The West is Still Wild
It was 2015 when I visited Death Valley for the first time. I mean, I had seen the desert…. the windmills off the 10 on the way to Palm Springs, knowing I was just another 20 minutes away from floating in the pool with a cocktail. Yeah, I’d seen the desert. I loved the desert!
But something magical happened driving out the 14 when suddenly the landscape turned to a real-life panorama of things I had only seen previously in a Wile E. Coyote cartoon. I was in a rented van whose max speed topped out at 55 with 5 of my friends and we hadn’t seen another car for over an hour. “This is it”, I thought.
As we slowly made our way deeper into the Valley, I was a kid on a road trip again with my nose pressed to the glass. The colours and textures were just astounding. I had never seen anything like it.
Native American petroglyphs covering the rocks of the Coso Rock Art National Historic Landmark. The boomtown of Trona, now with a population less than 1000. The wild donkeys at Panamint Valley. The singing sand. The wildflowers. The rocks that move on their own at Racetrack Playa.
Who says the west isn’t wild?
One month later, we’re back in the car, past the windmills and heading up Hwy 62 to Joshua Tree National Park. If Palm Spring and Death Valley started my desert crush, Joshua Tree ignited my desert passion. With the Park covering a total area of 789,745 acres, JTNP and the surrounding areas are unparalleled in both natural beauty and quirky history. The hi-desert awoke a sense of wonder in me that I thought was long gone. I made up my mind right then and there that this is where I want to retire.
Flash forward 2 years and a couple dozen road trips later, I find myself sitting in my realtor’s tiny office in Yucca Valley, closing escrow on a house in 29 Palms, just 5 minutes from the Park’s North Entrance. Since then, I’ve met swap meet oracles, been chased to my car by a pack of desert dogs, spent countless nights star gazing / looking for aliens… (Let’s admit it. Mostly looking for aliens.) I have a slew of stories and characters I look forward to sharing in future posts.
I draw so much inspiration from Southern California, from the urban landscapes of Los Angeles to the vast emptiness of the desert. It’s somewhere between these two extremes that Mojave Moon Apothecary was born.
Death Valley, 2015. Probably one of my favourite photos I have even taken. I snapped this photo through the windshield while driving.