Tag archives: desert

Now that it’s spring and we’re starting to travel again, our local deserts have become popular nearby attractions. Joshua Tree, Death Valley, and the Mojave Desert are at their best this time of year and you might even catch some wildflowers if they got enough rain. At NASA, in addition to enjoying seasonal wildflowers, we […]

It sounded like loud cannon blasts hidden away, echoing ahead in massive clusters of boulders somewhere in Joshua Tree National Park.  I scrambled up into the direction of those deafening booms, a natural cathedral of granite spires, cliffs, and rock concealing two desert bighorn sheep rams in predawn light. They were in the rut battling […]

SCORE International (Southern California Off Road Enthusiasts) is the sanctioning body for desert racing, featuring four Baja races annually, most noted is the Baja 1000, slated for November 18, 2021. More than 300 registered Pro and Sportsman class racers of all ages worldwide participate with cars, trucks, UTVs, motorcycles, and quads.  Our town’s top racers […]

I recently fled the post-COVID couldn’t-wait-to-travel-again-May-gray blues for a five-day escape to the Coachella “sink.” It’s not really a valley (this is a misnomer), but a geological basin, I learned on a lively San Andreas Fault Red Jeep Tour.  I went to visit a few friends, have a little R&R with pool time, learn more […]

The stoic gentleman at the Mono Lake visitor center studied me like a deputy sheriff during a roadside sobriety test. “You can die out there,” he said deadpan. “Folks paddle out there and they don’t come back. The winds come from out of nowhere and catch people off guard.” I did my damnedest to convince […]

As many times as I’ve been to Palm Springs and the desert towns, I’d never heard of the General Patton Desert Museum. It’s located off Interstate 10 about 30 miles east of Indio at Chiriaco Summit, which was the entrance to Camp Young command post for the Desert Training Camp (DTC). It was the largest […]