The Sun Runner Magazine's Annual Desert Travel Issue

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The Sun Runner The Magazine of the Real California Desert December 2011/January 2012—Vol. 17, No. 6 The Sun Runner Magazine PO Box 2171, Joshua Tree, CA 92252 (760)820-1222 • www.thesunrunner.com Publisher/Executive Editor:Steve Brown publisher@thesunrunner.com Founding Editor Emeritus: Vickie Waite Asst. Publisher, in memoriam: Barbara Buckland Theatre/Film Editors: Jack & Jeannette Lyons Literary Editor: Delphine Lucas Music Editor: Judy Wishart Calendar Editor: Lynelle White Contributing Writers Lorraine Blair • Philip Bonafede Steve Brown • Carlos Gallinger Lou Gerhardt • Jennie Kelly Diana Lindsay • Jack Lyons Steve Salkin • Judy Wishart Contributing Photographers & Artists: Lorraine Blair • Steve Brown Gretchen Grunt • Jennie Kelly Mike Lipsitz • Randal Massaro Karin Mayer • Judy Wishart Advertising Sales: John Cucchiara, Senior Sales Manager Ashley Ziegler Sun Runner Team Support: Christina Dooley • Isha Jones And all our advertisers, subscribers and readers! Thank you!

The Sun Runner Magazine features desert news, desert issues and commentary, arts & entertainment, natural and cultural history, columns, poetry, stories by desert writers, and more, for the enormous California desert region. Published bimonthly.

MAGAZINE DEADLINE: January 23 for the February/March issue, for advertising & editorial. To list a desert event free of charge in The Sun Runner’s online desert events calendar, please send your complete press release and event information (preferably with photos) to calendar@thesunrunner.com, or mail to: Calendar, c/o: The Sun Runner Magazine, PO Box 2171, Joshua Tree, CA 92252. Please include all relevant information in text format. Notices submitted without complete information or in an annoying format may not be posted. Event information absolutely will not be taken over the telephone or telepathically (it hurts!).

SUBMISSIONS: By mail to the address above; by email: publisher@thesunrunner. com, or stop us when we’re at Carlee’s in Borrego Springs like everybody else does.

SUBSCRIPTIONS: $22/year U.S.A. ($38/ year International, $38 trillion Intergalactic) Copyright © 2011 The Sun Runner. Permission for reproduction of any part of this publication must be obtained from the publisher. The opinions of our contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the magazine, which is an inanimate object. We have made some effort to be accurate, but we are not responsible for errors or omissions in material submitted to us, nor claims by advertisers. Advertising, press releases, and public service announcements are accepted at the mysterious discretion of the all-seeing publisher.

The Sun Runner The Magazine of the Real California Desert

December 2011/January 2012 – The Desert Travel Issue

Inside this Issue:

Dry Heat, by Steve Brown ... 13 The Tortoise Telegraph, News gathered from around the desert – at our own pace ... 14 Down from the Mountain, by Steve Brown ... 17 Letters from... you ... 18 Jeep Tours (Finally) Come to the Joshua Tree Gateway Communities,

by Steve Brown ... 20 Christmas Shopping in the Real California Desert, by Steve Brown ... 21 Visions of the Indian Canyons ... 23 Can You Keep a Secret?, by Steve Brown ... 26 Carlee’s: The Heart of Borrego Springs, by Steve Brown ... 32 Sky Art of Borrego Springs, by Steve Brown ... 36 The New Guide to Ricardo Breceda’s Sky Art of Borrego Springs,

by Diana Lindsay ... 37 Boats Return to Fastest Water in the World, by Jennie Kelly ... 38 DeRanger Steve: Spirit of the West, by DeRanger Steve Salkin ... 40 Desert Prospecting 101, by Philip Bonafede ... 42 The Ways of Things—Petroglyphs: Traveling the Pathways of Time,

by Carlos Gallinger ... 43 Ramblings From Randsburg, On the Trail of... California Historical Landmarks... Especially Number 938 on the Rand!, by Lorraine Blair ... 44 Desert Theatre Beat, by Jack Lyons ... 45 There’s No Doubt This Lady is a Winner: Jeannette Lyons ... 46 Film Talk, by Jack Lyons ... 47 Hi-Desert Music News, by Judy Wishart ... 48 Positive Living: Burke LeSage, by Lou Gerhardt ... 50 The Best Places to Dine in the Real Desert ... 53 The Best Places to Stay in the Real Desert ... 55

Cover Art — My Two Foot House, by Gretchen Grunt

Gretchen Grunt is one of our favorite desert artists. This 29 Palms artist runs the magical 29 Palms Creative Center, both a gallery and an institute of higher learning, where Gretchen introduces folks to print-making and other artistic pursuits. She’s a creative force to be reckoned with, and a positive force as natural as the Oasis of Mara where she’s located. If anything captures the true desert nature of 29 Palms, where you can “do nothing, and do it well,” it’s Gretchen’s cover art for this issue. Thanks Gretchen!

Looking for a way to express yourself in the desert? Schedule a private art class with Gretchen for yourself or your family and friends. www.29palmscreativecenter.com “The other Desert—the real Desert—is not for the eyes of the superficial observer, or the fearful soul or the cynic. It is a land, the character of which is hidden except to those who come with friendliness and understanding. To these the Desert offers rare gifts: health-giving sunshine—a sky that is studded with diamonds—a breeze that bears no poison—a landscape of pastel colors such as no artist can duplicate— thorn-covered plants which during countless ages have clung tenaciously to life through heat and drought and wind and the depredations of thirsty animals, and yet each season send forth blossoms of exquisite coloring as a symbol of courage that has triumped over terrifying obstacles.”

– Randall Henderson and J. Wilson McKenney, There Are Two Deserts, Desert magazine, Volume 1, Number 1, November, 1937

Do you have photos and information about desert events? The Sun Runner produces the most comprehensive desert-wide events calendar for the California deserts and surrounding areas. If you have event info or photos, please send them to calendar@thesunrunner.com.

12 The Sun Runner – December 2011/January 2012

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his issue marks the end of The Sun Runner’s 17th year, and the beginning of what appears to be an exciting 18th as the magazine of the real California desert. There are so many things happening, I think I need to sit down for a moment. Sorry, you can get dizzy with all that’s going on.

First of all, I hope you like our new paper for our cover. It came to me one morning that if we weren’t going to be glossy and slick like our Coachella Valley media cousins, then why not be the all anti-glossy magazine? If it works well and folks like it, we’ll work with it, and if not, we’ll change it. It’s all part of our adolescent growing up process!

We’re also moving a lot more of the “calendary” (not a real word) type material out of the print edition and onto our new, gorgeous website. Our new website will feature full integration of blog, current news items, travel ideas, social media, videos, photo slideshows, our online desert events calendar, digital editions, maps, Sun Blast newsletter, and more, and it will all be SEO (search engine optimized) for maximum presence online, as well as being mobile and tablet friendly.

In addition, it will feature our Desert Directory, a business, organizational, and attractions directory, both attractive and useful, for desert locals and visitors—a great tool for tourists coming to explore the desert (explore it online first!).

Our editorial approach is maturing as well. We’re looking to expand our roster of contributing writers, photographers, and artists from all around the California deserts. We want short news blurbs from around the desert, longer stories, poetry, short fiction, history, profiles, and more, from everywhere from Palm Springs to Calexico, Twentynine Palms and Ridgecrest to Shoshone. We’ll supplement our print editions with additional photos, video, and editorial content online, allowing us to share more of the desert with our readers in between print issues.

We’re also not going to be shy. We’re going to be more aggressive with our hard news reporting, and more of an advocate for desert preservation issues, as well as for our communities and their interests, as well as our creative spirits out here.

With this issue, we’re beginning to move into our new format, but our metamorphosis will be gradual, and we welcome input from our readers on the way. What do you want from the California desert’s only regional desert-wide media? We have more great stories we’d like to share than we’ll ever have pages to print them, so if you have something you’d really like to see in the magazine, please let us know.

We’ll be celebrating our 17th birthday on Saturday, January 7, from 3 to 6 p.m., under the tent at the 29 Palms Inn at the beautiful Oasis of Mara. We’ll have food, drinks, birthday cake, entertainment, and a remembrance of my former assistant, Barbara Buckland, as well as a presentation of some of the exciting new developments unfolding here at Sun Runner World Headquarters in Free Joshua Tree.

