The title may say “top 10,” but trust me—it’s
 tough to choose just 10 destinations to highlight in the California deserts.  There are hundreds of interesting desert destinations out this way, perhaps thousands, and which ones you would pick may be determined by your own personal interests.

 And these are just “off the beaten path” destinations that we’ve selected for this feature. That means places that consistently make our top choices for desert destinations, from the impressive Palm Springs Art Museum to The Living Desert, aren’t on these pages, but should definitely be on any desert visitor’s itinerary.

 What these choices are really for, is to introduce the reader to destinations they may not have known about, whether they are longtime desert residents, or first time visitors. There are dozens of other destinations near these, and if you are not careful, you’ll wind up spending the rest of your life discovering your own list of fascinating desert destinations—and loving every minute of it.

- Steve Brown

Joshua Tree National Park is a top destination for desert visitors, drawing upwards of 1.3 million visitors every year.

The park is filled with interesting natural and historical sites, as well as opportunities for great rock climbing, camping, and hiking. Many points of interest are easily accessible, while some others are relatively unknown and never seen by most visitors to the park.

In the Lost Horse Valley, south of Quail Springs, is one of the more oddly interesting historical and cultural sites of the park—Samuelson’s Rocks. We came upon the site entirely by accident while following a trail through Lost Horse Valley’s Joshua trees.  I looked over to a small hill and saw what appeared to be writing on one of the rocks.

Investigation proved that the large rock I had first noticed had been inscribed and signed by John Samuelson, and dated 1927. It said: The Rock of Faith and Truth.  Nature is God.  The Key to Life is Contact. Evolution is the Mother and Father of Mankind. Without Them we be Nothing.

Intrigued, we wandered around the hill and found a number of other inscribed boulders with philosophical and social commentary.   A set of rusted bed springs indicated someone had once lived on the hill. But who was this John Samuelson?

The National Park Service says John Samuelson was a Swedish citizen who came looking for work at pioneer Bill Keys’ ranch (Desert Queen Ranch) in 1926 (a tour of Keys’ Ranch is highly recommended for visitors to Joshua Tree National Park).  Keys hired Samuelson to work on his Hidden Gold Mine (below the spot that is now Keys View), and by 1927, Samuelson moved to the top of this small hill, where he lived with his wife Margaret in a small shack. In between working his own gold claim, he carved his sayings on the rocks around the hill.

Not being a U.S. citizen, Samuelson couldn’t hold title to the land. He sold his gold claim and moved to Los Angeles. The next year, he killed two men at a dance in Compton.

Erle Stanley Gardner, a friend of Bill Keys who had met Samuelson in 1928, found that instead of being tried for murder, the Swede was judged to be insane, and was sent to the California State Hospital in Mendocino, where he escaped in 1930. Where poor Margaret wound up, we’re not sure.  Gardner, the famous lawyer and author who created the most famous fictional lawyer of all time, Perry Mason, was heavily influenced by his experiences with the desert.

And while the desert influenced Gardner’s creative spirit, some of Keys’ colorful life came off sounding like a plot from Perry Mason. Once purported to be an accomplice of the infamous “miner,” Death Valley Scotty (the only mining Scotty seemed to do was of investors’ wallets), Keys reportedly took part in The Battle of Wingate Pass, which wounded one person.  The “battle” took place when Scotty’s investors wanted to visit the gold mine they had invested in and suffered a staged attack by “bandits” (evidently including Keys). Scotty had arranged the whole faux scenario to force the investors to turn back from their journey to his non-existent mine.  Keys was reportedly jailed for a brief time.

In 1943, however, Keys shot Worth Bagley, another colorful desert character, and killed him. Bagley had reportedly been mad at Keys over a right-of-way dispute and came charging at him across the desert, shooting as he came. Keys shot back, with more effect.  Keys’ wife contacted Gardner who got his case reviewed, and as a result, Keys was paroled in 1948 from San Quentin Prison. He later received a full pardon and lived at his family’s ranch inside of Joshua Tree National Monument, and even acting a bit, up until his death in 1969.

The NPS history of Samuelson notes that he managed to evade authorities after his escape, and wound up in Washington state. Though he told Keys he wanted to someday return to the desert, he died from an accident while working as a logger in the 1950s.

Now, all that is left of Samuelson’s brief stay in the desert are his eight carved rocks and rusted bedsprings.  Look for them about a mile and a half west of the Quail Springs picnic area. There are often colorful wildflowers to be found in the spring that make the hike stunningly beautiful. -

If you’ve spent much time in and around Death Valley National Park, then the concept of rocks that move mysteriously around the bottom of a dry lakebed all on their own, leaving erratic tracks behind on the cracked mud, probably doesn’t surprise you.  But then again, nobody has seen the rocks actually move, so perhaps  you’ll be the first!

