath away every time I visit. China Ranch is a family-owned date farm, brimming with lush beauty and a rich history. If you can, you may want to pick up something for lunch in Shoshone or at Pastels, and have a picnic out at China Ranch. The Ranch has a gift shop where they bake their own date bread, sell their own dates, and make the best date shake in the California desert. Their date offerings include some rare varieties, including the China Ranch hybrids, unique to date palms planted here around 1920, and they are delicious.

You can wander the grounds, looking at the ripening dates wrapped in colorful fabric, visit A Modest Museum, which provides information and artifacts from early Indian sites and archaeological digs, and tells about the mysterious Chinese man thought to have first settled here, giving the Ranch its name.

You can also hike right out from the parking lot by the gift shop to explore the Amargosa River Canyon. Our favorite hike is the four-mile Slot Canyon Trail, which takes you past the old saloon, Acme Siding, an old ore loading site on the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad (you can also walk the railroad grade), and on to the Amargosa River. After crossing the river, you can hike up a large wash to a twisting slot canyon. Other canyons are open for exploration on the way to the slot canyon and way back to China Ranch.

Day 5:Shoshone/Tecopa to Twentynine Palmsvia Mojave National PreserveDriving distance: approximately 180 milesDriving time: approximately 4.5 hours

Today is the longest driving day (if you don’t count side trips) of our tour. From Shoshone or Tecopa, we’re heading south, saying goodbye to Death Valley, but hello to more desert adven-tures. As you drive south on Hwy 127, stop off at the Salt Creek

With the real possibility of a spectacular spring wild-flower bloom in the Mojave, desert residents and businesses are gearing up for a busy spring season.

Websites, blogs, and press releases are all being put into place in anticipation of these sporadic, unpredictable, and spectacular events. If you are a traveler interested in seeing the desert at its best, we highly suggest you begin making plans to come to the desert to see the flowers. It is a rolling event, the more southerly, lower deserts can begin blooming as early as late February, while the more northern or higher elevations can still be blooming in May. Information about the timing of blooms in particular areas can be found by contacting the local chambers of commerce or other visitor services organizations (or just visit www.thesunrunner.com where the magazine will have all the desert’s wildflower links in one spot!). For some areas of the southwestern deserts, this may unfortunately be the last chance to see long, broad vistas of flowers to the horizon, an untrammeled natural landscape in all of its beauty. The reality is that industrialization is coming to the Mojave Desert in the form of several, perhaps dozens, of large scale solar electric generating facilities. Virtually everyone understands and agrees that we must cut down on our national dependence upon foreign oil, but in the rush to become more energy independent it is important that undisturbed public landscapes not be razed before a true cost/benefit analysis is considered. Open space, clear viewscapes, solitude, wilder-ness—these all have intrinsic human value, and although it is hard to place a dollar amount on that value, we all recognize that it is there. Let’s hope that the various governmental agencies

charged with stewarding our national public lands for future generations consider all of these human values carefully before giving the green light to too many of these massive projects. Let’s leave some room for the flowers. In the Mojave, several conservation groups are working with the federal agencies to help them make wise choices for siting these massive solar power plants, as well as helping everyone realize that there are certain places and technologies that should simply be off limits for industrial power develop-ment. Most of these groups also sponsor outings, hikes, and camping trips into these special areas, and are happy to have visitors come along. In the southern deserts, you can contact the Mojave Desert Land Trust in Joshua Tree. In the northern deserts around Death Valley, the Amargosa Conservancy also leads outings and does community presentations to educate the public about desert conservation issues. In addition, both the Sierra Club and Wilderness Society are active in the desert and have their own outreach programs. All of these organizations, as well as others, can be found easily by searching the Internet.

So, if you are curious about our wonderful desert, or just need some down time or a bit of beauty in your life, the spring of 2011 is shaping up to be a great time in the Mojave. This edi-tion of The Sun Runner is filled with all sorts of handy contact information, and can serve as your easy reference if you need more information. Keep it close if you will be traveling in the desert this spring.

The Mojave, with all of its beauty, danger, and quirky cast of characters awaits you, don’t miss the chance to experience a lovely springtime in the desert. Get out there!



Hills Area of Critical Environmental Concern (if off-roaders from nearby Dumont Dunes haven’t destroyed it yet—they appeared to have been trying pretty hard the last time I went by here). It’s always interesting to encounter areas such as this, where water brings an entirely different ecosystem to the desert. Look for signs of old buildings where travelers once stopped along the Old Spanish Trail (which later became the Mormon Road) that ran from Santa Fe, New Mexico, along an arduous trade route to Los Angeles. Stop for lunch in Baker, a scrappy town alongside I-15, with the Mad Greek and the world’s largest thermometer as at-tractions. Then, head south into the Mojave National Preserve, and look for signs of lava flows and cinder cones, hints to the desert’s volcanic past. At Kelso Depot, you can find basic food and restrooms, along with a small museum and bookstore at this National Park Service facility in the old railroad depot. Rangers there can tell you about hikes, lava tubes, and the nearby Kelso Dunes, a favorite stop. If you go, listen to the dunes sing. Nobody really knows why, but they are often quite musical. Head south, under the I-40 (you could take it east and visit Needles, or Mitchell Caverns, and Goffs), and you will eventually join up with the National Trails Hwy, ie: Route 66! Hang a right on this American classic roadway, and motor past the remains of shoe trees into the town of Amboy. The folks at Roy’s Motel & Cafe (no, the motel is not operating, and no, neither is the cafe—at least, not yet). There are snacks and basic facilities there, along with a handful of migratory char-acters who seem to flock to this remote outpost on America’s “mother road.” See if you can guess what movie scenes have been filmed here. You’ll head west once again, to the junction with Amboy Road. If you have time, keep heading west just a few miles to Amboy Crater. This is a highly recommended stop if you enjoy volcanic landscapes and walking inside of craters. Plus, it’s gorgeous during wildflower season. Watch out for snakes! Lots of chuckwallas and other lizards around the toasty black volcanic rocks too! On Amboy Road, you’ll head south through the bizarre landscape of the dry lake and over Sheephole Pass where freight wagons once drove from the railroad on their way to the mining towns of Old and New Dale, east of Twentynine Palms. On the way down the south slope of the pass heading west now, you’ll enter the rather informal community of Wonder Valley. Look for the scattered and shattered remains of jackrabbit homestead cabins, marking an earlier day when you too could get five acres of government land if you built a small cabin on it. If you’re hungry and adventurous, you can stop in at The Palms, a true desert roadhouse where the grub’s pretty good, and there’s sometimes some great music going on, but I can’t always vouch for the clientele, some of whom should have been 86’ed for good, but still lingered last time we stopped (which was a while ago because of the last time we stopped). Roll on into “29” as we like to call it here in the hi-desert (it’s not the “high” desert—that’s Lancaster and Palmdale). You can stay in Twentynine Palms tonight, and any one of the hotels we list in the back will do their best to provide you with an enjoyable night’s stay (we’ve known ‘em for years). There are the larger chain type hotels, and there are smaller, boutique style hotels and an exceptional bed & breakfast, so you’ve got really good choices. Dinner at the 29 Palms Inn at the Oasis of Mara is highly recommended (as are reservations for either dinner or Sunday brunch as the restaurant at the Inn frequently gets packed). Listen for the coyotes, and watch for the owls around the oasis!

Gotta love Tecopa’s healthy hot mineral water near Death Valley National Park, top. Stop and listen to the Kelso Dunes “sing” from their home in the Mojave National Preserve, above. Take in the old Route 66 ambience at Roy’s in Amboy, left, and visit nearby Amboy Crater. Hike the Barker Dam loop trail, or a host of other trails within Joshua Tree National Park, below, and experience the best of two deserts—the Mojave, and the Colorado. Here, rainfall fills the reservoir behind Barker Dam, providing a beautiful reflection, below.


Day 6:Twentynine Palms to Joshua Tree/Yucca Valleyvia Joshua Tree National ParkDriving distance: approximately 35 milesDriving time: approximately 1 hour

Today is Joshua Tree National Park day! Twentynine Palms is home to the Park’s headquarters, the Joshua Tree National Park Association, and the visitor center at the Oasis of Mara (well worth a stop on your way into the Park—make your reservations for a tour of Keys Ranch while you’re there).

If you’re staying in one of the adobe cabins at the 29 Palms Inn, take a walk around the Oasis of Mara in the morning. This historic oasis has been home to a variety of peoples for thousands of years, and the water coming up along a faultline continues to provide for an abundance of life, including the Inn’s gardens where they grow some of the food they serve poolside at their restaurant. The Inn, by the way, has been run by the same family since it opened in 1928, and is a favorite hangout for folks from Hollywood seeking a little “R&R.” Nobody asks the celebrities here for autographs or pictures here, it’s just all part of the oasis scene. And the Inn isn’t the only celebrity hangout. Many of the smaller hotels and Roughley Manor B&B, get their share of well known guests. The band U2 even stayed at the nearby Harmony Motel while working on their legendary “Joshua Tree” album (but don’t look for the Joshua tree on the cover—it was up in Hinkley near Barstow, and died and fell over some years back).

If you like hiking and want to see what an isolated palm oasis looks like, then head west on 29 Palms Hwy (Route 62) toward Joshua Tree. Canyon Road will be on your left just outside of town and that will lead you to the 49 Palms Oasis trail head. This hike is a moderate morning hike that will leave you feeling like an early explorer. I still remember my first glimpse of the oasis as we rounded a hill. Incredible!

Before heading into the park, and depending on what day of the week it is, etc., you may want to pay a visit to the Old Schoolhouse Museum, and the 29 Palms Art Gallery (located in a quaint old adobe). Both are well worth a stop, as is the nearby 29 Palms Creative Center. If you’ve got time, call Gretchen at the Center and arrange your own private art class! There’s nothing quite like making your own souvenirs, and Gretchen can arrange some artistic magic at very reasonable rates.

The route selected for today takes you on a loop through the upper portion of Joshua Tree National Park, but feel free to wander off on side trips along the way. A couple of recom-mended side trips are down Pinto Basin Road to the Cholla Cac-tus Garden (watch out!) and ocotillo patch (beautiful when they bloom), and up to Keys View, which overlooks the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs area). If you’re a country rock fan, stop at Cap Rock, located at the turnoff to Keys View. This is where one of rock music’s oddest funeral ceremonies took place, and marks the spot where Gram Parsons body was cremated in a somewhat misguided attempt to live up to Gram’s purported last wishes.