The weekend after that, we’ll be at the Long Beach Convention Center for the LA Travel & Adventure Show with the California Deserts Visitors Association, promoting the California deserts as a vacation destination to thousands of southern Californians for our fifth year in a row. To those of you just picking up The Sun Runner at the travel show, it’s a pleasure to meet you, and we hope to see you out here in the desert soon.

I hope you’ll welcome Philip Bonafede to our roster of columnists. Philip is going to introduce us to one aspect of desert culture that’s been around as long as humans have inhabited this region: prospecting. I’m looking forward to learning more about where to look for gold in the arroyos and canyons of the desert where there are so many “lost” mines and legends.

And now we head south to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and the very hospitable town of Borrego Springs in this issue, where the most legendary of desert prospectors, Peg Leg Smith, has a monument erected in his honor (Note to the man who found Peg Leg’s gold—please prove it by sending several nuggets to our offices for verification purposes, just as you did years ago for the old Desert magazine!). When we stopped to pay homage at Peg Leg’s memorial, I gathered up 10 rocks and tossed them on the pile! It’s a pretty big pile. December 2011/January 2012 – The Sun Runner 13

Blood Money Activists gathered recently in Victorville at the city hall to raise awareness about public money spent to slaughter wildlife. The rally and town hall meeting on November 17 brought together representatives from government in Victorville and San Bernardino County, as well as organizations such as Native Americans for Social Justice, AIM (American Indian Movement), First Nation’s Four Directions, with Kenny Three Feathers, the founder of the Native American Animal Rights Movement, and Rachelle Figueroa, founder of the Morningstar Foundation, and others. Wild horse and burro activists, The Coyote Canyon Heritage Herd Repatriation, and Wolf Mountain Sanctuary, joined animal rights activist Randal Massaro from the Union Members for the Preservation of Wildlife Worldwide, to raise awareness about public policy toward animals such as the mustang, burro, coyote, and bear.

Massaro said the rally wasn’t to point a finger at anyone, but rather to bring attention to the spending of tax dollars to wage war on our wildlife.

“It’s a way of expressing our grievances, dissatisfaction, and disapproval with the decisions that they are making, but in a respectful manner,” Massaro said. “After all, it’s our tax dollars, it’s our wildlife, and these politicians work for us as our public servants. We should have a say so on how they spend our money, and how they not only kill our wildlife, but literally spend millions of our tax dollars to decimate and slaughter wildlife to the point of no return, much like they did to the grizzly bears that once roamed this valley, or the California 14 The Sun Runner – December 2011/January 2012

gray wolf or Mexican gray wolf that used to be here.”

Massaro said the time is coming when the only wildlife we’ll be able to show our grandchildren will be in a zoo or storybook unless action is taken now. He noted that San Bernardino County spends nearly $70,000 every year to pay an animal trapping company to respond to wildlife calls, and that the company traps and kills many animals needlessly.

Massaro is highly critical of government agencies and their approach toward wildlife.

“Often these agencies operate with impunity, and routinely operate as rogue government agencies with their own agenda, and answer to nobody or often make their own rules as they go along,” he noted, citing testimonials, photos, and undercover video footage from investigators and whistleblowers, including former Bureau of Land Management agents.

“The truth of the matter is, who needs hunters and poachers when you have rogue government agencies like BLM that are acting under the direction of the Department of the Interior’s Ken Salazar, a fifth-generation cattle rancher, to go out and round up wild horses and burros and spending $75 million of our tax dollars, only to send the horses and burros to the slaughterhouses in Canada and Mexico, at the behest of the cattle ranching industry.” (President Obama recently signed legislation authorizing the slaughter of horses domestically.)

Massaro added that with horse slaughter now returning to America, taxpayers will fund USDA inspection of horse meat at the cost of millions of dollars a year.

Renowned horse and wildlife activists Simone Netherlands, Martinelli Price, and Nick Illia voiced their concerns by calling in to the town hall meeting, as did Lorna Moffat from the TV series Meet America. Representatives from Congressional Representative Buck McKeon’s office, San Bernardino County Supervisor Neil Derry’s office, Assemblyman Steve Knights office, Mayor Ryan McEachron of Victorville (and a Congressional candidate), the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, and others participated.

The Sun Runner will be taking a look at wildlife management in the desert region this next year, with a special focus on mustangs and burros, part of the heritage of the Old West, and also an environmental challenge for public lands managers.

For more information on Massaro’s efforts, please visit www. wildlifekeepers.org.

Free Joshua Tree Under Seige Of course, protests aren’t just taking place up in Victorville.

Here in Free Joshua Tree, we seem to have joined the “Threat of the Week” club, and it’s not been all that much fun.

First, there’s the proposed casino, proposed by the TwentyNine Palms Band of Mission Indians. As the tribe’s plans for their Nuwu Casino and RV park on their reservation lands in Twentynine Palms apparently have been set aside for the time being, the tribe has proposed building an off-reservation casino on Route 62 in Joshua Tree. As for impacts, it’s hard to say whether it is better or worse to have the casino on tribal reservation lands directly butting up to the border of Joshua Tree National Park, or off the reservation in Joshua Tree proper.

The casino must be approved in a two-part process that currently doesn’t look too good for the tribe’s off-reservation casino aspirations. Senator Dianne Feinstein has come out publicly against the casino proposal, along with San Bernardino County Supervisory Neil Derry. Joshua Tree National Park Superintendent Mark Butler is quoted via Feinstein’s office in some media sources as listing negative impacts of the casino on the park, but while Butler may have offered his professional assessment of the potential impacts to Feinstein’s staff when asked, our sources note that Butler and the National Park Service do not take official positions on developments such as the casino, outside of park boundaries. The park never sent out any statement of support or opposition to the project that we’re aware of here.

A Dollar General store has also been proposed for Joshua Tree. This 9,000 square foot general merchandise store is meeting a great deal of community opposition and a petition has been launched to oppose it (another petition remains in circulation opposing the casino project).

While we would not oppose Dollar General opening in existing vacant commercial properties in both Yucca Valley and Twentynine Palms, we oppose both the casino and store projects due to very real concerns about spreading commercial sprawl along Route 62 east of the Town of Yucca Valley (conversely, we support efforts by the Mojave Desert Land Trust to purchase the one mile section of land along the highway that was site of the former planned Katz development which we also opposed).

We believe that sprawling commercial development would permanently degrade the rural small town character of Joshua Tree, and would not serve well as the “gateway” to Joshua Tree National Park. Smart development may protect and even enhance that character, but a casino, a Dollar General store, and even the rumored Super WalMart project considering a Joshua Tree location, would not be welcomed in Joshua Tree, not just on their own project’s merits, but by the likelihood of attracting in-fill sprawl, continuing the eastern commercial corridor of Yucca Valley into the unincorporated Joshua Tree community.

Meanwhile, the Los Coyotes Band and the City of Barstow have been pursuing the possibility of building an off-reservation casino in that Mojave Desert city. Proponents note that over 1,000 jobs would be created by that casino’s construction and operation. Assemblyman Paul Cook from Yucca Valley, who lost his district through redistricting, is now running for San Bernardino County Third District Supervisor and has come out with qualified support for the casino.

Barstow faces uncertain times ahead as high speed rail plans press forward for a route from the Los Angeles area to Las Vegas, threatening Barstow with a loss of business from train travelers no longer needing to stop for a burger and a bathroom (this apparently being the extent of Barstow’s understanding of tourism). The train likely will not stop at the Barstow casino, but the city holds out the hopes that other gamblers will.

December 2011/January 2012 – The Sun Runner 15

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Dreaming—of a Dump For nearly three decades, the Eagle Mountain dump has been the monster that just wouldn’t die. Like one of those bad B-movie psycho-killers who gets what he’s got coming to him at the end of the movie, but returns in 17 sequels, this Kaiser-inspired villain seemingly couldn’t even be killed by the Supreme Court (they probably thought it was human).

Just lately, legislation signed into law

by Governor Brown who “didn’t know” about how the law could hand Kaiser and its crony, Mine Reclamation Corporation, the tools to dig the dump’s way out of its grave once more, though the governor had received numerous explanations of this fact, seemed to offer up a new sequel to the exhausting horror series.

Now, MRC has filed for bankruptcy (it appropriately filed on Halloween, leaving the door open for yet another sequel).

The Kaiser cronies played for sympathy putting their retirees in the role of victims once again.

