Where do you go in Joshua Tree when you’re not in the mood for the National Park experience? We opted for Noah Purifoy’s old place. Down a dirt road, on the left. We saw it before we were there. Are those commodes towering in the air? we wondered. Yes indeed. Porcelain monuments to the private…
“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…
Update: We are honored to announce that our story about the former T Cross K Ranch (currently Mission Creek Preserve) is featured in the Fall 2025 Issue No. 33 of The Riverside County Chronicles published by the Riverside County Heritage Association. Many thanks to Steve Lech, author, historian and president of the association. Drive north…
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, December 20, 2024: Congrats to Pappy and Harriet’s! “Knitting Factory Entertainment CEO Morgan Margolis and his partners have prevailed in a long-running dispute with the defendants, securing control of Pappy + Harriet’s in Pioneertown near Joshua Tree, and winning millions in damages. After a multi-week jury trial, the jury unanimously found in favor of…
Update: 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…
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…