The Racetrack lies between the Cottonwood and Last Chance mountain ranges, and is beautiful, in a way only Death Valley can be.  Yet it is the wandering rocks that draw the curious far down the road (high clearance vehicles recommended, but you can take your Lexus if you really want to...) that begins near Ubehebe Crater (well worth a hike there too, and don’t forget Scotty’s Castle while you’re in the area!).  Make sure you’ve got plenty of gas, water, food, and a spare tire or two, as you’ll be far off the beaten path on this journey, and cell phones tend to be useless hunks of plastic and heavy metals, in and around the national park.

After 26 miles, dedicated rock-watchers will reach the north end of the Racetrack and the Grandstand.  Ponder the fact that this dry lakebed (playa) evaporated around 10,000 years ago, and the mud in the playa is at least a thousand feet thick! Drive on a couple miles south, and you will be in mobile rock territory. Walk out a half mile or so southeast on the playa for the best rock watching.

Rocks tumble down onto the lakebed, this much we humans have been able to figure out.  After that, we know that they leave tracks, so they must move.  But how?  Some of these wandering rocks weigh hundreds of pounds!

The best theory anyone’s come up with so far is that the occasional rains (less than two inches per year, on average), get the lakebed slick, and then high desert winds push the rocks on their merry way.

Don’t get tempted to go push them yourself—leave the heavy lifting to nature, and leave the view of our mysterious rocks unspoiled for future visitors.  Don’t drive on the playa (stay on the road), or take the rocks (their value is in their mysterious journey, not their literal mineral worth), and if you choose to explore the other roads leading out of the Racetrack Valley, be aware they may require four-wheel drive, and during winter months, chains (trust us, it is eminently possible to get stuck in snow in Death Valley National Park).

The National Park Service strongly urges you to stay on paved roads in the park during the summer. If you get in trouble in the summer on a lonely dirt road, there are likely to be extremely serious consequences, and no one to help.  The fun- loving rangers are quite serious about this, though complete dessication is one way to obtain one’s goals with weight loss (removing all water in one’s body lightens the load considerably).  Seriously, with surface temperatures reportedly reaching around 200 degrees, you might want to listen to the rangers.-      

OK, so maybe watching rocks that move isn’t quite “your thing.”  How about a visit to the official center of the world? That’s right, in Felicity, down in the southeastern corner of the state, lies the acknowledged formal center of the world—inside a pyramid.

When Melchior Diaz wandered through this area in 1540, he probably had no idea he was so close to the center of the world. Neither did the French soldiers of Emperor Maximillian, who were chasing down a Juarista rebel in 1865.  But now you can visit the center of the world, just by getting off Interstate 8 at the Sidewinder exit.

The official center of the world is inside the pyramid.  How did it get there, you ask?  Via a children’s book, Coe, the Good Dragon at the Center of the World. OK, so now you’re really confused. But this is the way things do come to exist in the desert, after all.

It begins with Jacques-Andre Istel, mayor of Felicity. Istel is from France, but came to America many years ago. He began the “town” of Felicity back in the 1980s, and named it after his wife, Felicia. Istel, whose business is parachutes and jumping out of planes, wrote his book about Coe, the Good Dragon at the Center of the World, and Felicia came up with the pyramid idea.  The Institut Geographique National, and even Imperial County, have recognized the center of the world to be here.

But there’s more to Felicity than just being the center of the world.  Take, for instance, its sundial with the sculpture inspired by the arm of God (as represented in Michaelangelo’s Dawn of Creation in the Sistine Chapel—it points the correct time every year on Christmas at noon), or the spiral staircase leading up to nowhere that Istel brought over from the Eiffel Tower, that is over 100 years old. Or how about Felicity’s church on a hill—a hill that wasn’t there before Istel brought in around 150,000 tons of dirt to make it.

And Felicity has become, over the years, the site for The World Commemorative Center, with everything worth knowing about human existence and more, inscribed in granite panels with its Museum of History in Granite. Istel has dedicated the town to remembrance—of everything from French aviation to astronomy, and American history too.  Immortalize yourself on the Wall for the Ages here at the center of the world—it’s tax deductible—or mail a postcard to friends from the Felicity Post Office (the Chinese Consul was on hand for its dedication).

The center of the world is only open Thanksgiving through Easter, when it’s not as hot as it is the other months of the year.  For roadies, note that Center of the World Drive is the old US 80.  Take home some Felicity perfume, the most romantic perfume in the world, which commemorates the larger than life romance of Jacques-Andre and Felicity. -      

Not far from the friendly hot springs town of Tecopa, lies a secluded desert Shangri-La—China Ranch. This lush desert oasis lies along the Old Spanish Trail (now a national historic trail) and has a rich natural and human history (for example, while working as a scout for John Fremont in 1843, Kit Carson and Alexis Godey shot two Indians who had raided Resting Springs, in China Ranch Canyon).