“The sad truth is that our retirees are dying before the continued funding of their health benefits can be assured which would have resulted from a successful Eagle Mountain landfill project,” Ron Bitonti, chairman of the Kaiser Voluntary Employee Benefit Association, stated. “When we started and supported this project 25 years ago we had over 8,000 retiree members. Now, due to the delays caused by the litigation initiated by a few environmental extremists and the delays caused by the courts, we are down to approximately 3,500 members.

Our members’ health benefits are literally at risk because we have not been able to make this project happen and see its benefits realized.”

According to the company, MRC spent nearly $85 million trying to get the world’s largest dump built on the southern border of Joshua Tree National Park, opposed by a “few environmental extremists,” including this publication, along with award-winning activists, Donna and Larry Charpied, and such radical fringe organizations as the National Parks Conservation Association.

Maybe, just maybe, Kaiser should have saved its money and spent it on their retirees instead of dreaming of a dump.

Having covered Kaiser’s labor relations before (I covered the United Steelworkers alliance with EarthFirst! back in the 1990s during a strike to try to recover benefits the workers had voluntarily given up during a time of company hardship, only to find that the company had no plans to hold up their end of the bargain to reinstate those benefits when

16 The Sun Runner – December 2011/January 2012

times got better), the real problem for Kaiser retirees isn’t the environmental extremists, it’s their corporate management.

Will the dump be resurrected once more? Stay tuned. In the meantime, Donna and Larry, the organic jojoba farmers who valiantly fought the good fight against it for so many years, now are having six square miles of desert lands around their jojoba farm scraped bare of all life for another industrial solar power project. Will they have fought all those years on behalf of others, only to have their own livelihood destroyed by an arguably obsolete industrial solar project?

Stay tuned.

In 1950, Congress deleted over a quarter million acres from Joshua Tree National Monument and Kaiser Steel Corporation was allowed to mine there in 1952. The law that allowed them to mine and mill ore also stated, “said property shall revert in fee to the United States in the event that said property is not used for a continuous period of seven years as a camp site or mill site or for other purposes in connection with mining operations.” It’s time that this land was given back to Joshua Tree National Park and these ongoing threats, including plans for a hydroelectric power plant, be eradicated once and for all. Support the “Give It Back” campaign at www. laronnajojoba.com/joshuatree.html, and protect our national park.

Now we just have to find a stake big enough to drive into the BLM! More industrial solar projects keep popping up around the desert as the Obama administration pushes its renewable power agenda that is destroying valuable habitat and Native American cultural resources across the California deserts.

While Google has closed its in-house renewable energy initiative, it continues to invest in the BrightSource Ivanpah solar power project destroying miles of desert habitat near the northeastern border of the Mojave National Preserve.

A multi-billion dollar “power tower” development, Google reportedly is investing over $160 million in the project, which also received a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the federal government.

The 100+ threatened desert tortoises that got the boot received nada.

We’re going to be taking a look at industrial “green” power projects from Blythe to Rice on Route 62, Ivanpah to Pipes Canyon, and debunking the myth that these projects are really green at all (other than the green exchanged to facilitate their construction, that is), as our government works to destroy the desert.

Remember Leonard this Christmas

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www.29PalmsCreativeCenter.com

I

t seems like we were there at Salvation Mountain (near Niland, along the eastern shores of the Salton Sea), celebrating Leonard Knight’s 80th birthday just yesterday (the last weekend of October, actually). Spirits were high (higher than the commemorative balloon ever got), and Leonard was in prime form, sharing his goodwill and God’s love with everyone in attendance.

Now, just as we go to press, Leonard has been admitted to a facility that specializes in dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, and Kevin Eubank, who had been caring for Leonard and helping with projects at Salvation Mountain, has died.

We’ll have more news soon, via our Sun Blast e-mail newsletter and our social networking sites.

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December 2011/January 2012 – The Sun Runner 17

No Dollar General Store in Joshua Tree At what point should those who work in government start learning from “The Occupy Movement” that we as a community have a right to decide what is best for our community. I understand that The County of San Bernardino has created a few minimum wage jobs, but its main focus continues to be creating revenue.

Is money really all that matters? When does the county start listening to and working for the people it is supposed to be representing? Ask us, the community, what type of businesses we would like to have here in Joshua Tree and help contact and create proposals to attract those companies to our township. A “Trader Joe’s” or “Fresh and Easy” providing healthy, organic offerings would be welcomed; either would fit our village model. Reuse of an existing building on the main street with parking in the rear would be met with far less resistance than a new building packed full of imported, disposable plastic items that did not make it to regular stores. We are not a dump for misfit merchandise. If the people of Joshua Tree want the duplicated carbon copied, corporate keep us in chain stores, they can drive to Yucca Valley because that is where many of us already have to drive to see our doctor, pick up prescriptions, visit the big boxes, and (some of us) feed our controlled craving for fast food.

What does Joshua Tree have to offer and why would a company want to open a business here? First of all, this is the main entrance to Joshua Tree National Park which receives over 350,000 visitors each year. Second, Joshua Tree has worldwide name recognition. I would say that J.T. is right up there with Huntington Beach and Sedona. People know where J.T. is or have at least heard of us for one reason or another and, because of this; we attract tourists who leave knowing they have been to a place that is truly somewhere special. Finally, J.T. is in the middle of two larger communities, 29 Palms which houses the Marine Base and Yucca Valley. Customer traffic would be drawn from all three communities and also from Morongo Valley and Landers.

Joshua Tree is a sanctuary that presents a charming, powerful entrance to this country’s most amazing, starkly beautiful boulder park. It would be dishonorable to smudge what I consider the high deserts last unspoiled gem, my chosen home and village of Joshua Tree.

Douglas A. Buckley Joshua Tree Dollar General Store in Joshua Tree I know that many in Joshua Tree will agree with me—we are so tired of having to say NO to the onslaught of inappropriate big 18 The Sun Runner – December 2011/January 2012

box chains, casinos, and cut and slash developers who see our community as easy pickings. I long to be able to say YES. Yes, I would love to see a local grocery store in Joshua Tree that sells wholesome food at a reasonable price… or yes, I would love to see a solar energy business that generates electricity for the community or a local gardening store that teaches people how to grow their own food and how to save seeds. I would shout yes at those opportunities. But the Dollar General Corporation is none of these.

Dollar General was purchased in 2007 by an investment group consisting among others of Citigroup and GS Capital Partners who are affiliates of Goldman Sachs. You remember them?

I find it cynical in the extreme that this company claims it provides a service to low-income families. This corporation is owned by the same folks whose greed contributed to this economic meltdown and who are now making a profit off the resulting increase in poverty. Dollar General Corporation announced profits of $128 million in 2010.

The truth is, we have many people in our community living in poverty who have to make their way to Yucca Valley to purchase basic items. This is why the Dollar General Corporation has picked this area. But does it really serve the poverty stricken? Are they really supposed to be thankful for the opportunity to buy inferior junk from China or the opportunity to buy food with practically no nutritional value? What is the actual cost to low-income consumers from making such purchases over time? Can’t we find a way to address poverty in our community without inviting Goldman Sachs to profit on our loss? I think we are smarter and more ingenious than that.

But really, I don’t even want to talk about the Dollar General Corporation.

Here’s what I really want to say to my community—let’s have a big meeting with ALL hands on deck and decide together what is best for us. Power to our people.

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December 2011/January 2012 – The Sun Runner 19

M

ove ovah Sedona—you may have all those pink Jeeps taking visitors on tours of vortexes, but now the Joshua Tree Gateway Communities offer tours of Joshua Tree National Park in bright red Jeeps!

That’s right. after years of lacking a tour company to provide outings into Joshua Tree National Park from the towns around the northern and western entrances to the park, Desert Adventures, the nationally recognized eco-tour and outdoor adventure company based in Palm Desert, is now offering a new guided sightseeing and hiking tour service into Joshua Tree National Park from the Twentynine Palms, Joshua Tree, and Yucca Valley areas.

Desert Adventures is now offering daily “Big Red Jeep” tours into the national park. Tours depart from the historic Roughley Manor Bed & Breakfast Inn on Joe Davis Drive in Twentynine Palms, and enter the national park through the north entrance (make sure to visit the owls at Roughley Manor).

