The desert has often played an important role in religions, spirituality and artists seeking self expression and nirvana. In Yucca Valley, a half-mile past the turnoff for Pioneertown Road, over 40 mid-century biblical statues steadfastly rise from the rocky sandscape to inspire people from different walks of life. It all started when Reverend Eddie Garver,
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It is a given that when researching information about a particular topic, one discovery often leads to another. Such is the case when we recently wrote about the T Cross K Ranch in Mission Creek Preserve, just down the road from Desert Hot Springs, California. Cabot Yerxa’s name kept popping up in old newspapers. An
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“The Gubler family has loved and grown orchids for three generations. Swiss citizen, Hans Gubler, who grew up in a family-owned orchid-growing business, came to America on a Missouri Botanical Gardens scholarship in 1918. He returned to Sweden but emigrated to Temple City, California, in the mid-1950s. Hans bought the Landers nursery in 1975.” ~06
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Drive north out of Palm Springs on Highway 62, past Desert Hot Springs, and the appreciative eye is drawn towards the majesty of Mount San Gorgonio to the west. 11,503 feet above sea level, and about 9,000 feet above this place right here, the Mission Creek Preserve. In a land that is a little bit
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Sometimes you pick up tips in the darnedest of places. A few weeks ago we were at our veterinarian’s office to get one of our dogs his routine vaccines, and began discussing interesting local places to explore with the vet, a long-time resident of the area. The doc asked us if we’d heard of Coyote
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There once was a time at least 2,000 years ago, when the only voices heard in the desert below Mount San Jacinto were those of the Cahuilla people. At a time when the Roman Empire ruled over most of Europe and the Middle East, the Cahuillas lived here in relative peace. The Romans are gone,
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The fearless explorers walk along the trail. Quiet. Ever on the lookout for desert flora and fauna. Suddenly, as they round the bend, they come face-to-face with a world of beauty in the guise of the Moorten Botanical Garden and Cactarium, just down the street from a good cup of espresso on Palm Canyon Drive.
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It’s a cool desert evening on November 18, 1954, and the day’s show is over at the New Frontier Hotel and Casino on the emerging Las Vegas Strip. Still, the show must always go on. The young entertainer, along with his valet, Charles Head, are getting ready for an all-night drive to Studio City, near
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If you sometimes find yourself driving on California State Highway 62, in Morongo Valley, between Palm Springs and Parker, Arizona, then you’ve been by Big Morongo Canyon Preserve, and maybe didn’t even know it was there. Once considered a secret hideaway by Native Americans and later settlers alike, the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve is a
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Have you ever wondered what it used to look like in the Mojave Desert of yesteryear? When ingenuity and pure desert grit was king? Do you want to learn secrets the desert has to tell? They’re all around us if we just look. Please join us for one of many trips through time illuminating the
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