With Joshua Tree National Park, you get a real deal—two deserts in one park! The loop we have picked for you goes through the Mojave Desert portion (the “high” desert), while the road down to the Cholla Cactus Garden takes you into the Colorado Desert portion (the “low” desert). Notice the differ-ences in vegetation from one part to the other. Those of us who live up here in the hi-desert got the best part of the bargain, as it is almost always cooler here than “down below.”

Oh, and don’t get confused if someone talks about the Park as “the Monument.” Either they’re an old-timer who remem-

The golden light of dusk bathes a rock formation in Joshua Tree National Park, above. The Integratron in Landers, below, offers rejuvenating s o u n d baths . The a s s e m b l a g e art of Noah P u r i f o y p ro v i d e s a w h i m s i c a l c r e a t i v e l a n d s c a p e all its own in Joshua Tree, below.


bers back to 1993 when the Park was a national monument, or they’re a poser from L.A. trying to impersonate an old-timer. I’ve seen plenty of both.

Favorite hikes on today’s route include the short Barker Dam loop trail (ranching history, beautiful scenery, petro-glyphs), the Lost Horse Mine trail (off the road to Keys View), or Pine City (from the Desert Queen Mine parking lot). The short hike to Ryan Ranch, an old adobe ruin, is also an excel-lent walk. If you’ve got a high clearance vehicle, you may want to give the Geology Tour Road a go. I’ve seen more than one Lexus look alarmingly out of place down that way! And remember—here, as in many locations throughout the desert—your “smart” phone isn’t smart enough to get through, so you’ve got to be smart instead.

Please remember to get gas, water, and food before entering Joshua Tree National Park. This isn’t like the Grand Canyon, with a huge lodge complex overlooking the rim. Joshua Tree offers no services inside.

Watch for rock climbers along the route through the Park. Joshua Tree is a Mecca for climbers, so during season (Octo-ber through May, when it is coolest), you’ll almost always see them in action.

Joshua Tree National Park receives around 1.3 million visitors annually. Luckily, the Park is so large that almost every visitor get their own acre! You could spend your life, quite happily in my opinion, exploring and appreciating this national treasure. Don’t be surprised if you find the Park creeping back into your thoughts and dreams again and again. Many visitors find themselves returning over and over again (and that goes for all our desert parks—they truly are the landscape of the soul).

Upon exit from the Park on the Joshua Tree side, you’ll wind down into the little town of Joshua Tree. You ain’t done yet! There is plenty to see outside of the Park boundaries, and so whether you have your evening’s accommodations at the Joshua Tree Inn (where Gram Parsons overdosed and died many years ago), other motels in “JT” or Yucca Valley and Pioneertown, or you’re camping out at Joshua Tree Lake (the site of our two fantastic homegrown music festivals), you’ll want to wander a bit.

If you’re appreciative of assemblage art in a desert setting, then Noah Purifoy’s Outdoor Desert Art Museum of Assem-blage Sculpture is a perfect landscape for your soul. Contact the Noah Purifoy Foundation ([email protected], 213-382-7516) for directions and visiting instructions. If you just want to enjoy a slice of NY pizza or organic treats and take in art galleries and fun shops, then downtown JT is a good stop.

You can head into Yucca Valley and take Hwy 247 (Old Woman Springs Road) north to Landers, where you can take in a sound bath at the legendary Integratron, or a tour of Gubler’s Orchids. If you have high clearance (and possibly a 4X4), then from the corner by the Integratron you can drive out to Giant Rock (now split), where George Van Tassel used to live (under the rock), where Howard Hughes and other Hollywood celebs used to land their planes on the dry lakebed for a slice of pie, and where enormous UFO conventions used to bring together thousands of contactees (this was before folks started getting abducted evidently).

Or, head up Pioneertown Road from Route 62 to this 1947 Old West town that was specifically built as a set for westerns. Roy Rogers threw out the first ball at the Pioneertown Bowl, and Mane Street still offers a lot of character(s) today. Old West gunfighters still put on shows (weekends, seasonally), and Pappy & Harriet’s not only turns out some of the best grub in these parts, but they also offer up top notch touring and lo-cal music in one of the most unique desert settings available.

One of the “watchers” of Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, soon hopefully to become part of a new national monument, above. He’s probably watching for a delectable rodent or other suitable treat. Big Morongo Canyon Preserve in Morongo Valley, is an internationally known bird-watching destination. It has plenty of other wildlife too, and offers wheelchair-accessible boardwalk trails and picnic grounds.Judas gazes upon a piece of silver earned by his betrayal, in a sculpture by Antone Martin in Desert Christ Park, below. Though the park has been ravaged by time and the ACLU, it remains a worthwhile stop in Yucca Valley. Walk among biblical scenes and think about how once this park put Yucca Valley on the map—and in TIME magazine. Jesus, Judas, and more, all wait for a time when serious restoration may begin. For now, a small, but dedicated organization supports care of Desert Christ Park.


Day 7:Joshua Tree/Yucca Valley to Palm SpringsDriving distance: approximately 40 milesDriving time: approximately 1 hour

Today’s drive is also a short one, giving you an opportunity to explore a bit more. In Yucca Valley, there is a somewhat shamefully neglected, but worthwhile stop at Desert Christ Park (there is a small but dedicated organization trying to preserve the park against all odds and apathy). It was here where artist Antone Martin made his biblically-themed creations that fill this park dedicated to peace. You can partially thank the ACLU for the deterioration of this park which once drew thousands to Yucca Valley and now stands as a reminder that the locals have neglected their own history.

At the Town of Yucca Valley’s Community Center, howev-er, lies a fantastic family-friendly jewel—the Hi-Desert Nature Museum. Here kids can view some desert critters up close, get a little background on the area’s history, local art, and enjoy a host of activities. The Summer Concert Series outdoors at the Community Center is always a great way to experience town life if you’re traveling during the warmer months.

In Old Town Yucca Valley (on the “west end”), you’ll find antiques and fun shopping at stores like Tamma’s Magic Mercantile, where The Sun Runner Store is located, along with visitor information for the wandering desert traveler.

Farther down (and I mean “down”) Route 62, you’ll arrive at the community of Morongo Valley. On your left, you’ll see a turnoff for the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve. Here is a real gem of an oasis. The Preserve offers wheelchair accessible boardwalk trails, incredible birdwatching, and wildflowers galore down the canyon if you arrive at the right time.

Take Route 62 to Interstate 10, and head toward Palm Springs. When you get off at Indian Canyon, head south across the stark Whitewater Wash, and into Palm Springs. There will be a turn marked for the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. You definitely want to take it! The Tram will take you up the slopes of Mt. San Jacinto, to another world high above the floor of the Coachella Valley in the low desert. Here, you can walk through pine forests, or even play in the snow when it is 70 degrees below! You can dine at the top, and watch the lights of the valley emerge as dusk settles over the windmill farms and cities stretched out below. Fantastic!

The Ace Hotel & Swim Club offers a unique stop for the night. Wander Palm Canyon Drive and check out the stars in the sidewalk harkening back to the Rat Pack and Palm Springs’ days as a desert playground for the Hollywood set (OK, it still is, but not in the same way).

The Palm Springs Art Museum, and the Palm Springs Air Museum, are both worthy stops, and there are plenty of galler-ies and shops to browse downtown and elsewhere. Excellent movie theaters abound, and there are too many great restaurants to list. Golfers are in heaven here, with just about a billion courses in the valley (a slight exaggeration, but it seems like it), and everything from date farms (you have to see the movie about the sex life of the date at Shield’s), to shopping on El Paseo, awaits.

The Living Desert is a must while you are visiting, with wildlife in a unique and accessible setting (great for the kids of all ages). The Indian Canyons are a hiker’s delight. Oh, and if you didn’t notice when you drove in, there are multiple casinos to choose from.

Palm Springs, and its neighboring communities, offer such a variety of activities and ways to spoil yourself silly, you may just have to stretch this trip out.....

Rock climbing is immensely popular in Joshua Tree National Park, above. Anza-Borrego Desert State Park offers secluded palm oases, and mountains with desert bighorn sheep, along with exemplary wildflower viewing, below.


Day 8:Palm Springs to Borrego Springs/Julianvia Anza-Borrego Desert State ParkDriving distance: approximately 90 milesDriving time: approximately 2 hours

But wait! There’s more desert to be explored (a lifetime’s worth). Today, you want to go east on Hwy 111, or back on I-10, until you can head south on Hwy 86 down the west side of the Salton Sea. Destination: Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

You’ll be heading southeast through part of one of the largest agricultural areas of the country. Look along the base of nearby mountain slopes to the west to see if you can spot the water level of ancient Lake Cahuilla. Water has played a significant role in the history of this area for a very long time. While the Salton Sea was a rather large man-made boo-boo (still is), other bodies of water have filled the same basin.

Depending on when you go to the Salton Sea, it can be stunningly beautiful, or surreal, macabre, and downright stinky! If you’ve never smelled a million dead tilapia cooking on the beach, well... never mind. It sticks with you though, in corners of your mind you never knew existed.

But we’re going to turn off west near Salton City (worth a gander to see the remains of the once-grand plans develop-ers had for this area—but don’t disturb the locals!). Heading west, we’ll enter one of my favorite areas of the desert, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Anza-Borrego offers palm oases, desert bighorn sheep scrambling on the mountains above you (bring binoculars and scan the hillsides—they’re there, and it’s exciting to watch them), superb wildflower viewing, and a dose of desert history to go along with it all.

Borrego Springs, sitting smack dab in the middle of the Park, offers tony resorts, golf, spas, and dining, as well as great visitor resources, amidst ample wilderness. Incredible views abound, as do hikes and side trips. You may want to hike to the top of Yaquitepec (Ghost Mountain), where Marshal South once lived with his family in an eccentric and original experi-ment that graced the pages of the long lost Desert Magazine from 1939 to 1948.

Or maybe you need to explore mud caves, old stage coach stops, or remnants of the Mormon Road. Whatever it is, keep your eyes open for wildlife, forever vistas, and signs of earlier human occupation, including petroglyphs and pictographs. Anza-Borrego is filled to the brim with desert magic, and, like the other desert parks you’ve explored so far, it can be addictive.