Highlights of the three-hour Jeep adventure tour include visits to amazing granite rock formations such as Split Rock and Skull Rock; a short hike to the Desert Queen Mine, one of the first of many gold mines located throughout Joshua Tree National Park (and a favorite Sun Runner spot for exploration!); an off-road foray through a beautiful meadow and a half-mile loop walk through incredible rock formations to the Barker Dam overlook; a short side trip to view ancient petroglyphs; and a stop at the stunning Key’s View overlook, where guests can see all the way to Mexico on a clear day (you can also frequently see the Salton Sea, the Coachella Valley, and this time of year, as it gets dark you may even be able to see the Christmas tree up at the top of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway on the slopes of Mt. San Jacinto).

Desert Adventures is also providing private hiking and sightseeing guide services where guests may hire a naturalist guide to join them in their personal vehicle for a private, 20 The Sun Runner – December 2011/January 2012

The College of the Desert Street Fair.

customized fully-narrated outing in the national park. Guided tours in a seven passenger natural gas powered van are also available.

In addition, Desert Adventures still offers their Jeep tours throughout the low desert (the Coachella Valley area), to places like their private and exclusive Metate Ranch on the San Andreas Fault, Painted Canyon in the Mecca Hills, and the Palm Springs Indian Canyons, as well as customized private tours and team-building programs and interactive parties and events for groups up to 1,000 guests. Desert Adventures have been taking locals and visitors out into the real California desert since 1988.

For current tour schedules, prices, and reservations, you can reach Desert Adventures at (760)324-5337, or visit www. red-jeep.com/tours.

B

lack Friday has come and (thankfully) gone. But there are still friends and family on your Christmas gift list.

How about buying unique, fun, and inexpensive gifts that will support creative spirits and great organizations right here in our own desert communities instead of mass-produced products from corporate big box stores?

That’s a great idea—and luckily the desert offers a rich variety of choices for incredible gift-giving, no matter where you may live.

One of our favorite places to shop in the Coachella Valley is the College of the Desert Alumni Association Street Fair, an open air festival with 340 vendors that’s open all year: Saturdays and Sundays, October through May, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., and June through September, 7 a.m. to noon.

The COD Street Fair is free, with live entertainment, food, and lots of great vendors. Looking for goods for the home, outdoor furniture, clothing and shoes, jewelry and fashion accessories, kitchen supplies, gadgets galore, art, and more?

Look no further than the COD Street Fair. There’s even gifts for the pets on your list and fresh produce, as well as (of course) everything from golf balls to golf carts (it is, after all, the Coachella Valley).

The best thing about the COD Streetfair though is that it all supports the Alumni Association, providing more than $270,000 in student scholarships and financial aid per year, and funding other college programs and projects. The Alumni Association has donated $1 million to COD for the Alumni Association Academic Enrichment Fund, and has also established a second scholarship endowment fund, raising more than $600,000 for it so far. Check www.codstreetfair.net for information.

Nearby in Palm Desert, off El Paseo and in its own world is Lotus Garden Center, where you can immerse yourself in a world of natural beauty while shopping for pottery, unique December 2011/January 2012 – The Sun Runner 21

floral arrangements, rugs, candles, and everything you need to customize and beautify your outdoor living spaces. Take a peak at www.thelotusgardencenter.com.

Of course, if it’s designer clothes and accessories you need, then Cabazon Outlets can’t be beat, and we heartily recommend paying a visit to the Malki Museum on the Morongo Reservation while you’re down that way. The Malki has a delightful little bookstore with an excellent selection of books on the Cahuilla Indians and other Native American topics, and other handmade gift items.

Our desert’s museums and art galleries make superb choices for gift shopping, and The Sun Runner can recommend the shopping at the Hi-Desert Nature Museum, the 29 Palms Art Gallery, the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum, the Maturango Museum, as well as museums, galleries, park association shops, and visitor centers in Joshua Tree, Twentynine Palms, Borrego Springs, Shoshone, Boron, Independence, Lone Pine, Stovepipe Wells, Felicity, Jawbone Station, Barstow, Kelso Depot, Tecopa, Nipton, Furnace Creek, Victorville, Yucca Valley, and Palm Springs. If you’re around Old Town Yucca Valley, make sure to stop in at Tamma’s Magic Mercantile and check out the Sun Runner Shop inside. We’re closing out a variety of great Southwest gifts, candles, clothing, books, and prints, so great deals abound. We’re migrating to an all-virtual storefront with our new website, so watch for a hand-picked selection of desert books, music, and more, as we launch our new tablet and mobile-friendly, integrated website.

One fun new place to find handmade gifts this season is Mane Street in Pioneertown. Put your spurs on and keep your hand on your six-gun as you go for a stroll on this street where so many Hollywood quick-draw shootouts have been filmed.

Another stop to shop, if you find yourself running all over the desert, are the gift shops on Highway 395 at Kramer Junction (Four Corners), where highways 395 and 58 intersect. They’re fun and have a surprisingly large selection to offer a clientele that consists mostly of long-haul truckers on these highways.

If you want to send a little taste of the desert this season, but don’t have time to personally drive all over the place looking for unique gifts (it is a big desert, after all), bundle up by the fire and pay a visit to www.chinaranch.com. There, you can easily send those you love the sweetest date products the California deserts produce. From the dates themselves—medjools, khadrawy, honey, black, dayri, and special China Ranch hybrids only available from this magnificent oasis near the Amargosa River, to tasty date cake, fresh date nut bread (a Sun Runner fave), and date chocolate chip cookies, China Ranch offers sweet treats for Santa’s helpers everywhere.

Then there’s always the gift of the desert itself, whether a wildflower weekend in the spring, a special getaway to one of our fantastic desert parks—Joshua Tree and Death Valley national parks, the Mojave National Preserve, the Santa Rosa & San Jacinto Mountains National Monument, or Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Discover a new favorite desert retreat—a place you’ll long to return to over and over again, a special place that you’ll swear you visited before, in a dream.

And then there’s the gift of support for the desert, from memberships in the Mojave Desert Land Trust, the Joshua Tree National Park Association, the Amargosa Conservancy, The Anza-Borrego Foundation, the Give It Back campaign (“it” being the Eagle Mountain mine site), one of the museums, historical societies, or natural history associations or art organizations. Or simply send a little love and support to a desert charity such as Tender Love*ing Christmas, that does such touchingly beautiful things like feeding over 3,200 people Christmas dinner (TLC, PO Box 895, Yucca Valley, CA 92286).

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isions of the Indian Canyons, an exhibit at Agua Caliente Cultural Museum which runs through mid-October 2012, leads visitors on a photographic journey deep into the majestic beauty of the Indian Canyons of Palm Springs. The exhibition also explores historical controversies surrounding Tahquitz, Andreas, Murray, and Palm Canyons—now referred to collectively as The Indian Canyons.

These canyons supplied food, water, medicines, building materials, shelter, and beauty for their inhabitants. When the old villages were thriving, native plants were nurtured and managed, and irrigation ditches carried creek water to tribal gardens. With the coming of non-Indians, a struggle began over who controlled the canyons, their waters, and other natural resources. The canyons were important to the newcomers of Palm Springs—they were a gold mine for tourism and held the precious commodity of water.

Beginning in the early 1900s, settlers, businessmen, land developers, writers, photographers, and tourists, as well as city, state, and federal governments joined forces repeatedly to have the sacred Indian Canyons taken from the Indians and placed in the public domain to become a national park. Battles over the sovereignty of tribal lands continue even today.

In 2001, the Santa Rosa & San Jacinto Mountains National Monument was established, and the Agua Caliente people became the first American Indian tribe in the country to achieve a stewardship status equal to other government land managers of a national monument.

Remnants of the old ways of life, the bedrock mortars, and ancient rock drawings still exist in the canyons. The kids who once played in the creek are gone and women no longer pound mesquite beans in the rocks. But because of the persistence of the Agua Caliente people, the canyons have been kept pristine for us and future generations to enjoy.

For more information about Visions of the Indian Canyons and other programs and special events, contact the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum at (760)779-1079 or visit www.accmuseum.org. The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum is located at 219 S. Palm Canyon Drive in downtown Palm Springs. The museum is open September-May, Wednesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. and June-August, Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Admission is free.

The Sun Runner recommends a stop at the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum in Palm Springs as an introduction to the culture of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and then a visit to the Indian Canyons. Admission is $9 for adults; $7 seniors, students, and military; $5 children; and $11 for equestrian visitors. Ranger led hikes are available at the Palm Canyon Trading Post. More information: www.indian-canyons.

