She failed... Or did she?
As she was searching for accommodations, she stumbled across a listing for La Luna Cabin outside Yucca Valley, California. Immediately, I told her that this would be a great idea for an anniversary vacation. So, she booked it, and a few weeks later, we flew from our home to Las Vegas, rented a car, and got on the road.
I've occasionally mentioned my history with the Mojave Desert, near the edge of which one can find Yucca Valley. In February of 2006, I applied for a job at Fort Irwin with Raytheon, was hired, and relocated to Barstow to work as professional OPFOR in Army training exercises. I was classified as a "Civilian on the Battlefield" and even featured - very briefly - in a 2008 documentary. You can also read about a 2008 BBC podcast covering the training at Fort Irwin here, and you can actually listen to it here.
I had originally intended to stay for between three and five years, but a variety of factors led me to seek other opportunities, and I left for Virginia after little more than fourteen months. While I had been back to California twice since leaving, July of 2023 marked sixteen years since I had set foot in the Mojave Desert. So, I thought a trip back to my old stomping grounds was a great idea!
So, we flew into Las Vegas, picked up our rental car, got something to eat, and got on the road. As I mentioned, I lived in Barstow, and the initial leg of our trip took us from Vegas to Barstow along the route I had taken several times in years past, when I was flying out of Vegas to visit home. Interstate 15 from Vegas to Barstow is quite the stretch of territory, with a mixture of failed and struggling settlements, and no shortage of dessicated detritus littering the desert. Additionally, a long stretch of the highway runs along the southwest quarter of Fort Irwin, affording me occasional glances into the training area, as well as repeated glances at Tiefort Mountain. In 2006, when I first arrived at Irwin, one of my co-workers repeatedly told me - literally, about six times during a two minute-long lecture - that "Tiefort Mountain is the biggest sumbitch out here, so if you ever get lost, you just sight in on Tiefort, and you can find your way home." I snapped a photo, sent it to some of my former co-workers, and we kept moving.
I had only ever driven past the settlement of Baker. On this trip, we stopped so that Lady Jaye could witness the glory of the World's Tallest Thermometer, and a nearly defunct TCBY location. On our way back, we ate at the legendary Mad Greek restaurant.
When we arrived in Barstow, I gave Lady Jaye a quick tour, showing her where I'd lived, where I'd bought groceries, where I'd gone drinking with my co-workers, and the main drag through town. With that over - honestly, Barstow didn't seem much different than it had been when I left, but I don't know that I'd exposed myself to much of the city during my residence there - we got on the road to Yucca Valley. During my brief season in Barstow, I had driven the routes from Barstow to Vegas (I-15), Laughlin (I-40), and back home to Oregon (US-395). I think I may have taken California State Route 247 south of Barstow for a mile or two, but never as far as Lucerne Valley, and certainly never as far as Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree, or Twentynine Palms. On the advice of a neighbor, I had deliberately avoided Joshua Tree National Park. I thoroughly enjoyed the drive, which felt like a mix of familiar terrain and unexplored territory.
Aside from a memorable dinner at The Copper Room (where our waiter looked like a young David Koresh) and two lovely dinners at Yucca Kabob, we bought groceries and made a lot of our own meals. Lady Jaye went on a lot of walks around the cabin, and I joined her for several of those. The cabin itself featured twin soaking tubs on the back deck, of which we made copious use.
Our big adventure was two mornings spent in Joshua Tree National Park. Lady Jaye read online that the best place to take sunrise photos in the park was at the Cholla Cactus Garden, where the Mojave Desert transitions into the Sonoran Desert. Mea culpa: tasked with navigation, I took a wrong turn on the first morning, and we nearly ended up driving out the northwest entry gate toward the city of Joshua Tree, instead of arriving at our planned destination. Lady Jaye was furious, and the situation was tense. We ended up driving back to our original destination to confirm the route for the next morning, then doing a bit of hiking at the Arch Rock trail, taking in both Arch Rock and Heart Rock. (A couple of months later, I happened to see Arch Rock as the Windows welcome screen!) We drove around a bit more, then enjoyed breakfast at Crossroads Cafe in Joshua Tree.
The next morning, we made it with time to spare, and got situated a few minutes early. Our goal of taking sunrise photos was partially foiled by a massive cloud that blocked the sunrise, but the cloud eventually shifted enough to allow for some great shots of the faint glow of the cacti in the morning light. From there, we went to do some hiking at the Hall of Horrors, and later at the Barker Dam Trail. Between those two hikes, we drove up to the Keys View overlook point, which was - for me - one of the highlights of the trip.
Of course, our adventures in the park led to some Googling, which revealed a great website Cali49, which boasts a lot of features on the park (including the defunct Golden Bee Mine, overlooking the Cholla Cactus Garden). It joins Tom Mahood's OtherHand website, and the Wonderhussy Ghost Town Living YouTube channels, in fueling both my fascination with the Mojave Desert, and my regret at having explored so little of it during my brief tenure as a resident therein.
For these, and other reasons, I want to figure out a way to spend a bit more time there. Will it happen? Who knows. How will I make it happen? An even better question... But, as Wilfred Thesiger so rightly noted:
"The desert had already claimed me, though I did not know it yet."So... More on that to come, I suppose.