You may decide to stay in Borrego Springs, or not far away in the old mining community of Julian, which is well worth exploring, and is a walkable, friendly town for visitors. They also make up some killer apple pie, and host a variety of quality restaurants, along with an extensive offering of relaxing accommodations. Make your reservations in advance as both Julian and Borrego Springs cater to a large crowd of people escaping from San Diego. Make sure to get out and take in the night sky while you’re here. Save that memory for later, and savor it forever.

Day 9:Borrego Springs/Julian to Desert Hot Springsvia the Salton SeaDriving distance: approximately 160 milesDriving time: approximately 3.5 hours

Today, it’s time to walk on the wild side. From Borrego Springs or Julian, wander eastward once again—for the last time this trip—to the southern shores of the Salton Sea. If you can find

From Leonard Knight’s marvelous Salvation Mountain, near Niland, above; to the adorable mud volcanoes, below, the Salton Sea offers experiences you just can’t find anywhere else.

The saga of the historic North Shore Beach & Yacht Club began in 1959 with the grand opening of the private club on the North Shore of the Salton Sea. The project was

the vision of two men, Trav Rogers and Ray Ryan. Rogers was an affable Palm Springs business man who owned the Mink & Manure Club, famous for its cowboys and mink-clad socialites. Ryan was a millionaire oilman who owned the El Mirador Hotel in Palm Springs and the Bermuda Dunes Racquet Club, in addition to the Kenya Safari Club.

Trav Rogers and Ray Ryan enlisted modernist architect Albert Frey to design the Yacht Club, which would become the centerpiece of the planned luxury community of North Shore Beach Estates. Frey’s vision of the Yacht Club was to create what appeared to be a large ship docked at surf’s edge. The upper floor, with its four large porthole windows, was the crow’s nest and housed a lounge called the Compass Room, which is now home to the Salton Sea History Museum’s Archive Room.

The 1960’s were a booming time for the North Shore community. With the Yacht Club in full swing and a new hotel across the street, the area became the place to go for Hollywood players and Palm Springs socialites. With one of the largest marinas in Southern California at the time, entertainers like The Marx Brothers, Jerry Lewis, Guy Lombardo and Frank Sinatra frequented the private club and used the marina to moor their boats. Such notables as Ginny Simms and Ish Kabibble were regulars at the club and even made several live recordings there including Three Little Fishes .

In the late 1970s, floods ravaged the Salton Sea resorts and communities. In their wake they left ruin where once there were frequent parties and excitement. The North Shore Beach & Yacht Club fell into a severe state of disrepair, but her bones, like the great Phoenix, survived to live another day.

Seeing the potential for a new and vibrant life, the River-side County Board of Supervisors authorized the renovation of the club in 2009. Completed in 2010, it is listed as a Historic Point of Interest.

The new Salton Sea History Museum now occupies one half of the building (the other being a community center). Since opening last May, the museum has become a shining star that shares the area’s exciting history, and also successfully educates the public about the unfairly maligned Salton Sea. Once you visit this jewel of the desert, you’ll know why solutions to the challenges that face the sea are critical.

As a major stopover on the Pacific Flyway, millions of migratory birds visit the sea annually. At last count, over 400 species have been spotted at California’s largest body of water, the Salton Sea. Without this highly productive fishery, it is thought that some species might go extinct.

Currently the yacht club’s harbor is in the beginning phase of restoration. Museum Director, Jennie Kelly, envisions the harbor to look like its predecessor in 1959. The launch ramp, boat house and docks will once again serve the recreational boaters, skiers and fishermen at the Salton Sea. With the com-mitment and dedication of everyone involved, the North Shore Beach & Yacht Club will complete its rise from the ashes and once again become the glamorous flagship of the Salton Sea.

Until you can get here in person, a visit to the museums website will start your adventure. You’ll find us at www.SaltonSeaMuseum.org.

Travel note: The Salton Sea History Museum is open daily, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., closed Wednesdays & Thursdays. Be sure and check their calendar for kayak tours and bird watching

opportunities as well as upcoming exhibits.



a stranger, more surreal combination of the natural and human worlds, we’d love to know about it. This one certainly has to be experienced to be believed.

Head down to the agricultural communities of Westmor-land and Brawley. From Brawley, you can take off for Calexico and the Mexican border, and stroll along the enormous fence our country has erected to keep us from getting out. If you have time, I highly recommend a drive east on Interstate 8 by the Algodones Dunes (Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area), to Felicity, a town dedicated to remembrance, where you can stroll the superbly crafted Museum of History in Granite and even stand at the official center of the world. This town, the product of two people—Jacques-Andre Istel, and his wife Felicia, namesake of the town, is too incredible to reduce to a few sentences. You simply must go, if not this trip, soon. The town’s wonders are only open Thanksgiving weekend through Easter, so plan ahead. I can’t wait to return.

Back on our tour route, you’ll head north along the east side of the Salton Sea today. There you’ll be able to birdwatch from the Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge. Look for places to stop along the way, like Bombay Beach. Built in the 1950s, Bombay Beach is a shell of what it once was. Climb the berm that protects what is left of the town from the sea, and take in the ruins of homes and trailers half submerged in muck.

Hunt out the fantastic mud volcanoes (they make the cut-est little volcano noises as they burp up mud from the depths, but don’t let them fool you—you’re really close to a source of geothermal energy here, ie: magma, and the San Andreas Fault too) and mud pots. The mud volcanoes are near Red Hill (which has to be seen to be believed). Take Sinclair Road west off Hwy 111, past the rusty geothermal energy plants and the Imperial Waterfowl Management Area, to Garst Road. Make a right on Garst, and follow it out to the turn for Red Hill Marina (go explore it, but come back soon). Toward the end of Garst Road, you can make a right down a dirt road (McDonald Road), and, if you picked the right dirt road (there are two, and one gets pretty bad pretty quick), you’ll come to a field filled with cute little mud volcanoes. It’s probably on private property, but nobody apparently cares. Just don’t drive out into the field or you may wind up leaving your vehicle as part of the attraction.

A little farther north up Hwy 11 is the town of Niland. Take a right on Main Street (Beal Road), and head out to Leonard Knight’s incredible testament to God, Salvation Mountain. Leonard has lived on site for over 25 years, and has created a religious folk art icon, a hand-painted mountain of faith and color, by a man as unique as they come. If you’re lucky, you’ll arrive at a time when Leonard is showing folks around and talking about God’s love (and you’ll believe in it if you pick up on Leonard’s energy). Check out the “museum” Leonard is buidling, though if the earth starts shakin’, get a move on. You don’t want to be buried under tons of brightly painted bales of straw, do you?

Salvation Mountain is recognized as a national treasure by Congress, and was featured in the film, “Into the Wild,” as was nearby Slab City, which is also worth a bit of exploring.

North past Bombay Beach, check out Salton Sea State Park. Walk on a beach composed literally of bones from the millions of dead fish that have washed up over the decades. You want surreal? You got it!

At North Shore, stop in at the newly revamped marina, now museum. Check out the Albert Frey architecture, and catch a glimpse into the era when the Salton Sea was in its heyday. If you’re lucky, you might be able to take a kayak tour, or spot pelicans along the waterfront.

Once you’re back in the Coachella Valley, take the I-10

The Coachella Valley Preserve makes for fascinating day hikes, all the while being near the growing urban population of the nearby Palm Springs area, above.Palm Canyon Drive is a fun night spot for visitors to Palm Springs, below. Fine dining, shopping, and cultural offerings abound in the city that once, and still, hosts the stars.Speaking of stars, look for them under your feet as you stroll Palm Canyon Drive. From Cheetah, bottom, to Elvis, and members of the Rat Pack who once walked these streets (Elvis rehearsed for his tours inside the high school gym), you can stroll with the stars in Palm Springs.


northwest, but take the Ramon Road exit, drive east to Thou-sand Palms Canyon Drive, then go north two miles to the Coachella Valley Preserve.

This preserve offers a wide variety of hiking opportuni-ties, from a short hike on the McCallum Trail to the McCallum (palm) Grove and oasis, to extended day hikes to Pushwalla (one of our favorites). The parking lot locks up at 6 p.m. though, so don’t show up too late.

When you leave the parking lot, turn left and left again when you reach Dillon Road. This will take you through beautiful rural Coachella Valley into Desert Hot Springs, for a night at the Miracle Springs Resort & Spa (one of Vogue Magazine’s “Desert Elite Escapes”). Tonight, head into town on Palm Drive, have an incredible steak and pasta at the multi-generational family-run Capri Italian Restaruant & Steakhouse, and then return back to the hotel to soak in the natural mineral waters before drifting off to desert dreams.

Day 10:Desert Hot Springs to Los AngelesDriving distance: approximately 120 milesDriving time: approximately 2.5 hours

There’s one more stop before you head back to reality. Cabot’s Pueblo Museum. Just head east up Desert View Avenue from Palm Drive, and after about a mile, you’ll see it. You can usually get a tour of this Hopi-inspired pueblo, built by Cabot Yerxa, yet another memorable desert character.

The pueblo is four-stories high, adorned with numerous reclaimed and found objects, art, and memorabilia. Hear the story of this incredible man on the tour, and take in one last truly unique desert experience before merging onto the I-10 and heading back to another world.

As you drive westward through the Banning Pass, Mt. San Jacinto to the south, Mt. San Gorgonio to the north, consider a stop at the Malki Museum on the Morongo Reservation. Take the Fields Road exit (between Cabazon and Banning), and go north onto the Reservation. The Museum, the oldest non-profit museum founded by Native Americans on a California Indian reservation, offers up a solid introduction to the culture and history of the Cahuilla Indians, and has a press that turns out invaluable books (available at the Museum’s bookstore) on Native culture.

After, as you continue west on the freeway, think back on what an incredibly diverse and delightful journey you have experienced during the past 10 days and nights. This, as full and daunting as it may have been at times, has just been an introduction to the California deserts. You have scratched the surface. But much more awaits, up every canyon, over every mountain, across every playa, and beyond each horizon. From giant geoglyphs in Blythe, to General Patton’s WWII training history at Chiriaco Summit, distant mines, pre-Columbian trails, fossils, flowers, and dirt tracks leading off to long-forgotten ruins of the homes of long-forgotten people, the desert is a land of distinct natural beauty, sometimes grand and overwhelming, other times subtle and delicate. It is a land where dreams die hard, and where the veil between this world and that of the dream world, is thin, and now and then, nonexistent.

