12 Places to go in the desert (but not Joshua Tree) — By Jane Pojawa Climbed every medium-sized and larger boulder in Joshua Tree National Park? There are still plenty of things to do in the area, even for the rocked-out visitor, and all of them are easy on the most maxxed wallet. Claude Bell’s Dinosaurs – Everyone who has ever driven out the 10 freeway towards Palm Springs has wondered about those giant dinosaurs at Cabazon, now more famous for its casino. Knott’s Berry Farm sculptor and portrait artist Claude K. Bell (1897-1988) first constructed Dinny (Dine-ee), a 150-ton, larger than life-sized sculpture of an Apatosaurus to attract customers to his Wheel Inn Cafe, which opened in 1958. Dinny was started in 1964 and created over eleven years out of spare material from the construction of nearby Interstate 10 at a cost of $300,000. In the early ’80s, he was joined by Mr. Rex, a 100-ton Tyrannosaurus. More than just sculptures, the dinosaurs are also functioning buildings. Improbably, since 1996 they have been owned by a Christian group that uses them to “prove” the case for intelligent design. Still, regardless of your religious proclivities, the Cabazon dinosaurs are first-rate roadside attraction sculptures and a fitting legacy for Claude Bell’s unique genius. Strolling around and picnicking outside is free; admission to the facility is $5.
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50800 Seminole Drive Cabazon, CA 92230-2304 (951) 922-8700 cabazondinosaurs.com Whitewater Trout Farm – Just a little further down the Interstate 10 is the old Whitewater Trout Farm now re-imagined as the Whitewater Preserve. It’s not just a guys-only fishing hole anymore either, it’s a biodiversity environment lab with hiking trails, a great picnic area and lots of activities – like bird-watching and ranger-led moonlight hikes. And then there are the trout: it turns out that every species of western trout is either threatened or endangered, and down to about 5 percent of their historic range. The Whitewater Preserve is a great place to spend the day – the log cabin visitor center looks just like a hunting lodge, the ranger cabin is solarpowered. Get a cup of free fish food, feed the trout and enjoy the views of San Gorgornio and San Jacinto. Free! 9160 Whitewater Canyon Rd #549 Whitewater, CA 92282-2102 (760) 325-7222 www.wildlandsconservancy.org
Take Interstate 10 to Palm Avenue and head north to Desert Hot Springs. While you’re there, you might want to check out one of the many hot springs for which this town is so justifiably famous. Cabot’s Pueblo Museum – So many of the desert’s monuments involve a motivated individual with unlimited concrete. Case in point: Cabot Yerxa (1883-1965) was known in his lifetime as “The Father of Desert Hot Springs.” Born in Sioux territory at his parent’s trading post, he was guest of Mexican president Porfirio Diaz at the Castillo de Chapultepec in the 1890’s, member of an Inuit household during the heady years of the Alaska gold rush, importer of Cuban cigars following the Spanish-American War, political appointee of Theodore Roosevelt, citrus baron, desert homesteader, discoverer of the aquifers that have made Desert Hot Springs a worldrenowned health center, soldier in WWI (where he attained the rank of sergeant with the 345th Battalion Tank Corps), student at Academie Julien in 1920’s Paris, world traveler, city father, Impressionist painter, newspaper columnist, mystic and builder of Desert Hot Spring’s only museum – an epic monument that is an much a sculpture as it is a building.
Cabot’s Pueblo Museum, below, is as much a sculpture as a building, and is still the heart of Desert Hot Springs, California.
Spring 2011 | the insider
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