A Chinese man settled here around the turn of the century, but was run off at gun point by an opportunistic interloper named Morrison. The name, however, stuck.  Date palms were planted in the early 1920s by Vonola Modine, and date lovers continue to be eminently grateful to her for doing so.

Harvest season runs from September through December, with adult trees producing up to 300 pounds of delicious dates, some of exotic and unique varieties.  Dates, and freshly baked date bread and other treats, are available, along with the desert’s best date shake (worth the drive, itself).

From China Ranch you can hike a number of trails that will take you to the beautiful Amargosa River, along the old Tonopah and Tidewater railroad grade, into colorful canyons (including a slot canyon), and by the remains of old mines (try to stay out of mine shafts, they really are quite dangerous).

When you go to visit China Ranch, don’t forget the stops along the way: the Shoshone Museum, the art gallery at the Tecopa Hot Springs Resort, and the Amargosa Opera House.-

Back in 1942, the desert began to come alive with military activity. Major General George S. Patton Jr. had been ordered to establish a training center to train troops for desert warfare.  With North Africa as a likely destination, Patton began training in earnest, establishing his headquarters at Camp Young, now known as Chiriaco Summit.  From there, tanks and troops ranged out for hundreds of miles, with 10 other camps established throughout the desert (you can still find traces of them in your travels).

The camps in the California-Arizona Maneuver Area trained nearly one million troops during World War II, in often difficult circumstances, before they were closed in 1944.

The General George S. Patton Memorial Museum remains just off Interstate 10 at Chiriaco Summit to commemorate this era in our history with a museum, tank yard, and gift shop. The museum offers a rare glimpse back into military desert warfare training as it was in the days of old “Blood and Guts.”    The museum also features the West Coast Vietnam Wall and The Defenders of Freedom Wall, and makes the perfect place to spend a meaningful Veterans Day.

Speaking of the Amargosa Opera House... along about where Highway 190 joins Highway 127 lies the former mining town of Death Valley Junction. You might just drive on through, heading for some distant destination, but you’d be making a mistake.

The story of the Opera House begins back in New York, an odd place for a desert story to start, but nonetheless, that’s precisely where this story begins—with the birth of a young girl.  Her father was a newspaper reporter who took her and her mother to see a concert, opera, play, or ballet frequently.  The girl, Marta Becket, was drawn to the arts, and became an accomplished dancer, musician, and artist.

As part of her career, Becket toured, doing concerts across the country. A friend hosted a party for Becket and her husband, Tom Williams, before they embarked on her 1967 tour. The party was held at a psychic’s apartment, and Becket was told that this would be her final tour, and that she would leave New York for a far away, rural, place. As consolation, the psychic also predicted that Becket would do the most satisfying work of her life in her new home.

Marta and Tom bought a travel trailer for the 21-concert tour. Between engagements, the couple went to Death Valley for a reprieve. But one morning, the trailer had a flat tire, and the nearest place to have it fixed was Death Valley Junction.

While the tire got fixed (on desert time), Becket wandered around the adobe Amargosa Hotel.  The building formed three sides of a square, and at the end of the third side was Corkill Hall, an old auditorium, long unused.  Becket saw a small dusty stage inside, and, well, that was that.

Through hard work and perserverance, Becket and her husband rented the auditorium for $45 a month, and set about turning it into the Amargosa Opera House.  Becket taught ballet to local children, and then, on February 10, 1968, she held her first performance—for about a dozen locals, as a rare desert rain dripped through holes in the roof.

Becket decided to create her own audience, and over the course of four years or so, this talented painter transformed the humble auditorium into a grand theatre with king and queen, attendant nobility, monks and nuns, gypsies, Indians, and, of course, cats.  It is a work of stunning imagination, color, and life (though recently damaged by a drunk driver who hit the outside wall).

Becket, in her 80s, continues to perform Saturday nights in season, and efforts to preserve her work for future generations continue. We at The Sun Runner hope that the Amargosa Opera House continues to be a cultural icon of the desert for many years to come. -

You could say that the story of this mountain started with a balloon, but I think Leonard might correct me if I did. Let’s just say that the story of this mountain started with God. The balloon was Leonard’s idea.

In 1967, which proved to be a momentous year for desert culture, Leonard Knight, a Korean War veteran from Vermont, was visiting his sister Irene in San Diego.  His sister was a devout Christian, and one day, Leonard unexplainably began reciting the Sinner Prayer over and over again.  His spontaneous conversion took, and his passion for Jesus and God are as intense as they were on that day.

It must be about 30 some-odd years ago or so that Leonard Knight, now in his mid-70s, saw a hot air ballon and got the idea that it would be wonderful to have his own hot air balloon that said “God is Love” on the side.  Then, he could float above the world proclaiming that simple message of hope to all below.