We’re building our links section on our website at www.thesunrunner.com, and you’ll be able to put it to use in planning this trip, or others out into the California desert region. Plan safely, and invest in a good map—GPS and Internet maps can get you in a lot of trouble out here. Remember, you can never have enough gas in your tank or water in your car. We want you to come visit, and to return to visit again. See you soon!

Whether it’s the people you have met, like Piano Bob at the Joshua Tree Farmers Market, above, or the curiousities, like the dinosaurs near Banning, that have made your trip to the California deserts special, we hope to see you again soon! Remember, www.thesunrunner.com makes an excellent base for desert explorations!

Most teachers would be happy to keep their students as far away from scorpions as possible. But not Cameron Elementary School teacher Sheryl Marino. Marino

and her fourth-grade class from Barstow, spent two days in June learning about the Chemehuevi Indians, desert animals, climate change, and even searching for scorpions at the National Park Service’s remote Desert Studies Center as part of the Mojave Outdoor Education Program.

Experiential programs like this one that get students out into our national parks require innovation, planning and finan-cial support. Sadly, with the National Park Service and our schools both facing tight budgets, not all of our school children are fortunate enough to participate. The National Park Service needs increased financial support to keep innovative educational programs like the Mojave Outdoor Education Program going, and through enhanced partnership with the Department of Edu-cation, could offer such programs to more students nationwide.

Anybody who has ever observed an experiential National Park Service program would understand why this type of educa-tion is important. Elementary school teacher Marino knows that when her students feel the crunch of mineral deposits as they trek across Soda Lake; smell the pungent creosote bush after a desert rain; eat roasted pinyon nuts like the Native Americans did hundreds of years ago, and marvel at the mountains and washes that punctuate this arid country—the lessons will stick with them far longer than if they’d simply learned about the Mojave desert from books and videos.

Beneath the shade of a large tamarisk tree, Mojave National Preserve Chief of Interpretation Linda Slater showed the eager fourth graders how to make rope from yucca fiber and played a tape of authentic Chemehuevi Indian language. Ranger Dora McKeever roasted pinyon nuts and chia seeds for the children to eat while gazing at distant sand dunes, much like the Mojave Indians did generations ago.

It was Desert Studies Center Manager Rob Fulton who led the children into the darkness that night to search for scorpions on a sandy flat. The scorpions glowed like magical jewels under the children’s ultraviolet lights and Fulton used small tongs to safely lift scorpions into a small viewing dish where the children could observe them.

And what of the chil-dren? They were enthralled with the Mojave Desert—this land where the horizon caresses the steep bajadas and tops of mountains. I took the children on a hike atop Cima Dome, the largest and densest Joshua tree for-est in the world, where they learned about the plants and animals that inhabit this frag-ile ecosystem. “What type of cactus is this?” called out one excited student, pointing to a formidable cholla along the trail. It didn’t take long for them to conclude that the spines were a natural fortress, guarding the nests of cactus wrens from hungry predators.

This is real education. It’s not about filling in blanks or shading in bubbles. It’s not about giving the right answer.

It’s about finding wonder in the world and asking questions. And that’s exactly why students and teachers find experiential education enjoyable, intellectually stimulating, and meaningful.

The Park Service views its 393 units as living classrooms, from the Gettysburg battlefield to Grinnell glacier in Glacier National Park. It’s through the heroic efforts of our park rangers that the rich story of America’s history and natural wonders is told to some 275 million visitors a year. Yet the National Park Service needs increased financial support to ensure future gen-erations can continue to experience programs like the Mojave Outdoor Education Program

What does funding mean in human terms—in the eyes of a child from Barstow—one of the 10 poorest cities in California? It’s funding that allows Chief of Interpretation Slater to hire the bus company that brings the children 200 miles roundtrip from Barstow out to the Mojave National Preserve; that purchases healthy meals for the children; that buys educational materials like weaving materials, and that permits highly trained rangers, like Dora McKeever, to inspire the children.

To stand beneath the starry sky in the middle of the Mojave National Preserve is to be humbled by the vastness of space; to marvel at the rocky landscape and to think about cultures that came before us. For Sheryl Marino’s fourth-grade students, it is a chance to look for scorpions in the darkness and contemplate their place in the natural world.

Let’s make sure that by 2016, on its hundredth birthday, the Mojave Outdoor Education Program and other National Park Service educational programs are still going strong. It’s an investment we can’t afford to postpone.

Seth Shteir is California Desert Field Representative for the National Parks Conservation Association.


DeRangeR Steve

Ramblin’SfoR a new yeaR

Birthday hikers. January 3, a Mon-day this year, was my 65th birth-day. Traditionally I take a hike in

the morning with my dog to a nice place for a hot cup of tea and to contemplate the past year. Plugged into my head was a talk show out of L..A. carried on a local radio station. Reaching a favorite spot, I poured a hot cup of tea from my pack while listening to the desert and the five minute news feed at the top of the hour. It seems that I wasn’t alone for a birthday hike and the day before, one Stan Remi decided to go on a hike to celebrate his 67th birthday. When the weather closed in he got stuck on the mountain overnight. A veteran hiker and well prepared, Stan was found in good health by Mountain Rescue early the next day about the same time I was having my cup of tea on Table Rock. Looking up, I noticed the weather seemed to be moving in on me as well, so calling the dog we went home, choosing to go out for din-ner at the Cork Tree rather than spending the night on the mountain eating granola bars. Happy Birthday Stan.

Weather or not. Speaking of the weather, the desert has seen a series of storms move through recently that haven’t had an equal since the 2004-2005 rainy season. People I’ve talked to, including those who’ve lived here for 20 years or more, have been making comments like, “Why so severe?” and “I thought the mountains were supposed to be some sort of rain shadow protecting us from all of this rain.”

That answer is true; for the most part. As long as weather patterns come from the north and west we are reasonably protected against all except the largest of storms that come through the area. The thing is not all of our rain comes from

the north and west. Looking at historical records I found the region’s most devas-tating storms have always come from, of all places, the south Pacific Ocean in a storm pattern called the Pineapple Express. Warm sub-tropical air pushes up from Hawaii toward Baja into the open end of our valley where the steep scarp of the San Jacinto Mountains acts more like a dam. Worse, further up the ‘river’ (I-10) there is the Banning Pass and Mt. San Gorgonio, another dam to catch the overflow from Mt. San Jacinto. When the dams are filled to overflowing and the clouds cover the hi-desert as well as the low, we get severe rains and some-times, depending on the temps, snow and ice that can come down to 1,500 feet or less. One interesting thing to watch is how fast a storm can move in and out of the area. One day it moves in then hangs while the sky pours life giving water over the desert. A week later everything that can, turns green. All of a sudden, in the middle of winter, there are flowers of purple, yellow, blue and red. My predic-tion: we are in for a spectacular flower season this year..

Doggone it. As long as you’re going for a walk, take your dog with you. Fido gets to explore and sniff a whole new world out there and it’s as good for him as it is for you. Watch where you walk your pup—sharp rocks and cactus needles, burrs and more can get into your dog’s paws. There is also a need for extra water and a bowl. Companies like Ruffwear, Wolf Pack, Kelty and Mountainsmith offer great outdoor gear for your dog.

Support Search and Rescue: Get Lost! Considering all the hikers that get lost around here, the TV journalists tell us to “Carry a cell phone.” The theory being, you can call for help when you get lost. That works in a lot of cases above Joshua Tree and Palm Springs. They even work in the Mecca Hills, sort of. Rock formations, mountains, distance to the cell node, weak and dead batteries, can all make cell phones useless. Under poor ra-dio conditions, even being out of position a few feet can effect communications. Don’t depend on the signal to bounce around the rocks and out of a canyon into the cell node like they do in canyons made of concrete and steel. In locales like Joshua Tree National Park, Indian Can-yons, Mecca Hills, the Mojave Preserve and many others, forget it. Always carry a whistle, preferably a “DeRanger” Steve Certified Fox-40 Sports Whistle. It can be blown very easily even by someone who is injured and having breathing problems. Caveat: Some cell phone GPS functions depend on the cell phone network. Be

sure your cell phone GPS can function in a stand alone or dead reckoning mode. While you’re at it, don’t forget to set a waypoint in your GPS to the car and turn the tracking function on before you start.

Speaking of GPS... Has anyone ever been able to get an accurate ‘Time-to-Finish’ calculation? Driving from Quartzite, to Thousand Palms, using both Magellan and Earthmate GPS units, there was huge discrepancy in calculated finish times regardless of whether I was using the ‘Drive’ or ‘Direct/Hiking’ modes. The time to cover 90 miles at 70 mph was calc’d at Driving: 90 minutes, Direct/Hiking: one day, 16+ hours. Actual time to cover the distance was 75 minutes. Somehow I don’t think they use the stan-dard formula of Time=Distance/Speed. I don’t even think they use the posted speed limit. Moral: Don’t trust your GPS. Carry a current map and compass and know how to use them.

Getting lost is easy. Alice out for the day with her friends is just hiking about. As always she’s trailing behind the group taking pictures. Her friends don’t notice Alice has stopped to follow a strange looking bunny. When Alice looks up she’s alone and no one answers her calls so up the trail she goes to find them. Before Alice realizes it, she’s lost.

“Oh dear, now what?” she asks herself. First there is anxiety, turning to fear and panic. A thought, “I have to find help.” Now Alice goes looking for her friends who have returned to where she was and Alice is not there. She’s out looking for them getting further away from where she needs to be. It’s a circle that only gets worse. In wanting help Alice went looking for it instead of sitting down and letting help find her, the bet-ter answer. Today Alice still wanders off following the beauty of the desert, only she pays more attention to her friends and them to her. She has learned to sit down, blow her whistle then wait when lost and not to follow any strange bunnies.

I remember this one, “Surrounding the victim were the remains of a pack of cigarettes and a half full lighter. Rescuers said the victim died of exposure and that a fire would have saved his life.”

What’s in your pack? A DesertBan-danna.com Nature and Survival guide could have saved that victim’s life. Printed on high quality muslin for years of wear, the Desert Bandanna covers basic outdoor skills needed when things go wrong. DeRanger Steve’s Desert Bandanna is available online at www.de-sertbandanna.com, or at The Sun Runner Shop inside Tamma’s Magic Mercantile in Yucca Valley.