TWENTYNINE PALMS ART GALLERY AND GIFT SHOP Desert Art Native American Jewelry and Southwestern Gifts 74055 Cottonwood Dr. (off National Park Dr.) Twentynine Palms, CA 92277 www.29palmsartgallery.com (760)367-7819

Open: 12 to 3 PM Wednesday–Sunday Summer Hours: 12 to 3 Friday-Saturday-Sunday

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DESERT TRAVEL 26 The Sun Runner

December 2011/January 2012 – The Sun Runner 23

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hey call Anza-Borrego the “secret” desert. I can vouch for how well that secret has been kept too. For several years, I worked in the Coachella Valley media, and I never once heard the words “Anza-Borrego” or “Borrego Springs” uttered by anyone.

On one level, that may have been a good thing, helping preserve the stunning vistas of these southern California desert lands. But for anyone who connects with the desert and has developed an appreciation of its history, culture, lifestyle, and subtle yet expansive natural beauty, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and Borrego Springs, the small but vibrant community that lies in the middle of California’s largest state park, is a mandatory destination. And like our other desert parks, this is one destination that calls out for you to return, again and again.

Once you’ve experienced Anza-Borrego, this will be one secret you’ll keep close to your heart.

There’s something different about the desert down here.

Maybe it has something to do with the light (my wife says the desert sparkles in Anza-Borrego), the geology, the mountains, or the ghosts of those who have lived or traveled through here at one time or another.

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Whatever it is, Anza-Borrego keeps drawing you back.

Like our other fantastic desert parks, it offers the visitor a lifetime of choices of what and where to explore. And Borrego Springs complements the raw natural beauty of this desert with the best of what civilization has to offer. The combination of natural and man-made offerings here comes as close as we’ve seen to providing visitors with a perfect desert experience.

The (not-so) Secret Desert Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is the largest park in California’s embattled and underfunded state park system (the lack of support for our state parks and historic sites by state government is disgraceful, but we’ll leave that topic for another story). Anza-Borrego has a well organized network of support that speaks well of the residents of Borrego Springs and park supporters elsewhere (other desert parks could likely learn from this model). The Anza-Borrego Foundation & Institute, along with the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association, the Borrego Springs Chamber of Commerce, and a wealth of arts and cultural organizations, all weave a web of support for the park that helps cover for inadequate state support for the park.

All of this broad spectrum of support for the park makes for excellent visitor opportunities. The Anza-Borrego Foundation & Institute, as well as the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association host a variety of adult and youth courses, hikes, and presentations covering everything from desert botany to geology, paleontology, birding, photography, astronomy, history, and more.

Educational opportunities abound, including the PORTS program (Parks Online Resources for Teachers and Students), a program that now connects around 8,000 California students a year with the park through a live interactive online video-conferencing program and virtual field trips.

If all that sounds too much like school to you, don’t fret—this park serves up great road trips, back road trips (some suitable for only 4X4 high clearance vehicles), and hikes ranging from easy to, well, let’s just put it this way, they don’t name it “Alcoholic Pass” for nothing (evidently it originally was an Indian trail, and they were in good shape).

One popular trail leaves from the Borrego Palm Canyon Campground (there is a small day use fee). This three mile (round trip) trail leads up a canyon to a beautiful palm oasis (see photo to the left). Keep a lookout for bighorn sheep on the mountains above you as you walk.

We’ve seen groups of a dozen or more, high on the slopes above, and whenever we’re not there, the sheep are reputed to walk down to the springs at the trailhead parking lot en masse to get a drink and pose for photos (we’ve seen impressive photos of dozens of bighorns gathered there at once, but whenever we go, all we get is sheep poop).

Hikers should also keep an eye out

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for a massive bee hive on the right as you hike up the canyon.

The hike is moderately easy, but bring plenty of water and sunscreen (shade is nigh on non-existent until you reach the oasis itself). Note the sign for an alternate return route, and take it. The main trail can get fairly busy during season, but most visitors, not being familiar with the area, don’t try the alternate route, which offers great views and covers beautiful territory, winding its way back to the trailhead (it takes about the same time as the main trail does). The alternate trail can be a little easier to lose, so take your time and you’ll find your way.

Hellhole Canyon, with its promise of Maidenhair Falls, is a little more difficult, and twice as long, but very popular. If you’re up for a more varied experience, combining a beautiful drive, a little dirt road driving (nothing too bad), with some short hikes, quirky desert history, Native American sites, and stunning desert vistas, then it’s time to drive south on S3, then the S2, down to the Blair Valley region of the park.

We love the trail up to Yaquitepec, on top of Ghost Mountain, where you can still see the remains of the home of Marshal South and his family. South was a poet, artist, and author, who became legendary through his columns in the old Desert

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magazine. (Diana Lindsay has compiled a fantastic collection of South’s columns and related materials in her book, Marshal South and the Ghost Mountain Chronicles, An Experiment in Primitive Living. Lowell & Diana Lindsay also have authored the guidebook to have when visiting, The Anza-Borrego Desert Region.)

South’s columns on the family’s experiment in primitive desert living on top of Ghost Mountain began running in 1939, and became the magazine’s most popular features. The experiment came to an end in 1947 when Marshal and his wife Tanya seperated. Their experiences in raising three children on top of a waterless mountain, removed from most of civilization, is an incredible story. It’s a mile up to the top of the mountain, and a mile back, and the views from Ghost Mountain are stunning.

Nearby you can take the Morteros Trail, a very short stroll to an area once heavily used by Kumeyaay women. Look for both morteros (a mortar in boulders and bedrock), and metates (a place where seeds or dried plants were ground into flour on the rock), in this village area. Imagine life for the people who once lived here.

From here you can head over to the nearby trail that takes you up into Smuggler Canyon with its pictographs, Kumeyaay morteros, and yet another stunning view overlooking the Carrizo Valley that awaits if you go to the end of the trail. Don’t try to climb down the dry waterfall at trail’s end unless you are an experienced climber.

But leave time to head back to S3 and the cut-off on Highway 78, where you can take Mine Wash road (dirt) to a Kumeyaay village site that is our favorite. You can drive it, but we enjoy parking right off the paved road and walking to the village. Driving often means missing things, from tiny wildflowers to blooming ocotillo, curious flitting hummingbirds to loping jackrabbits.

This village site is not only beautiful (see photo to the left), but had a most wonderful energy and feel to it. We didn’t want to leave. We’re not getting all new-agey on you, it’s just that this place was welcoming, and its beauty was more than skin deep. That village must have been greatly loved, and since we love being able to spend time in these places, we strongly urge you to treat them with respect. With pictographs, take pictures of them, but don’t touch them. It’s nothing personal, it’s just that the oils from your fingers can destroy the pigments.

Don’t chalk over them to try to make better pictures either. Just admire them.

Of course, the big off-road drive folks are always told they have to make is the trip up to Font’s Point. From S22, you ramble up a wash, on up to an overlook that offers a spectacular view of the Borrego Badlands. The point is named for Fray Pedro Font, the Spanish priest and curmudgeon who accompanied Juan Bautista de Anza on his second expedition through this area in 1775.

If you decide to go to Font’s Point,

either drive a high clearance, preferably 4X4 vehicle (you can get away without the 4X4 capability, and even the high clearance really, if you’re an experienced desert back roads driver. But since we don’t want you to get stuck and block our way to the overlook, be careful. If you’re not sure, get California Overland Desert Excursions to take you).

From Font’s Point you can see the town of Borrego Springs, which offers its own enticing selection of things to do.

First stop in town should be the Borrego Springs Chamber of Commerce where you can gather up information and pester the friendly volunteers. The park’s visitors center is the other font of invaluable information dished up by friendly folks.

After going to both of these places, you’ll wonder if everyone in town (it’s a small town of just over 3,000 people), had to get a college degree focusing on the park just to live here, they’re so knowledgeable.

On your way through town, notice the absence of any stop lights whatsoever. Commuter heaven! And at night, look up and you won’t want to stop.

Remember the Milky Way? Well, you can recharge your childhood imagination here, since Borrego Springs is California’s only official International Dark-Sky Community.

In Borrego Springs, there is everything you can desire in a desert community, from golf and resorts, to a lively arts scene with a performing arts center, art galleries, and a roster of cultural events to deepen your experience here. (Our favorite annual event is the Peg Leg Smith Liar’s Contest, every April 1—honest!)

