“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…
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…
Update 2023: Visiting Coyote Holes is no longer allowed. It is presently off-limits. The North, West and South access points are fenced and/or gated, and posted as closed; strictly no trespassing. Please respect the integrity of this special archaeological site and follow the warnings! Update 2022: “The Coyote Hole historic petroglyph site in Joshua Tree, an…
Update, July 8, 2023: According to the Desert Sun newspaper, “San Bernardino county staff are preparing a proposal to rezone Pioneertown’s Mane Street as Rural Desert Commercial land this fall, replacing a Special Development designation that has helped limit commercial activity — in some cases even the reopening of longstanding businesses — for decades. The…
Disclaimer: While we are, and will always be The Desert Way, sometimes the Pacific calls to us, especially in the dog days of summer, and we must go. Anyway, as the rock group, America, told us in 1972, “The ocean is a desert with its life underground.” Okay, it’s a stretch, but we hope you…
Laughlin, Nevada is 90 miles south of Las Vegas, but if you’re looking for something milder while still waltzing with Lady Luck, then Laughlin just might be the winning ticket. The Avi Casino Journey KOA is conveniently across the road from Avi Casino and just eleven miles from downtown Laughlin’s riverfront casinos. Avi Casino sits…
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…
The creation of the Cabazon dinosaurs began in the 1960s by Knott’s Berry Farm sculptor and portrait artist Claude K. Bell (1897–1988) to attract customers to his Wheel Inn Restaurant, which opened in 1958 and closed in 2013.
“The dinosaurs aren’t dead and they never will be,” Bell’s daughter, Wendy Murphy of Costa Mesa, said. “He wanted to build a monument that would withstand the sands of time, and he has done that…”
Bluff Lake is a reservoir located just 3.8 miles from Big Bear Lake, California. Located at 7,600 feet, Bluff Lake Reserve has towering pines, a 20-acre lake and meadow, and majestic outcrops of quartz monzonite.
Once a stopover resort for pack burro trains and stages bringing tourists to Big Bear in the late 1800s, it is home to several species of rare plants and is a thriving animal habitat…
There are currently 649 Cracker Barrel locations across the United States. But California was not one of them.
If you lived in California’s high desert, and got a craving for Cracker Barrel’s Southern specialties, you had to plan for a long road trip. The closest ones were in Kingman and in Yuma, Arizona, both respectfully over 200 miles away.
We know, because we’ve done it. More than once. Until now…