But after stitching and creating his hot air balloon over several years, it would not fly. Maybe God didn’t want Leonard to have a balloon, after all.

Leonard had tried to launch his creation out near Niland, by the Salton Sea, just outside a place called Slab City, which is a story all in itself.  When it didn’t work, he stayed for a while to work with the adobe clay, to make a little monument to God’s love.  That monument gradually turned into a mountain of sorts,  but after about four years, the mountain crumbled.

Leonard, who is truly an amazing man, rebuilt his mountain using adobe with straw, and painting it with donated cans of paint. Leonard estimates more than 100,000 gallons of paint have gone into the covering of his mountain.

Another decade came and went, and some folks began to take note of his mountain. Local government got concerned about having a religious monument there, and tested the soil around Salvation Mountain for toxic waste. Tests reportedly found high levels of lead in the soil, and plans were made to cart off Salvation Mountain to a toxic waste dump.

But Leonard has his supporters (a large, growing group), and new soil samples—from the same holes as before—showed no unacceptable levels of contaminants of any sort.  One friend, Senator Barbara Boxer, had Salvation Mountain placed into the Congressional Record as a national treasure, which, of course, it is.

Leonard, who may tell you he is not an artist, has created a work of folk art that is reflective of his spirituality—simple and awingly beautiful. In addition to Salvation Mountain, Leonard has a “museum” in progress, an amazing straw bale and adobe concoction supported with tire trees.  His creation has been internationally recognized as art worthy of recognition, but perhaps it is Leonard himself—his love of God, and his unquenchable desire to express the simple theology that God is love, that is the truly awesome work of creation. -

The Desert!  Either you will love it or you will hate it.  If you hate it you will fly from it and never wish to see its face again.  If you love it, it will hold you and draw you as will no other land on earth.

- Marshal South

On the windy top of Ghost Mountain, inside the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, there stands a deteriorating adobe house, once home to one of the California deserts’ best known characters—Marshal South. This place is all that remains of Yaquitepec, “home of the Yaqui,” where Marshal and his wife Tanya raised their children—and desert legend—for a decade and a half, beginning in the early 1930s.

Marshal’s concept was to return to nature, in all its glory, and to raise their three children in this desert idyll. And Marshal captured the spirit of his living experiment on the pages of Desert magazine, albeit in slightly glorified terms.

But his portrayal of this earthy existence struck a chord with readers, and South’s columns became the most popular writings in all of Desert magazine’s lengthy history.

After the Navy began using nearby Earthquake Valley as a gunnery range, forcing the Souths to leave, the Ghost Mountain Experiment, as it had become known, was unraveling. Though the Souths returned to Yaquitepec, Marshal and Tanya separated not long after.  Marshal soon died, and Tanya and her children returned to civilization (the children were evidently exceptionally well educated).

Tanya refused to talk about her Ghost Mountain experience, and many questions remain about the space between Marshal’s embellishments of their natural life in the desert, and the perceptions of that life by the other four people who lived it.

Diana Lindsay has an excellent book on Marshal South, and John McDonald had made a superb documentary film.  Both provide wonderful insight into the world of Yaquitepec. -

Down by the Salton Sea, the most surreal body of water one can imagine (with a history to match, and best told when both teller and tellees are drunk), the famed San Andreas Fault extends southward.   And on the eastern shore of the sea, one of our all-time favorite desert destinations awaits.

No, it’s not another super mega-fish die-off, where literally millions of dead tilapia wash up on shore (though you really should see one first-hand to appreciate it—and smell it). Nah, it’s not a bird die-off, when they eat the dying tilapia at the wrong time and thus share their fate.

Nope, it’s the incredible mud volcanoes of the Salton Sea!

There are both mud pots (bubbling pools of mud), and mud volcanoes (the cutest mini-volcanoes you’ll ever see), to be found in the Salton Sea area.  Some are located near Niland, but our favorites are in the fields just east of Red Island (if you’re looking for a campground on another world, Imperial County has one for you there), northeast of the Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge (a fantastic birdwatching location), and not far west of Highway 111.

Not only are the mud volcanoes ridiculously cute to watch, but they make the silliest noises too!  In fact, it’s tough to wander the fields of bubbling volcanoes and pools without simply bursting out laughing. Who knew the earth could be so silly? You can see—and hear them in action on our Mojave Winds blog.  Just visit our Desert Blogs page at our website, www.thesunrunner.com. -

We hope you’ve enjoyed your mini-tour of our top 10
off the beaten path desert destinations for 2009.

What’s that? You say there’s only nine?

You’re right.

The desert is waiting for you to find your own #10!

Copyright ©1995-2010 The Sun Runner, The Magazine of California Desert Life & Culture
PO Box 2171, Joshua Tree, CA 92252, USA
Webmaster: Steve Brown