Come for a day, a long weekend, or longer. Discover this magical desert park, and enjoy one of California’s best small towns at its center. There’s an incredible mixture of natural beauty, history, culture, art, and inspiration to be found in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and Borrego Springs.

Just don’t tell anyone, OK? It’s a secret.

Sunset at the Borrego Springs Resort (right) where guests can enjoy golf, spa services, and relaxing accommodations in the center of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Try The Arches, the resort’s restaurant, for breakfast overlooking their three nine-hole golf courses with the Santa Rosa Mountains as a backdrop, or relax at the Fireside Lounge with cocktails by the fire.

Don’t be surprised by the arrival of celebrities or Rolls Royces, just take it all in stride and enjoy...

Wildflower season sends visitors out to AnzaBorrego in droves during the spring. But for those willing to hike and look carefully, you can find everything from blooming ocotillo to chuparosa at various times of the year.

Want to know what’s in bloom? Try the wildflower page at www.borregospringschamber.com where you can download a full color brochure on the park’s wildflowers and blooming cacti, or check the current wildflower reports at www. california-desert.org, the fantastic site run by the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association (a great guide to the area).

Visitors can even call the wildflower hotline at (760)767-4684.

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ne of the things Borrego Springs does exceptionally well for a town its size, is offer visitors a broad variety of quality dining experiences. Whether you’re looking for a hearty breakfast before hiking to the top of Ghost Mountain, lunch after your drive up to Font’s Point, or dinner and drinks after a hike up Palm Canyon, Borrego Springs serves up a selection of dining options that rivals much larger communities.

Carlee’s Bar & Grill

It’s not unusual to hear Carlee’s referred to as the “Cheers” of Borrego Springs (they even claim to have their own “Norm” there). Walk inside and you’ll no doubt immediately notice why. The bar is smack dab in the middle of everything, running the full length of the restaurant, conversations in progress from stools on all three sides. With booths on one side of the bar for diners, and casual tables, a pool table, and raised seating they refer to as “the bleachers,” on the other side, you can be as sociable, or private, as you want.

Don’t come here expecting a quiet, subdued restaurant.

Dinner entrees trend toward relaxed fine dining, while the atmosphere is strictly sociable and casual. Carlee’s is not only a great place to get a burger or steak, or to linger over one of their signature drinks, but it is also arguably the social hub of life in Borrego Springs—the lively, vibrant heart of this community.

This is where you’ll find visitors, snow birds, and locals, all mixing it up in Carlee’s welcoming atmosphere. After a couple visits, you get treated almost like a local, and in the back of your mind, you may just start wishing you were one.

Canadian seniors down in Borrego Springs to escape the blizzards back home, bikers and hikers, tourists, golfers, off32 The Sun Runner – December 2011/January 2012

roaders from nearby Ocotillo Wells (think of a high octane, family-friendly town in “Road Warrior”), retirees, and a colorful assortment of locals, all find their way to Carlee’s.

Whether it’s lunch or dinner you’re hungry for, Carlee’s provides a good selection of menu items, and plenty on the plate. Don’t let the laid back casual atmosphere fool you though, owner Andy Macuga keeps his eye on ensuring Carlee’s provides consistently high quality dining, desert style, and the staff comes across as professional when it comes to what matters—your satisfaction.

Andy is outgoing, friendly, and an experienced restauranteur who worked as general manager of Carlee’s for a decade before buying the restaurant a little over a year ago. He takes pride in his restaurant, and it is apparently quite contagious— all the staff at Carlee’s seem to have taken his lead. His own personal hospitality, enthusiasm, and community spirit (Andy coaches youth sports teams in town) shines through, making

After a couple visits, you get treated almost like a local, and in the back of your mind, you may just start wishing you were one.

Carlee’s a welcoming spot for visitors and locals alike.

Carlee’s burgers are popular for both lunch and dinner, with their homemade potato chips a tasty addition. Their steak sandwich is a winner, and their salads are a good choice too. It seems everything here is house-made—a welcome discovery.

Dinner serves up everything from tequila chicken fettuccini to ribs that just about fall off the bone, and a huge, succulent ribeye steak from nearby Brawley Beef. The steak and ribs were delicious, with generous portions (Andy says they don’t want anyone to go away hungry—a highly unlikely possibility if you visit Carlee’s).

If your day hike has left you ravenous, consider opting for the Mixed Grill Combo, at $36, and suitable for at least two.

Featuring chicken breast, top sirloin steak, and tiger prawns in Chino’s blend of citrus and seasonings, served with green onion on a sizzling skillet, I guarantee you will not go away hungry.

One tip—ask your server about any specials that may not be listed on the menu. Carlee’s sometimes prepares specialties not listed, or really mentioned, unless you know to ask (the locals do). Their secret stuffed mushrooms in a garlic reduction were quite tasty.

Carlee’s drinks are as mouthwatering as their entrees, whether you thirst for some of their desert-inspired original cocktails like the Cactus Cooler or Borrego Breeze, or their famed Lemon Drop Martini. They sometimes have live entertainment at night, though expect Borrego Springs to wind down fairly early when compared to most urban areas. We were lucky enough to catch the father and sons band, Lucky Tongue, a great cover trio from the Salton Sea area (I think they said they were from Truckhaven, but they occasionally play up in Palm Springs too), performing at Andy’s celebration of his first year as owner of Carlee’s. The place was packed, and the party—with a large spread of complimentary appetizers and two cakes to mark the first “birthday” (they really don’t want you to leave hungry), was heartwarming, and a great end to a desert day spent getting rained out (a highly unusual occurance).

Around midnight, as more CCR cover tunes got partygoers up dancing at Carlee’s, we slipped outside into a cool, moonlit autumn night, feeling more like we were leaving a good friend’s home than a restaurant. We departed with hugs and handshakes all around, already looking forward to our next visit.

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magine driving over a rocky desert track, then hiking out to find the elusive elephant tree with its blood red sap, across a broad, seemingly endless wash, with the mysterious looking Split Mountain in the distance, and returning to a fine French dinner in a quaint, relaxed setting. OK, don’t imagine it—just do it, like we did, and enjoy every minute of it.

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Borrego Springs is full of surprises, and the French Corner, run by the delightful Yves Moureau (right, in the photo), and Elyan Reboul (left), is one of the most welcome. Combining French and Belgian influences, this little bistro serves up delicious continental fare that will leave your appetite sated in a state of complete and utter bliss.

Try the crepes, homemade pate, Belgian meatballs, coq au vin, or a fabulous pot of mussels with bleu cheese. Superb! Their desserts are sumptuous, and their wine list is well selected and purposefully kept inexpensive.

This is no snobby ultraexpensive French restaurant, but a perfectly relaxed and charming bistro where you can wind down and share stories of the day’s adventures surrounded by art and antiques (all for sale), looked after by your two personable (and brilliantly funny), hosts.

The French Corner is open for lunch and dinner, Wednesday through Sunday, from October to April. Come for lunch, relax, and stay for dinner. We hear their New Year’s Eve dinner is great—dancing to French disco music under the starry skies of Borrego Springs. (760)767-5713/www.thefrenchcorner.biz.

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ssaggio Ristorante Italiano, located at the Borrego Springs airport and filled with scenes of aviation in murals around the restaurant and bar, is so good that fans from San Diego fly in for lunch or dinner in private planes.

Most everything is house-made, and everything from the Osso Buco to the Chicken Assaggio gets—and deserves—rave reviews. They even make their own sausage here.

Assaggio closes during summer, but the rest of the year is open Tuesday through Sunday, right on your way into Borrego Springs. (760)767-3388/www.assaggioitalian.com.

Our thanks to Linda Haddock, executive director of the Borrego Springs Chamber of Commerce; Robert Arends, public relations manager for the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau; Andy Macuga and the folks at Carlee’s Bar & Grill; Joe Raffetto of California Overland; Diana Lindsay; Kim Daniel, director of sales & marketing for Borrego Springs Resort & Spa; the rangers and volunteers at the ABDSP Visitor Center (below), a great place to get hiking and road trip ideas; and the volunteers at the Borrego Springs Chamber of Commerce where you can get oriented in friendly fashion while picking up a copy of The Sun Runner Magazine.

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f you ever find yourself needing a break from mundane reality, from all the weighty responsibilities of adulthood, and you don’t know where to turn, I have the answer: Borrego Springs.