Desert Theatre Beat

By Jack Lyons Sun Runner Theatre Editor

Are you really sure it’s February? Seems to me to it’s more like May. Where did Old Man Winter

go? In December we had a spell of cold weather with temps dipping down into the 30’s, our usual pattern, then the snow came, and our beautiful desert and moun-tains were rimmed in snow, and when the sun shone, it was glorious! How can one really appreciate our spring and summer weather, if we skip winter altogether?

Before I begin this column, it is with sadness that I have to inform our desert communities of the sudden passing of one the valley’s most beloved performers, Mel Oshins. Mel was personal friend of 48 years. We will all miss the twinkle in his eyes along with that beaming smile of his. He was a terrific performer who was multi-talented. Most here in the desert knew him as a musical entertainer and performer. I knew him as an accom-plished, award-winning dramatic actor in Los Angeles, when we were both young actors trying to get a career going. Mel will be greatly missed by all who had the pleasure of working with him over the years. Our hearts and prayers go out to his wife, Joyce and to his family at this very trying time.

HI-DESERT THEATRES … The Groves Cabin Theatre –Morongo ValleyThe Groves kicks off 2011 with Marga-ret Edson‘s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “Wit,” starring Donette Swain in the role of Vivian Bearing. The powerful, but uplifting drama encompasses the final hours of Dr. Bearing, a university English professor, who is dying of ovarian cancer.

Desert Theatre League (DTL) award-winning director Rebecca Havely helms an outstanding cast of players that include: Abe Daniels, Chris Fleischman, Julie Scott, and Joy Groves.

The Groves, which has won over 50 DTL awards over the years, is the most honored community theatre in the area.

The play opens Friday, February 11 at 8 pm. (Please note: For this production only the Groves will perform “Wit” on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m.). “Wit” runs through March 11.

The theatre has only 22 seats, so reservations are a must. Tickets go fast, so call the box office for reservations and ticket information at (760)365-4523.

Theatre 29 – Twentynine PalmsThe hi-desert community theatre now in its 11th year of producing “family oriented productions” opens its March/April show, the delightful children’s play, “Pinocchio,” adapted by Michele Vaca, from the novel by Carlo Colodi, and directed for Theatre 29 by John Wright.

“Pinocchio” tells the story of a pup-pet who wants to become a little boy. His thrilling adventures are an enchanting tale that has become a favorite with children around the world. Parents are allowed to enjoy it too.

“Pinocchio” will run for five week-ends from March 11 through April 9, with Friday and Saturday performances at 7 p.m. A Thursday performance will be held at 7 p.m., on March 24, and one Saturday matinee at 2:30 p.m. on April 2.

For reservations and ticket informa-tion call the box office at (760)361-4151.

LOW DESERT THEATRES …The Palm Canyon Theatre – Palm SpringsMel Brooks’ wonderful and wacky musi-cal comedy “The Producers” is currently on the boards of Palm Springs’ flagship theatre performing on Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. through February 14.

Up next at PCT is the Elton John and Tim Rice musical extravaganza “Aida,” which will be presented for 11 perfor-mances, Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.. Opening night is scheduled for Friday, February 25 at 8 p.m. and the play will run through March 13.

The Palm Canyon Theatre an-nual fund-raiser production of Thornton Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth” is set for a three performance run. Playdates are March 25,26, and 27.

Call the box office for reservations and ticket information on all productions at (760)323-5123.

Palm Desert Stage Company –Palm DesertThe newly christened theatre group scored a big hit last fall with their inau-gural production of “Lend Me A Tenor.” Well, they’re baaacck and up to their usual high standards with farce and zany

comedy productions. “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To the Forum” will be presented at the Arthur Newman Theatre, at The Joslyn Center for nine performances only. Performances will be spread out over three weekends be-ginning March 11-13, 18-20, and 25-27. Friday and Saturday curtains are at 7 p.m. and Sunday performances are at 2 p.m.

The musical comedy is directed by Mike Hadley, produced by Colleen Kel-ley, and choreographed by Even Knapp. For reservations and ticket information go online at www.pdstage.com or call (760)636-9682.

Indio Performing Arts Center – IndioThe east valley’s entertainment hub is currently presenting “Always Patsy Cline,” starring Dia Nalani as Patsy and Jeanette Knight as Louise Seger in direc-tor Bob Reinhagen’s production/tribute to the great country singer. Performances are being given on weekends in February on Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. The play runs February 5 through 21.

Following the Patsy Cline show, IPAC will present the Stephan Schwartz musical “Godspell.” This blockbust-ing musical from 1970 will perform weekends beginning Friday, March 4 at 7 p.m. and continues Saturdays at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. from March 5 through April 17. For reservations and ticket information call IPAC at (760)775-5200 or go to www.indioperformingartscenter.org.

Coyote StageWorks – Palm SpringsFresh from their December hit produc-tion, “A Christmas Tuna,” the Coyote StageWorks theatrical company, spear-headed by Chuck Yates, Alan Denny, and Larry Raben, are lovingly handing over the reins of their next production, “Fully Committed” by Becky Mode, to their talented co-founder and Broadway performer David Engel. Joel Bishoff will helm this one-hander.

Both men have tons of credits in LA, on Broadway, and across the county with touring shows. “Fully Committed” is a wild ride, fast-paced comedy about Sam Peliczowski, an out-of-work actor who mans the red hot reservation line at Manhattan’s number-one restaurant. Engel plays more than 40 diverse charac-ters (scheming socialites, name-dropping wannabes, fickle celebrities, and ego-manical bosses) through March 27. The play opens March 10 at the Palm Springs Women’s Club, 314 S. Cahuilla Road (at Baristo) and perforrms on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sun-February/March 2011 – The Sun Runner 65

FADE IN:

It’s a mystery as to how the Palm Springs International Film Festival continues to top itself year after year in glitz, glamour, and attendance—but it does!

The 2011 Festival pumped more than 133,000 movie fans and film junkies through its turnstiles in the 11 days the festival held sway. Credit has to go to the Harold Matzner/Darryl Macdonald team of exec’s who manage the event, along with a cadre of first rate programmers, who are aided and abetted by a 600 per-son corps of dedicated volunteers, who truly made the filmmakers, producers, writers, directors, industry types, and the general public, feel welcome and right at home. According to industry and media folks who track this sort of information,

PSIFF is now the 1,000-pound gorilla of film festivals worldwide. It’s now the movie event and place to be in January each year. I’m also sure that our many merchant’s, hoteliers, restaurateur’s, and other service people feel the same way (keep those cash registers ringing!). Well done PSIFF.

One of the nice things about liv-ing in the Coachella valley, besides the fabulous weather, is the availability of top-notch Hollywood movies and many foreign films that screen at our local “art house,” the Camelot Theatres of Palm Springs, throughout the year. In addition to the Camelot, we have three additional sources for viewing indie, domestic, classic and foreign films via local film societies.

The Palm Springs International Film Society, which meets at the Regal Sta-dium Nine Theatres in Palm Springs, host two huge events twice a year. The first event is the Palm Springs International Film Festival in January, and ShortFest, a film festival of short and animated films from all over the world held in June every year. In between, members get to view new films once a month. For membership information contact the organization at www.psfilmfest.org.

Another source for foreign films is The Desert Film Society. This organiza-tion screens their films at the Camelot Theatres on Saturdays at 9:30 a.m. Doors open at 9 a.m; the film begins at 9:30 a.m. Sharp!

The February 5 screening will be the Israeli film, “The Matchmaker.” It’s a coming of age story set in 1968 Haifa, and has been nominated for seven Is-raeli Academy Awards. The February 19

days at 2 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Sounds like another winner from CoyoteStageWorks.

For tickets and reservations call 1-800-838-3006 or go online to www.coyotestageworks.org.

Cabaret Theatre West – Indian WellsThe current show “Lullaby of Broad-way,” which opened on January 28 continues to thrill audiences and will perform in February at the Hyatt Grand Champions Resort on February 11, 12, 18, and 19. The show features the songs and music of Rodgers & Hammerstein, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, George Ger-shwin, and many more.The curtain is at 7 p.m. Call Ellen for reservations and ticket info at (760)568-0024 or go to www.cabarettheatrewest.com.

screening is, “The World is Big and Sal-vation Lurks Around the Corner,” from Germany. A young Bulgarian man has an accident and loses his identity along with his memory. His grandfather comes to Germany to help in his rehab and then return with him to Bulgaria.

The March 5 selection is the Portu-guese film, “To Die Like a Man,” which poignantly explores the life of a “drag diva” constrained by her religious beliefs that prevent her from having the surgery that will change her life. The March 19 film is, “The Robber,” from Germany. It’s a story about a champion marathon runner who leads a double life as a se-rial bank robber; executing as many as three robberies a day. This unusual film is almost a case study in compulsion. All films have English subtitles. For mem-bership information contact the Desert Film Society at www.desertfilmsociety.com.

For lovers of classic and/or “noir films,” the organization for you is the Desert Classic Film Society, located in Yucca Valley, up in the hi-desert. Chris-topher Perry is the founder of this film society devoted mainly to “noir films” of the 30’s and 40’s, but who also on occasion, screens classic silent films. Their schedule varies as to dates, but for information and membership—it’s free to become a member—go the their website, www.meetup.com/desert-classic-film-society.

FADE OUT:

Theatre News, continued...Award winners at the Community Light Opera and Theatre Association’s Annual Banquet bask in the glow of recognition for the time, enthusiasm and creativity they have given to local theater. Barbara Auld (center) earned CLOTA’s top honor, the Jane Bugay Award, for outstanding contributions over the years. A tearful Auld expressed surprise as she accepted her award, but CLOTA President Judy Di tz ler (a t left) described Auld as “ the obv ious c h o i c e . ” O t h e r winners (clockwise from Ditzler) are F l o re n c e G re e n Award winner Annie Shreckengost, Carol Venturi Award winner Curt Danhauser, Firecracker Award w i n n e r K r y s t e n C o u r s e y a n d F l o re n c e G re e n Award winner K. Pearl Woolam. Photo by L iz Babcock . Ridgecrest.


Palm Springs is famous not only for its celebrated weather but also for its claim as home to some of the country’s most diverse film festivals. Each January the 1,000-pound

gorilla of film festivals—The Palm Springs International Film Festival—all but takes over the city.

Following PSIFF, the 10th annual Festival of Native Film & Culture arrives. It kicks off Wednesday, March 2 and runs through Friday, March 6.

