In Defense of Deserts

An early autumn sunset sets the sky aflame in Joshua Tree National Park in southeastern California.  When you take a closer look, you see beyond the reds and catch the blue sky beyond the clouds, and below, the subtle shades of the plants and hills.  The desert, it seems, always rewards a second look.  Rainfall is rare here, and this faint rainbow seemed like a visitor from another world...

Sunsets present themselves in endless variety and subtlety, giving a depth to an ordinary intersection on Twentynine Palms Highway.

About 72.5 miles from the southern entrance to Joshua Tree National Park, you will find the Galleta Meadows Estate in Borrego Springs, featuring about 130 impressively-scaled metal sculptures.  The unfenced, privately-owned site is open to the public every day of the year, for hiking, horseback riding, and of course photography...

The sculptures were all created by Ricardo Breceda and commissioned by landowner Dennis Avery, with the goal of land conservation and sponsoring a public art display.  There are diverse themes, including native animals like bighorn sheep and these life-size, wild horses above, and this giant scorpion facing desert insects.  Other themes focus on prehistoric animals including dinosaurs...

The sculptor also created mythical beasts...

Seen at enough distance, you can take in the full length of the 350 feet of Breceda's  sand dragon sculpture. 

The sculptures, including the tortoises below, were all created from 2008 to 2012, when Dennis Avery died.  Because of his land conservation effort, the Galleta Meadows Estate protects actual wild creatures and plants, as well as the metal kind, and because of this the land will be protected from development.   

Our two photographers exercised extra caution because serpents (the real, not sculptural kind) are common in the desert.  Despite precautions, one was surprised to be at face-level after turning around, with a rattlesnake coiled up in rocky crevice, just inches behind him.  Because he is dedicated to his craft, he got the shot, and avoided any bites...

This art car was a late 90s Buick (we think) under that eye-catching psychedelic paintwork, photographed at Rainbowland in Joshua Tree, a 3-acre art park with gallery and work studio. The park, facilities, and works were created by artist Patrick Hasson.  Somehow, California car culture has collided here with what was once called the counterculture...

A somehow-related roadside attraction invites passers-by to share their joys.  By an eerie coincidence, "my dogs" is listed over "Picasso", which stunned our other photographer because she had a legendary, much-loved hound named after Pablo Picasso.  The cosmic, psychedelic alignments keep coming, in true California style.

Just 45.5 miles west on I-10 from Joshua Tree National Park, you'll find the desert town of Palm Springs.  Though it gained fame as a center of mid-century modern architecture in the 50s and 60s, architect Lloyd Wright (son of Frank) got the ball rolling with his 1924 design of the Oasis Hotel, with innovative concrete block construction. Other postwar architects adopted perforated concrete blocks and shady metal vaulted trellises, as here, in the Old Las Palmas neighborhood...

In the same neighborhood, this mid-century bungalow forms a style suited to the then-new car culture, and the postwar innovation of air conditioning.  When I once asked a Palm Springs friend if she planned to take her dog for a nice, post-sunset walk, she replied, "Are you crazy?  It's still a hundred outside."

Even a spaceship gas station qualifies for landmark status, because of its reinforced concrete structural expressionism and futurist adventurism. Ironies abound; the futurism dates from 1964, when architect William Cody created this design.  Back to the future...

But we will want return you to the desert before closing, back out in the primordial wilds.

At Joshua Tree, this coyote pup levels his gaze at the photographer before moving on...

Because the desert rewards a second look, you realize that it is teeming with life in amazing diversity.  Folks who avoid the desert (after all, it can be hot and dry, and can make demands of us), often assume it's a vast, empty place.  After you spend some sustained time out in wild nature, perhaps you may experience a shift of perspective.  Perhaps the truly empty spaces are ill-considered artifacts of our civilization: the vast asphalt parking lots with oppressive sodium-vapor lighting, the AI data centers, and the first postwar suburban tract developments that leveled hills and cut down trees to maximize profits. We hope you take that second look, and treat the landscape and its creatures with respect.  You may come home with new gifts...

