The Pumpkin Patch

Ocotillo Wells SVRA

The Pumpkin Patch is my favorite place to work at Ocotillo Wells unless, of course, it is windy. They are not petrified pumpkins, dinosaur eggs or geodes. They are sandstone concretions. Wikipedia it!

Salvation

Salvation Mountain, Slab City

No matter what you choose to believe or not believe, any man that can build a mountain is a true inspiration.

Salton Sea Mud Volcanoes

Niland

A trip to see the gurgling and burping of the earth's bowels...

Wild Turkey

Mecca Hills Slot Canyons

Sitting on a rock next to the glow of the campfire…Grubby hands scooping beans right out the tin can. Sharing laughter with pleasant company while engaging in the ritual “pull and pass” of whiskey. The warmth of a sleeping bag amidst the chilly canyon air… It is these very moments, which countless cowboys, hobos, college students and artists have already experienced moreover glorified; that leave us not at a standstill, but moving to the fore.

Orion's Disapproval

The haze has settled. Orion watches over us from his normal resting place. Does he disapprove of the 6 lane highways being erected in the sky? What was once a singular winding, lonely and dusty Milky Way are now the paved, predetermined paths in which the bright lights of satellites and airplanes zoom by.

Introducing: the new and improved...

MILKY EXPRESSWAY

Playful Pursuit

An ocottillo

To my surprise this afternoon, I saw a coyote willfully but playfully pursue a jackrabbit, weaving slaloms between ocotillos. I can’t help to think that in this bone dry environment, neither animal has it easy. The fact that fauna their sizes (though miniature in comparison to that of places I’m accustomed to) can even exist out here continually amazes me. God speed, giants of the desert!

The "W"

Locals don't call it by it's name as that may beckon it...

The big “W” is howling again. Eerie moans through the crack in my bedroom window. It is all encompassing and seemingly impossible to escape. Another indicator of the harshness of this land I set up shop in. Luckily, one can find respite indoors, where the only reminder of the cruelty outside can be heard softly in the background amongst the safety of my government furnished and carpeted luxury.