Granted, the Festival of Native Film & Culture is a much smaller film festival, but no less important, and one that is considered one of the most highly regarded events of its kind.

Featuring the best in films by, about, and starring Native Americans and other indigenous peoples, this festival is spe-cial in its diversity of storytelling. Films with an indigenous perspective, from filmmakers from all over the globe will be screened at the Camelot Theatres, in Palm Springs.

Best of all, this festival is a homegrown effort. It’s being sponsored by the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum—the re-pository of the history of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians—along with media sponsors The BottomLine, The Sun Runner Magazine, and The Desert Sun’s 2010/2011 Education Program.

I had an opportunity to catch up with Executive Director Michael Hammond, Ph.D. to discuss the film festival in detail. Hammond, a Texan by birth, an anthropologist by training, with degrees from Northwestern and Columbia Universities, said this year’s program will feature films and documentaries from the countries of Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, and the USA.

“Not only are the countries submitting entries this year, from all over the globe,” he volunteered, “ but the subject matter is very diverse and very rich in indigenous tradition.” When I asked if he has a particular favorite this year, he demurred, say-ing “Our opening night feature film, “Boy,” from New Zealand,

is a wonderfully whimsical and funny “coming-of-age” film that deals with heroes, magic, and Michael Jackson. I think everyone will enjoy it.”

When I asked if many of the filmmakers will be in at-tendance at the screenings, he replied, “To date, we have five native filmmakers who will be in attendance. That’s not too bad, five out of 17. After all, they have to travel from halfway around the world.”

The festival guest programmer for the 17 films is Elizabeth Weatherford, of the National Geographic Society, in Washing-ton, D.C. She will introduce the films, and the filmmakers, to the audience at each screening.

Weatherford is considered an expert in Native American films, and has been a juror at both the Sundance and Tribecca film festivals. Also attending is renowned author and speaker, Professor Walter Williams, Ph.D., from North Carolina. Pro-fessor Williams also will be available to share his thoughts and insights at the various Q & A sessions.

When I asked Hammond as to how many people he’s expecting to attend, he replied, “Perhaps a little over 2,000 over the five days of the festival. We seem to increase our at-tendance every year.”

This festival is shaping up to be an exciting peek into the history, culture, and lives of people, who are not only our friends and neighbors, but who also are our important partners in sharing the wonders of this planet.

Ticket prices for the 2011 Festival are: $10 for adults; $7 for seniors, students, and military personnel. The best deal, in my opinion, is the $60 All Access Pass, which includes tickets to all films and receptions.

For tickets and passes to this year’s festival you can either call 1-800-888-71tickets, or go online to www.camelottickets.com. The Camelot Theatres are located at 2300 East Baristo Road, Palm Springs.


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A l o c a t i o n s h o t from “Two Spirits,” above, one of the films screening at the Festival of Native F i lm & Cu l ture . Fred Martinez was a Navajo nádleehí boy (one who constantly transforms)—a male-bodied person with a feminine nature, a special gift according to his ancient Indian culture. In an earlier time, he would have been revered. Instead,

he was murdered. “Two Spirits” is the tragic story of a mother’s loss of her son and an enlightening look into the largely unknown history of a time when our world wasn’t simply divided into male and female, and many Native American cultures held places of honor for people of integrated genders. Fred Martinez was one of the youngest hate-crime victims in modern history when he was brutally murdered at age sixteen.Agua Caliente Cultural Museum Executive Director Michael Hammond, and Director of Development Steve Sharp, middle photo.The poster for Rabbit Proof Fence, left, a superb film screening at the festival that tells the story of Molly Craig, a young black Australian girl, who leads her younger sister and cousin in a daring escape from a government camp created to train and integrate domestic workers into white society. The film depics Molly’s epic journey leading the girls 1,500 miles over Australia’s outback in search of the rabbit-proof fence that bisects the continent and will eventually lead them back home.


Musicians of Joshua Tree and the area have compiled a CD

to benefit one of their own. Judy Van Ruggles, the banjo playing chanteuse, with a vast repertoire of folk music and standards and the knowledge and heart to deliver them with heart and a back story, is deal-ing with cancer.

Br i t gui tar is t Cl ive Wright has spearheaded and effort to give something back. The CD “Out of The Sand” is available as a download on CDBaby.com and in limited release on disc. It will soon be available on itunes and Amazon. Diane Best created the album art, including the cover photo.

Other music news: Our dear friend Bingo recently was on “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader,” and indeed he was. A big thank you to Victoria Williams, Mark Olson and Ryan Erskine who brought smiles to the residents of Angel View with an afternoon concert. They did originals, classics, and even took a request from a resident doing an amazing acoustic version of Michael Jackson’s “I’ll Be There.”

So fun to see the Sanyo Zio phone commercial on the Peoples Choice Awards that was done to Gram Rabbit’s “Candy Flip.” It has created a buzz for the Rabbits and is on YouTube.

Some outstanding shows at Pappy and Harriet’s included the Sean Wheeler Zander Schloss CD realease party with special guest Bob Forrest and none other than Sean Lennon, who was cordial to all and put on a great show. We were all saddened by the passing of Robert “Fleet” Smallwood, a wonderful man, musician and roustabout. He will be missed in the community and our heart goes out to all his family and friends.

The posters are up around town and it is already time to get your tickets to the 9th annual Joshua Tree Music Festival to be held at the Joshua Tree Lakes and Campground on May 13-15. Acts this year include Rubblebucket, Sean Hayes, Saritah, Scott Huckaby, Cornflower and many more. A splendid time is guaranteed for all!!January 22, Sean Lennon and his partner in life and music, Charlotte Muhl, performed songs from their Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger release, Acoustic Sessions, on Chimera Records, at Pappy and Harriet’s, to a sold-out house of ecstatic fans. After the concert, the pair signed autographs for nearly two hours.

Here (above), Sean is seen with L.A. historian/poet Iris Berry and newly-elected Morongo Basin Cultural Arts Council President/DJ/Singer/Songwriter/Open Mic Host and father, Ted Quinn. (Photo by Ming C. Lowe.)


The CD, “Out of the Sand, Joshua Tree 13,” features 13 tracks by many of the region’s musicians, including Bingo’s Dream Band, California Celts, Dani California,

Eva Stokes, Koonda Hola, Patti Hood, Paul Gerkin, Shari Elf/The Kittens, Tim Easton, Warsaw, Clive Wright & John Zulu.

Over the span of hundreds of open mics at the now van-ished Beatnik Cafe and other venues, Judy played from a wide repertoire of classic songs, always with a theme in mind for her set of three songs. Accompanied solely by her banjo, she owns Peggy Lee classics like “Fever” and “Is That All There Is.” She takes us to “Kansas City” and back “Over the Rainbow.”

One evening at Pappy and Harriet’s Monday night open mic, a young woman was moved by one of Judy’s performance’s & asked to sing a song. “Nobody has told me a story like that since I was a very little girl.” The young woman, Leslie, bet-ter known as Feist, had been recording in the Rimrock area & had no intentions beyond having dinner until she heard Judy.

Another night at the Joshua Tree Saloon, Judy played the folk song, “500 Miles.” A Vietnam Veteran who had spent years in a POW camp, thanked her afterwards. “I had seen Peter, Paul & Mary play just before I shipped out in 1962. That was the song that got me through...”

Judy Van Ruggles’ many contributions include her warm hugs, her humor, her wistfulness and wisdom, her neck rubs—and a vast knowledge of the music of the 20th Century.TRACKS: 1. Tim Easton - Next To You (Tim Easton) 2. Bingo’s Dream Band - Shadow (Kevin Richie) 3. Dani Cali & Clive Wright- Heaven Breath (Daniel Cun-ningham/Clive Wright) 4. Patti Hood - Fairies Slumber (Patti Hood) 5. The Kittens - Whispering Horses (Shari Elf) 6. California Celts - Celtic Sound (Christopher Poland) 7. John Zulu - Still With You (John Rose) 8. Koonda Holaa - Landers (Kamil Kruta) 9. Paul Gerkin - A Town Called Peace (Paul Gerkin) 10. Warsaw - Hills Of Yucca Valley (Christopher Poland) 11. Ted Quinn - Sabu’s Pedals (Susan Bradley) 12. Eva Stokes - Take My Heart (Eva Stokes) 13. Clive Wright - Angels Look After Us When We Are Sleeping (Clive Wright)

Artist William Adair recently paid the Joshua Tree Inn a visit to gild the door of Room 8, the room where coun-try rock legend Gram Parsons died of a drug overdose

in 1972. The gilding is part of Adair’s proejct, Return to the Grievous Angel, which itself comprises a portion of a 30-year career retrospective Adair is doing for Montgomery College, his alma mater in Silver Springs, MD. Another gilded door, #31 (the “gold-plated door on the 31st floor”), is on stage at Pappy & Harriet’s for Gram’s friends and fans to etch their own tributes into the gold leaf. Adair plans to ceremonially burn door #31 (but not in Joshua Tree National Park, for any nervous rangers reading this story).

Adair is reportedly working on getting Emmylou Harris and Donovan out to perform as part of his commemoration of Gram’s life, and is planning on gilding 10 doors to sell as a benefit for Polly Parson’s Hickory Wind Ranch Sober Living Community for musicians in Austin, TX.


Sustainable Living

Simple Times in a Simple Place

One Old Hippie(By Pasquali via David Brown)

It used to be that any person with a few bucks in their pocket and a few dreams in their heart could get themselves a little peice of land and sort of settle down. even if it was in a place

that most people didn’t think they would want to go...like my old commune in Missouri or the Mojave Desert for that manner or any other such places under rated and subsequently saved. Lucky for them I say. You’ve maybe heard the old saying, Chinese I believe, “The smart man buys the land that no man wants.” Saves a wad of cash that way, amigos and amigas too! Not to mention, it keeps the populace sort of thinned out so maybe there is just enought to go around for everyone, which is more than just a great thought, isn’t it? Plus it might keep a few of them out of your hair. And this old goat has plenty of hair to get into.” So says John the Hippie, perhaps a progres-sive thinker and closet social recluse as well. However, a full time student of life.

