Salton Sea, CA. The Salton Sea was two sides of a rusted coin: a place for people who were there for a dream, and a place for people whose dreams had died. I’m with my friend, and he’s never been here before. We’re taking a field trip to the land of wreck and ruin. We…
White House Saloon, Randsburg, CA. The desert can be a thirsty place, but if you’re visiting Randsburg, California, the White House Saloon will slake your thirst on many levels. Randsburg is part of a cluster of ghost towns in the Mojave Desert close to the junction of Hwy 395 and Hwy 14. There is a…
Owens Valley, Keeler, CA. It took me a minute to realize I was standing in the middle of a political art installation, prompted, apparently, by decades old venom directed at the Los Angeles Department of Water. A grassy expanse rolled out ahead of us, the snow-covered Sierra Nevada Mountains spectacular in the background. Fair weather…
Red Mountain, CA. Red Mountain is a time capsule. Daily life in a high desert mining town. Pop. 130, but the saloon is shut down. The grocery store is only of value as a piece of decay, for exploring old wrecks. It’s a deep freeze of memory, little motions among the frozen foods that make…