For in Borrego Springs, scattered widely about the landscape as natural as can be, are 129 of the most incredible works of art you can imagine, representing everything from the actual creatures who once roamed this desert, to representations of the human history and presence here, as well as real dinosaurs (that have not been found here), and beings of pure fantasy, such as the enormous sand dragon (longer than a football field), whose coils dive under a road in a vision worthy of Frank Herbert’s science fiction epic, Dune.

These inspired, detailed creations, the works of master metal artist, Ricardo Breceda, supported by the patron of Galleta Meadows (the private property where these works of art are sited), Dennis Avery, are captivating, and delightfully touch the imaginations of young and old alike.

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Thanks to Ricardo and Dennis and all the volunteers and folks who helped give these magnificent creations a home here, Borrego Springs is now the only place in the desert, and possibly anywhere, where you may roam freely among giant tortoises, tapirs, extinct horses, sabertooth cats, giant sloths, gomphotheres, mammoths, Peninsular bighorn sheep, velociraptors, and my personal favorite, the “incredible wind god,” Aiolornis incredibilis,” the largest flight-capable bird in North America, with a wingspan of up to 17 feet. Only six fossil specimens of this rather large bird have been found so far, with half of them coming from Anza-Borrego (getting buzzed by one of those on the golf course in Borrego Springs could be interesting).

The installations of these metal sculptures are nothing short of brilliant, world-class works of art, all natural looking and almost dreamlike in their desert setting. You see a lot of people driving by doing a double-take on their first visit to Borrego Springs.

Get your map of the artwork at the Borrego Springs Chamber of Commerce offices (note the metal sculpture of de Anza out front), right on Palm Canyon Drive near Christmas Circle at the center of town, and prepare for an adventure into a world of beauty, imagination, and inspiration. You’ll love it, the kids will love it, it’s free, and you can even camp there if you want (check at the chamber for details). Visit it online at: www.galletameadows.com.

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n 10 short years following a life-changing accident, Ricardo Breceda has become a master sculptor turning a primitive welding art form of Mexico into life-size sculptures of imposing outdoor beauty. Placed against the backdrop of the stunning Anza-Borrego desert in southern California, Breceda’s “Sky Art” is the perfect blend of stunning craftsmanship and placement in the open desert landscape.

Over 125 metallic sculptures are scattered over three noncontiguous square miles of Borrego Valley, on private property open for the public’s enjoyment. The inspiration for the initial installations was the now extinct Plio-Pleistocene animals that once roamed these lands as evidenced in the rich fossilbearing beds of the Borrego Badlands. Like a living museum, elephant-like gomphotheres, giant ground sloths, sabertooth cats, tapirs, mammoths, and an incredible bird of prey with a 17-foot wingspan once again inhabit these desert lands.

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park’s rich cultural history is also represented by the sculptures. Spanish explorer and trailblazer Juan Bautista de Anza marches across the desert with his Indian guide and padre. A miner searches for elusive desert gold and migrant farm workers pick grapes from the Borrego fields and the first non-military Jeep makes its inroads into the park.

From science to history and nature, the sculptures have evolved into whim and fantasy—something for everyone on this large desert palette. Borrego’s own “Jurassic Park” boasts fighting dinosaurs and families of Tyrannosaurus rex and Spinosaurus. Giant raptors dart through the landscape, and off by itself is the 350-foot long mythological serpent that dives under the roadway with a rattlesnake tail and a spectacular dragon head.

Startling and stunning as these fantastic sculptures are, they beg a story of how they came to be. Ricardo Breceda: Accidental Artist is the story of the artist’s journey from Durango, Mexico, to California, where Breceda’s Perris Jurassic Park emerged. In April 2008, the first of many primitive rustic sculptures was installed at Galleta Meadows in Borrego Springs. Each sculpture since that first installation has become more and more artistically detailed, part of Breceda’s never-ending quest to produce “the best.”

Ricardo Breceda: Accidental Artist is a full-color coffeetable book with 280 photographs retailing for $24.95 with maps and a complete guide to all the sculptures found in Borrego Valley. It is available through www.thesunrunner.com and bookstores in Borrego Springs.

Editor’s Note: Diana has crafted another superb book, this time telling the tale of a fascinating artist, Ricardo Breceda, whose 129 metal sculptures roam about Borrego Springs, and his patron, Dennis Avery, who provided resources and the vision for this magnificent artistic adventure to succeed. This is an excellent book, well told, with abundant photos, making the Sky Art experience come vividly to life for readers. Highly recommended.

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s you stroll along the edges of the ever-changing sea shore, images of bygone days emerge. In your imagination, you remember the frantic efforts to halt the torrent that cuts through this land’s heart and soul. Jump forward 20 years and the scene becomes one of hope and imagination.

Calling to the weary traveler, a new resort sits awaiting the flood of sun and sea worshipers who begin filling the cabanas and cantina.

Gus Eilers created what was to become the birthplace of the Salton Sea heydays. A visionary—or a fool, time would tell.

Described in a 1930 article in the local paper, the first encounter of a man and his sea was described in fanciful terms.

“For some time he stood there, soaking in the glory of the great shimmering body of water which reflected the rose-tinted panorama of sky and mountains. He squared his shoulders and took a deep breath of the cool salt spray which a brisk wind swept to his eager nostrils. He closed his eyes for a moment and let his fancy run free. In place of the littered beach on which he stood he visualized a broad, clean stretch of sand, with cottages nearby, a pier stretching out into the sea ahead, row boats and sail boats darting here and there over the waters.”

Later the article continues.

“Three years have passed. Today the North Shore road is a smooth wide highway, freshly oiled and graded as far as Gus Eilers’ Date Palm Beach, and advancing southward at the rate of a mile and a half each day. Neat signs along the highway point the way to Coachella Valley’s only private beach resort, Gus Eilers Date Palm Beach….”

Gus’s first boat races in 1927 were designed to draw attention to the recreational potential of the Salton Sea. Clearly the sea has undergone recurring episodes of boom and bust, both manmade and through a mightier power. Today there is renewed reason to rejoice in hope for the Salton Sea on several 38 The Sun Runner – December 2011/January 2012

fronts. Through the efforts of the Salton Sea State Recreation Area, the Sea & Desert Interpretive Association and the Salton Sea History Museum, RPM Racing Enterprises will once again make the roar of monster boat engines a familiar sound that resurrects memories of regattas and days gone by.

January 20-22 will see the return of the Salton Sea Speedweek APBA/UIM World Speed Record attempts. In the 2008 Speedweek event the kilo runs resulted in 14 new world speed records on this, the fastest water in the world.

The January, 2012 event will be bringing back all manner of watercraft, with owners anxious to make their own recordbreaking runs. Upping the ante, RPM has announced that there will also be an Offshore Powerboat Race during Speedweek. In this neck of the woods, rooster tails are all the rage!

Today Gus’s daughter, June Eilers Hall, anxiously awaits the sound of speed boats on the sea she still adores. For June, this “great shimmering body of water” still captivates her just as it did her father. Although her sight is not good these days, she still can close them, taste the salt breeze and ‘see’ the sea she still holds dear to her heart.

Editor’s note: Though Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit has done his best to destroy the Salton Sea History Museum (that’s something to be proud of!), the museum found a new home after being evicted from the North Shore Yacht Club.

The museum is relocating to the Desert Cabuilla Wetlands Temal Pa’lekish., at 72-120 S. Lincoln Street in Mecca near the northern shores of the Salton Sea. They need help to remodel the existing space for the museum and are seeking volunteers to assist with the remodel, as well as grant writing, fundraising, accounting, event coordination, maintenance, and office help.

Visit them at www.saltonseamuseum.org for more information.

Salton Sea Speedweek 2012 is at www.rpmracingent.com.

A scene of speedboat racing shore activity on the Salton Sea, top.

June Eilers Hall, daughter of the famed Salton Sea entrepreneur Gus Eilers who began the boat races in 1927, above, and with her family in earlier years, below.

December 2011/January 2012 – The Sun Runner 39

DeRanger Steve

Spirit of the West

T

he Old West is still alive. And it took some culture shock to drive it home. So how do you explain that? I guess it starts with the Internet and the social networks that have popped up over the past few years.

Maybe it starts further back than that, in the U.S. Air Force during Vietnam and a friendship I had with guy named Harry Rhoades. We had similar duty, lived in the same barracks, and as sergeants we hung around doing whatever sergeants did during that era when off duty: go to the beach, ogle the girls, drink beer at the NCO club. As I recall, and probably from his point of view, one day I received orders and shortly thereafter I was gone. Only that doesn’t really enter into it until years after I met Phil Bonafede, owner of Prospectors Depot in Joshua Tree.