Photo Credits:  

All photos were generously provided by Veronika Sprinkel, a frequent contributor in past days of this blog, except the rattlesnake and the coyote pup shots from Duncan Mackenzie. Our wildlife photographer friends concluded their desert adventures happily, without any injuries, despite that one close call with that rattler...

Dog Days Part 2 at Boulder Coffee and Classics

Boulder's Coffee and Classics August 30 event gathered a crowd of humans, perhaps looking forward to the cooler days of autumn, and of a crowd of canines too. Of course dogs do what dogs do best, living in the present, without fretting about looking forward or backward...

And we might want to emulate the pooches' penchant for living the present, because many of the car wonks remarked on the record-setting heat wave this past summer. The early Series 1 E-Type Jag roadster was a lovely specimen, and also a car that was, back in the day, prone to overheating in traffic...

The 3.8 liter E-type was produced from 1961-64, and clues that give away the early cars include the thin shell bucket seats, and the embossed aluminum on the center dash and transmission tunnel.  At the April 1961 model introduction, the E-Type was the first production car equipped with 4-wheel independent suspension, 4-wheel disc brakes, and a dual-overhead cam engine.  

The Jag XK120 roadster appeared in autumn in 1948 as a ploy to drive showroom traffic and show off the new DOHC inline six that powered the big Mark VII sedan.  But Americans wanted the 2-seater, and Jaguar owner William Lyons saw a good export bet, and increased XK production. The XK120 was joined eventually with a coupe and convertible with wind-up windows, and stayed in production through '54. The louvered hood (oops, bonnet) was non-standard, but was a common modification for racing.

This 1939 Bentley 4.25 liter tourer offers an essay of British style from a decade earlier.  Rolls-Royce took over the firm from engineer W.O. Bentley in the Great Depression year of 1931...

The red Lotus Esprit V8 offered a mid-mounted, aluminum 4-cam, 32-valve, twin-turbocharged 3.5 liter engine designed in-house at Lotus, starting in 1996.  Esprit production ended in 2004, and around 1,500 examples of the Esprit V8 emerged from the Lotus works.  The bright blue right-hand drive original Mini (that is, of BMC, not BMW origin) looks like the perfect scaled ride for this little pup... 

American cars are in the minority at the Sunday events, but this 1956 Cadillac Eldorado commanded attention because of sheer size, along with GM Styling's over-the-top touches of  GM styling.  But a '56 Eldorado starred in a Hollywood comedy that year, "The Solid Gold Cadillac", with Judy Holliday...

Coffee and Classics events* start at 8 to 10 AM on the last Sundays from April through October, though the Memorial Day exceptions are listed on the event calendar*. On warm mornings, live music events overlap the end of the car shows, in the courtyard at Spruce Confections at 767 Pearl Street.  

The Alfa Romeo Giulia Spider (1962-65) signals the 1600 engine with this hood scoop, because the engine is a bit taller than the 1300 Giulietta.  The Ferrari Testarossa lurking back of the Alfa was produced from 1984-96. The mid-engined flat 12 had a bit over 3 times of the displacement of the little Alfa.  The author dimly recalls driving an example of each, and that the Alfa was a bit more flingable (is that a word?) on narrow country roads.  A friend had to replace the windshield on his Testarossa when a gravel truck rumbled past. I was very happy not driving at this moment...

The expanded Coffee and Classics event closes part of Pearl Street from 9th Street to 7th, and 8th from Pearl to Walnut, except for exhibitors and their old cars, so it's a safe and relaxing place for dogs to wander and sniff.  And a decent place for dog lovers to wander and sniff too...

Matt Kennan contributed some words to live by...

"You don't have to be everyone's cup of tea.

Be the person dogs run to first.

That's better anyway."

*Event schedule note: 

For more info on Boulder Coffee & Classics, you might contact event founder Mike Burroughs at fuelfedboulder@gmail.com.

Photo Credits:

All photos are by the author.