“You could pop up a tent, sit a trailer on some blocks, build a cool little shack out of found materials, make a little house out of earth, build a houseboat. Float. Let your imagina-tion soar! It used to be this way almost everywhere. Yes sir, you could even live the Jefforsonian ideal of agrarian substainence...if that’s what you wanted to do. It’s certainly not for every one, a lifestyl;e based on inventiveness and imagination, both sorely lacking in popular culture. Why, my friend Nico lived in an old Chevrolet bus with a room made out of nothing but old windows attached to the side of it, this after going to South America (with two kids and twenty bucks - returning twenty years later with four kids and no bread). It took a few years to collect all this stuff, but you should have seen the place! Pasquali built his little cabins using no power tools and with little money in times of spotty employment. Estelle lived in a house built of pallets with the great Pacific literally on her doorstep and now in some cool small space in rural Oregon, practising her new intellectual trade for the good of the common person against the blight of mediocrity. Claire and Allan during the honeymoon days in a humble sheepherder’s wagon with the great basin and range critters for company and then Claire a solo in the magnificent yurt. Myself in a converted camper. Homework!”

“This should make all persons who can think, do exactly that...and be free.”

“And this is not simply about the personal freedom to live where and how one would like, whatever the example may be. This is also about a sense of social responsibility...even if the predominate social structure hasn’t quite figured it out yet!”

“E Pubus Unum” I believe it is spelled out as...From Many Come One or something along those lines. The original motto of the United States of America, changed in what some now call the “Fabulous Fifties” because of McCarthy era paranioa (sounded a bit too communist I bet, thinks Rabbit). It was good enough for wise old Ben Franklin and the lot, and hell, what did those guys know anyways? A radical concept then, and radi-cal concept now. It’s about the people, people! You and Me! Them and US! All of US! We make it America, good and bad. But hell, I digress. Cooperate in spreading freedom! Radical

freedom! Freedom from dominance, fear and the tyranny it brings. Freedom from mediocrity. Enpower the individual and eventually you enpower society as well. Try to make it a lifestly, even if you just start out with the “baby steps”.”

“Participate freely and willingly to provide shelter, for one’s self and for others, using local material and sustainable building practise. Planning growth so population and density does not exceed local resources. Keep local economies healthy and vibrant while at the same time allowing them to serve firstly the needs of the immediate community and then enjoy sustainable growth and profit. Mandate equality and quality of education and opportunities for all people’s health and wellfare. Engage in healthy dialouge and not spiteful arguments in order to achieve a goal. Knowing one’s enemy is knowing one’s self - one thing I learned on tour in Asia.”

“Live the Confucian concept of love, or the “Golden Rule” as some may call it or any other kind and peacable mantra. Do not let fear rule the roost!”

“The possibilites are nearly as endless and expansive as the vistas now placed before us while the setting sun glides across the inland ranges, and the ranges where you may be as well my friends, casting long shadows taller than us mere mortals appearing on the sand.”

“John” says I, “Gracia for sharing such a noble and peace-ful vision.”

Peace and Noble visions for you as well, mi compdres and companeros...

- Pasquali ‘Maybe you know about a few such spots. Not long ago, there used to be all sorts of them in the mountains and deserts as well as the forests, and hell...at one time even on the coast! Imagine that! Look at what Northern California used to be like, before gentrification and over population (remember the recluse). The adobe villages of Nuevo Mexico. Old min-ing towns like Bisbee, Arizona, a good old hippie town. The inland mountains of Santa Barbara. Just to name a few. Ok, I guess I made my point. All this was before these places were “discovered” and subsequently “marketed” by developers and schemers and other such characters of questionabl motif and repute, which many unquestionably are. Cool places for dreamers with an alternative mindset and some gumption and inspiration for fair to midland work. Make no mistake about it, self sufficient living is no refuge for slackers! t o say otherwise is ismply talk designed to belittle a movement which didn’t fit in well into the general plan of consume and consume more and then let technology take care of it. Well, we all know how that turned out! At least, in my perosnal if not so humble opion.”

“How’s that for turning hippie mellowness flat on it’s side? Hey, we got passion too!”

“Man, I sounded like Alan there for a minute, although I dig that part about “questionable motif and repute”, it sounds almost scary. But not nearly as scary as how fast these places are disappearing anf the one’s left over are getting trashed! Eevn the so called “undesriable” places with bitter winters or hellish summers, for example. Then, let’s not forget the very real and sometimes troubling other issues such as no real work, so you would have to make your own, which of course is very cool, and in the meantime you become real self sufficient, just like in the old days!”

“This is a tricky subject, that one. Generating income in the middle of no where without becoming enslaved to an enslaving technology and hence system itself” interrupts the voice of, apparently, Allan of all people! Or, is it his duppie again, so far from the warm and sensual waters of the East Indies? Who ever it may be, he speaks on...”Let’s begin, shall we? (why the hell not? Thinks I). “Look at the automobile for example. What


began as a luxury for the rich and don’t let anyone tell you differently, and a technological luxury at that, became a mass marketed (more profit that way) neccessity as it allowed timely personal transport for a growing populace who couldn’t sit still which permitted and financed aninfrastructure based again on expansion (imagine that) and inevitible decay. The mentality, if there is such a thing, of a cancer cell and corporate business. But, I regress. All this along with a known dependency on a non renewable source resource controlled by a monopolistic industry. You know who that is, and if you don’t...lucky you! Add to all this, if you would so please, the prospect of polu-tion and the impact of human factors, and before you know it, there is a great presence leeching provision and lives from the same life giving system we are so dependent on. The creation overcoming the creator to be the absolute!”

“An elder once called it coyote magic” replies I. “If it is too good to be true it most likely is. Loaded down with all this bad medicine. For every good thing it does, there are many bad things as well. Like Padre Jose used to say, “a blessing becoming a curse”.

Ghandi, Mark Twain, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, the Duppie of Allan,and Car Marx, amoungst others, nod in agreement.

“Ok you guys! Isn’t this supposed to be my gig?” John the Hippie’s ego asks, a bit on the slightly annoyed side. “After all, even though there may be doubt in some camps, a hippie is actually a human with both good and bad, just like everyone else. So shut up, please, and let me finish before the thought just fades away! Haha. I am reseplendent in divergence!”

“Thanks man. There is this old question about trading one’s time for a paycheck just to pay somebody else to do the job you could do yourslef if you had the time instead of working to pay somebody else and damn that sounds confusing but it’s the truth no doubt. Of course, the ease in doing so is directly proportioned to the avilable resources at hand, or so my inner economist reminds me so from time to time. But hell, you don’t really mind the so called “sacrifice” as the man might call it that you have to make...like the new cars and toys and designer houses and a career and such other “nonsense” (at least to hippies and coyotes) because deep down you’re happy with and doing your own thing. Digging it and living off the sweat of your brow and quickness of wits and ruling your own life as much as possible and setting your own time. Sort of like a happy old country dog, chasing rabbits for fun and biting at flies and breezes, with my apology to Rabbit himself. And all this with little or no creature comforts, such as flush toilets and cable television or even grid power in some cases, let alone something like the internet...and all this in the days before composting, recycling, hybrid cars and the new green mentality and branding.”

“In other words, those of us choosing an ecological and socially responsible centred lifestyle are not a group of irre-sponsible losers or mental cases who can longer compete in the so called modern society because we choose to live outside of a very impsing yet also fragile box. If anything, we are the progressives..both cutting edge and hope for the future! So says my ego!”

Sigmund Freud, esq and Duppie Allan would both remind us, we all have egos.


May I introduce to you my dear friend, Muffin Hill, an incredible lady! Just one aspect of her always busy day is her outstanding work at the Hi-Desert Medical

Center in Joshua Tree. “’Get busy—I’ve got walls!’ With that, volunteer Muffin Hill, public-art coordinator for all Department of Aging and Adult Services buildings throughout San Ber-nardino County, challenged the seniors of the Morongo Basin art community. At the present time there are 64 permanent pieces of art on display at the Hi-Desert Medical Center and another 34 temporary placements by local artists.

This was a major accomplishment. It was only with the encouragement of CEO Lionel “Chad” Chadwick, and the sup-port of Joseph Ruddon, vice president of marketing, that these absolutely outstanding results have been accomplished. The drab, sterile, cold walls of a typical hospital were transformed into warm and comforting walls of hope and love.

The Board of Directors of the Hi-Desert Medical Center has officially designated Muffin Hill as Public Art Coordinator. Muffin has sent out an invitation to local artists hoping they will help beautify the many walls she maintains for the Department of Aging and Adult Seniors in San Bernardino County.

Another aspect of Muffin’s personality is her intense desire to protect animals. When Hill celebrated her birthday she in-vited a large number of guests to her lovely home with a unique request. She asked each person attending to bring gifts for the Palms N’ Paws Animal Shelter in Twentynine Palms. Gifts included money, animal food, animal toys, and, of course, items that could be used in the facility for the comfort of the animals.

Muffin has been a dedicated contributor of the Palms N’ Paws Animal Shelter and has been a generous supporter for many years. As an animal lover, I can testify that Muffin has two beautiful cats, Rose and Poppy, adopted from the facility.

FEBRUARY 2011

Feb. 3 – Desert Hot Springs Spa Tour. $20. 4-5 p.m. Reception at Cabot’s Pueblo Museum. Visit more than a dozen resorts including the famed Two Bunch Palms. Refreshments and gifts at most spas. Ticket required. (760)329-6403. www.cabotsmuseum.org.Feb. 10 – Winter Lecture Series: Captain Jack—Rackham, not Sparrow: Accounts of the Real Pirates of the Caribbean & Beyond. Noon-1 p.m. Free and beverages will be served. Shanghai (Steve) Brown, the publisher of The Sun Runner, will make a presentation on the true brethren of the coast and practitioners of the “sweet trade.” Hi-Desert Nature Museum, 57090 29 Palms Hwy,Yucca Valley. (760) 369-7212. www.hidesertnaturemuseum.org. Feb. 12 – Family Fun Day – Pirates. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free. Pirate-themed Family Fun Day. Activities, crafts, treasure hunts Members of the band “There Be Pirates!” perform playing sea chanty singalongs at 11 a.m. and noon. Costumes encouraged. Donations support the Hi-Desert Nature Museum. Hi-Desert Nature Museum, 57090 29 Palms Hwy,Yucca Valley. (760)369-7212. www.hidesertnaturemuseum.org. Feb. 12 – Basant Kite Festival. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free. Edward-Dean Museum & Gardens: Let’s go Fly a Kite at “The Basant Kite Festi-val.” Kitemaking workshops, poetry, food, vendors, fun, beginning of spring. Edward-Dean Museum, 9401 Oak Glen Rd, Cherry Valley. (951)845-2626. www.edward-deanmuseum.org.Feb. 12 – Family Fun Day at the Maturango Museum. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free day at the Museum, 2nd Saturday monthly. 100 East Las Flores Ave., Ridgecrest. (760)375-6900. www.maturango.org.Feb. 12 – Main Street Tehachapi Valentine Wine & Chocolate Tasting. 5:30-9 p.m. $25 advance/$30 day of. Ages 21+ for tasting. Downtown Tehachapi. (661)822-6519. www.tehachapi.com.Feb. 13-14 – Valentine’s Day at Elvis Honeymoon Hideaway. Guided tours and concerts. 1350 Ladera Circle, Palms Springs, CA. (760)322-1192.Feb. 14 – Ted Quinn’s Open Mic Reality Show. 7 p.m. Free. Valentine’s Day with Teddy Q—feel the love. Mondays. Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Rd., Pioneertown. (760)365-5956. www.pappyandharriets.com.February 17-27 – Palms Springs Modernism Week. 9-day cel-ebration of mid-century modern design, architecture and culture. architecture tours, films, lectures, symposium, educational events as well as chic & fun parties in cool mid-century modern homes. www.modernismweek.com.Feb. 18 – 65th Annual National Date Festival. 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Free to $8. Includes Luz Rios, Third Eye Blind, Kellie Pickler and Switchfoot at the Fantasy Springs Concert Pavilion. Riverside County Fairgrounds, 82-503 Hwy 111, Indio. 1(800) 811-FAIR (3247) or (760) 863-8247. www.datefest.org.Feb. 18 – Al Jarreau at the McCallum Theatre. 8 p.m. $35-$75. Multi-Grammy Award Winning Artist. 73000 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert. (760)340-ARTS. www.mccallumtheatre.com.Feb. 19 – Harvey House Market Days. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Free. Food, produce, crafts, fun in the historic Harvey House. 681 N. First Avenue, Barstow. (760)256-8617. Feb. 20 – Reach Out Morongo Basin: Parade of Homes. 12-5 p.m. VIP-$100 includes home pick up & return via chauffeur, brunch, photo, drinks & snacks. Regular $25. Annual fundraiser for Reach Out Morongo Basin offering services to seniors, disabled, others in need. Info at (760) 361-1410 or www.reachoutmb.org.Feb. 26 – Amanda Jo Williams/He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister/


For the most comprehensive event listings for theCalifornia deserts, please visit

www.thesunrunner.com.

To include your desert event listings on our on-line desert-wide calendar, please e-mail complete

event information in text format to:[email protected].

To stay more in touch with desert happenings, sign up for our free Sun Blast newsletter and join

our online desert community atwww.thesunrunner.com.

Friend us on Facebook and My Space too.February/March 2011 – The Sun Runner 75

Tommy Santee Klaws. 8 p.m. $10. Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, 53688 Pioneertown Rd., Pioneertown. (760)365-5956. www.pappyandharriets.com.Feb. 26 – Brew at the Zoo. 5-9 p.m. $35 - $125. Appetizers, delicious craft beer, wine, non-alcoholic beverages. Barry Baughn Blues Band and Hawaiian Blues artist, Kimo. VIP lounge for those ticket holders.Feb. 26. – Annual Spring Death Valley Century, Ultra Century, and Double Century Bike Marathon. Badwater, passes, Shoshone, return. 100, 150, 200 miles. 400 rider limit. Starts and ends at Furnace Creek Inn, Death Valley. “Out There Since 1984.” www.adventurecorps.com.

MARCH

Mar. 2-6 – 10th Annual Festival of Native Film & Culture. Pre-sented by Agua Caliente Cultural Museum. Best in films by, about, and starring Native Americans, and other Native peoples. Camelot Theatres. 2300 E. Baristo Rd., Palm Springs, (760)325-6565. www.accmuseum.org.Mar. 5 – Wildflower Festival 2011: Santa Rosa & San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Visitor Center. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Free entry, free parking, free shuttle buses to event from St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Palm Desert only. Music, kids activities, wine tasting, food & beverages, workshops, gift shop. Santa Rosa & San Jacinto Mountains National Monument Visitor Center, 51-500 Hwy. 74, Palm Desert.March 7-10 – BNP Paribas Tennis Open. Indian Wells Tennis Garden, 78200 Miles Avenue, Indian Wells. (760)200-8400.Mar. 11-13 – Spring Photography Workshop Anza-Borrego Des-ert State Park. $325/ABF members $295. 18 hrs of instruction in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. (760)767-4063. www.theabf.org.Mar. 11-13 – Rocks & Minerals of Joshua Tree National Park. $135-$210. Credit or non. Classroom and field class identification of minerals & rock types. Meets at Copper Mtn. (760)367-5583. www.desertinstitute.homestead.com.Mar. 13 – Palm Springs Art Museum Free Second Sundays. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free admission on the second Sunday of each month. Family activities, theater & gallery performances, films, docent-led spotlight talks, artists at work, & more. 101 Museum Drive, Palm Springs. (760) 322-4800. www.psmuseum.org.Mar. 13 – Death Valley Chamber Annual Brunch. 10 a.m. $30 Ben-efits DV Chamber. Furnace Creek Inn, Death Valley. Phyllis Nefsky, (760)786-3353. www.deathvalleychamber.com.Mar. 15 – Super Ruby Tuesdays Open Mic Night with Teddy Quinn. 8 p.m. Tuesdays. Free. 21+. Joshua Tree Saloon, 61835 29 Palms Hwy, Joshua Tree. (760)366-2250. Mar. 19 – Spring Field Trip to Death Valley: Flowers and Pupfish. 7:15 a.m. at the museum. $30 members/$35 non, plus possible park fee. With naturalist Janet Westbrook. Maturango Museum, 100 E. Las Flores Ave. Ridgecrest. (760)375-6900. www.maturango.org.Mar. 19-20 – LA Times Travel & Adventure Show. Los Angeles Convention Center. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Safaris to scuba diving, wind surfing to wine tours, archeology excursions to relaxing on a pristine beach—it’s all at the nation’s largest consumer travel show. Join the California Deserts Visitors Association, The Sun Runner Magazine, and Huell Howser there. 1201 South Figueroa St., Los Angeles. www.events.latimes.com/travelshow. Check www.thesunrunner.com for ticket discounts.

“All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from,

and to, and why.” – James Thurber (1894 - 1961)

We’re a little different, those of us living here in the hi-desert. Many of us have come very close to solving Mr.

Thurber’s formula for “the good life.” There is something about our desert that encourages one to deeply examine topics like this one. So, what is “the good life” for you?

Many would give answers to that question that have to do with the land and life around us—long distance views, unique desert plants and animals, clean air, dark skies and sunny, dry climate. Outsiders’ perception is that “the desert is a waste-land” and of little value. That perception has lead to reckless plans for development and exploitation. The Morongo Basin Conservation Association has been watchful, concerned and active. With a strategy of grassroots engagement and collab-orative partnerships, battles have been won and victories have been celebrated … but the challenge continues, and grows.

The latest exploitation … planners and politicians outside of the desert want to pave us over with renewable energy proj-ects. Yes, we support renewable energy but these misguided plans pose major restrictions to our “good life” with minimum benefits for us. This current threat brings to the forefront once more questions like “What is a future vision for desert living, what are the challenges and what can protect that vision?”

Our desert home has never faced a quality of life threat as broad in its potential impact as the industrialization of the desert. Informed desert voices must help outsiders understand that we are all connected to and part of our desert environment. We simply must be more cautious and careful as this conversation develops. Our desert is NOT a wasteland!

The MBCA wants both residents and outsiders to under-stand the concept of connectivity to a landscape and its foun-dational role in our “good life”. We cannot allow our historic protected areas that sustain us to become isolated and dying pockets of land when better solutions are at hand.

Can we change the perception that the desert is a wasteland to an understanding that the desert is an uncharted, mysterious asset whose value is now just beginning to unfold? Recent research has underscored that the desert is a treasure trove hold-ing many miraculous secrets and enlightening discoveries and

industrializing that resource may cause a host of unintended permanent consequences. One thing we do know; we will have only one chance to get it right. If our emerging technol-ogy powering remote solar plants is the wrong answer to save country and planet, there will be no “do-overs.”

The San Bernardino County General Plan articulates elements of “quality of life,” yet how to balance those shared values—business, development, prosperity, quality of life and living sustainability, remains an active discussion, Where is the tipping point of this balance? We suggest an alternative bottom-down approach: let US define what elements constitute livability … “the good life,” and how each of us can contribute to that livability.

The Desert-Wise Living Series is a new MBCA program to explore, with our community, a better understanding of desert quality of life; then to protect and enhance that lifestyle. Our focus is on engaging you in a process. You will provide new answers and new options. With The Desert-Wise Living Series the MBCA hopes to offer a learning adventure, a journey of discovery helping us all understand, articulate and ultimately preserve our unique desert culture.

The first program of the The Desert-Wise Living Series was launched at the annual MBCA meeting in January focusing on two interconnected resources vital to the desert home: energy and water. Mike Stevens of Mojave Water Agency reviewed our imported water resources; tracing the long journey water travels from the Sacramento delta to our high-desert home. We are reminded how water overshadows every other need. Robin Kobaly, of The SummerTree Institute then narrowed the discus-sion showing what we can do to preserve our precious water using desert-wise gardening practices.

Coming in April is The MBCA Desert-Wise Landscape Tour. Here we meet with others on Mr. Thurber’s quest. Participants will visit some of the more inspired and creative desert-wise landscaped homes. The tour is limited to 150 reg-istrants and enrollment will be conducted on the Saturday, the day before and on Sunday, the day of the event. The MBCA expects to see and hear new ideas as The Desert Living Series hosts this exchange of views on desert livability.

As The Desert-Wise Living Series develops over the year the MBCA hopes to unpack Mr. Thurber’s suggestion; inspiring your journey to discover and live that “good life”, whatever it may be for each of us as we “try to learn before [we] die what [we] are running from, and to, and why.

Morongo BasinConservationAssociationDesert-Wise

Landscape TourSunday

April 1710 a.m. - 4 p.m.www.mbconservation.org


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the sun runner's 2011 desert travel issue

Documents

runner februarymarch

runner magazinewell

desert art news

desert music news

real california desert

early desert conservationist

desert artist profile

desert theatre beat