Phil and I were adventure guides together some 15 years ago. Having many of the same interests made for a good team and a better friendship. As time continued we drifted apart as people do, staying in touch with each other at the time through our ham radios, then cell phones, and now the Internet, through the social networks where we post and chat on each other’s pages.

It was there on the Prospectors Depot Facebook page I ran into my old Air Force buddy, Sgt. Harry Rhoades, now a modern day prospector, a desert rat, who supplies from Prospectors Depot. The guide, the prospector and the mercantile. They’ve all been in the desert since the days of the first Spanish explorers and the earliest settlements. They represent the Old West in the modern era. When people realize there are still those who live that way their eyes widen in wonder and it sets the Old West a little deeper in their psyche.

Over the intervening years since Phil and I first met there have always been the tourists. Jeep, bus and hiking tours in every combination possible showing the natural desert: Joshua Tree National Park, Mojave National Preserve, the San Andreas Fault, and Pioneertown. Telling the history and stories that make up the desert Southwest while taking them through ghost towns, old mines, and the depot at Kelso. Opinions on what visitors expect to see in the natural desert are as varied as the people who took my tours and classes. Most of the time the common perceptions of the desert are wrong, yet in those commonalities are preconceived ideas of what the desert is and who we are, or at least who we should be.

The Old West is what they see. Only the horses and wagons have been replaced by dirt bikes and pickup trucks. The lawmen are still there—CHP, county sheriff, all kinds of rangers 40 The Sun Runner – December 2011/January 2012

except for the “lone” one. The desert rats are still there: guides, prospectors, shootists. Yes shootists, carrying the same weapons as those used 125 years ago; the venerable six gun.

Without a gold strike, prospector Harry Rhoades and his friends turn outlaw and can be found on weekends shooting up various towns in the desert Southwest while robbing the bank at 10, 2 and 4. At the end of the show it’s always “Dusty” Rhoades against the sheriff as they showdown on Main Street at “high noon.” Actually the last recorded western-style gunfight in the Joshua Tree area was Bill Keys vs. Worth Bagley in 1943 near the Wall Street Mill using rifles, not pistols. And despite being all show, Harry and friends set the Spirit of the West a little deeper.

As tours large and small wander through the desert with their guides, they have gotten an overview of where we live: ecology, environment and climate. They see the difference between high desert and low, and how precious water is when the green lawns of Palm Springs disappear to be replaced by the natural desert gardens of Yucca Valley and the Morongo Basin. We visit the ‘tanks’ of Joshua Tree National Park where water was kept for cattle, look at abandoned mines in the distance with historical names: Eldorado, Rose of Peru and the Gold Key mine in Pleasant Valley, a place that is anything but in mid-summer. Now steeped in desert lore as we walk, ride, and drive about, the questions start. Some of the more common ones: Where are all the birds? Are there snakes here? Do you carry a gun? Why do people live here and what do they do?

“Why do we live here?” How do you answer that? “Because we’re the Old West?” The media calls us “rugged individualists” living here defying traditions and the law. What a load of crap.

Let’s start again; “Why do we live here?” Most desert towns were established along trade routes about a day’s ride apart where there was mineral wealth, space for ranching and water coming up from underground. Doc Adams settled here because we had no doctors, The mercantile opened providing the trade goods for ranchers and prospectors like Johnny Lang at the Lost Horse mine. Today we call it the ER and Walmart; and the prospector is Harry Rhoades. Agriculture sprang into being where rails and water met, making it easier to power ice houses and to ship fresher produce to the cities. The mines also took advantage of the railroads to move ore from the high desert mountains by wagon to the train yards in the low desert.

The deserts are loved by everyone. Mark Twain wrote about the high desert. Roy Rogers and friends built Pioneertown to make movies while future president, Ronald Reagan, hosted Death Valley Days on TV. Yet as the desert has become overpopulated we are starting to lose pieces of it here and there.

The Coachella Valley as farmland and open desert is gone; closed by order of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors and overbuilt by homes and golf courses all drawing on the one limited resource the desert needs to live: water.

I’m travelling now, living in a different place long enough to try and find out why people ask, “Why do we live in the desert?” Living on an island (not Alcatraz) in the San Francisco Bay area the answer is beginning to emerge as I experience true culture shock. This is not the same as the culture shock we experience on vacation to a foreign country, different foods, languages, customs. Nor is it the culture shock experienced as a student in the UK. This is the culture shock of living in our own country, with different foods, languages, and customs.

It’s not exactly quite unlike the fable of the city and country cousins. We can both drive for 40 minutes to see a concert. Forty minutes is the time from Joshua Tree to Palm Springs with its casinos and showrooms. Here it’s the time to drive six miles over a drawbridge through Oakland to Oracle stadium, or the time it takes the ferry to go from the island to San Francisco,

again only six miles. The speed limit is 25mph... everywhere.

Even the highways crawl where the multitude of freeways and toll bridges all meet in a maze at one place to take us everywhere. At home there is Interstate 10 at Highway 62. The next junctions are 20, 30 and 70 miles away and each is only a single road.

Nestled into all of this are giant electronic billboards that change every 10 seconds. Last summer one billboard announced the coming of the end of the world on May 21 before flipping to an ad for a medical marijuana convention starting on May 22 in the convention center.

Then I meet and talk to people. As soon as they find out I’m from the desert it starts, “Really, what about this, that and the other thing?” They know the names, Palm Springs, and Joshua Tree. Going to an indoor rock wall to climb Joshua Tree rock is considered hallowed ground. ...and to have climbed it whenever I want... culture shock! Wait a minute... you guys climb manmade rock in a building? Not only that, you built an artificial rock wall and took it to the Burning Man Festival. Culture shock!

It’s difficult to blend in, for some reason desert clothes standout in a crowd. There’s the cowboy at the pub or walking around some venue or other. It’s easy to find people to talk to, they always ask “Why do you live in the desert?” Same question the tourists ask. Then part of an answer emerges. It is because there is no drive among the people of the city. Oh, they’re driven all right. Driven to do this and that by the ever present cacophony of light and sound. Go to the dog park, 23 acres of open natural habitat with the bay to swim in. I work my dog: catch, fetch, agility as I watch people just walking around the perimeter of the park not even paying attention to what kind of day it is or what they’re doing. They’re driven to walking the dog around the perimeter then they drive off to do something else driven by the city. An epiphany; I’ve seen that before in the desert. From Palm Springs to La Quinta and beyond. People being driven but not out for the drive. That led me to wonder who’s driving?

It has happened—Victorville, Adelanto, Mojave. So far the Morongo Basin has been spared, remaining peaceful enough for tourists to comment on how quiet the desert is. Doesn’t matter that the reason is the failing economy stopped projects slated to be built along Highway 62. That won’t last forever and it makes me wonder; how long will that last and what changes shall have taken place on my return.

As for an answer to the question “Why do we live here?”

Because here, we do the driving.

Editor’s note: Rumor has it that DeRanger Steve and Locopelli have been spotted somewhere near the Bouse Fisherman in Arizona, on their way, perhaps, to Tombstone, or at least, Quartzsite, where rumors of a dictatorial police chief running the town have emerged amidst the growing number of snowbird RVs preparing for one of the world’s largest swapmeet cities to form this winter. We hope to see DeRanger return to our neck of the Joshua tree forest soon, and Locopelli too. Oh, and yeah, we do the driving. Come on out and see for yourself. The Old West really does still persist out here in the desert.

December 2011/January 2012 – The Sun Runner 41

Philip Bonafede is a prospector and owner of Prospectors Depot, in Joshua Tree. You can reach Phil with your questions and comments at: info@prospectorsdepot.com, or (760)366-3333. We’re looking forward to doing some prospecting with Philip this coming year.

T

oday more than ever more and more people are choosing healthy outdoor activities in their leisure time. There is no age barrier in the realm of recreational Gold prospecting from age 9-99. All you need is a shovel, a little water, a gold pan, some luck and your entire family can enjoy this fun and exciting outdoor activity.

Before starting any new hobby the key word is research.

Where do I go? What do I need? What do I need to be concerned about? What are the dangers? What are the rules? How will I know there is gold in that area? Am I healthy enough? Can anyone do this? Do people really find gold? All of these are really good questions you should ask far in advance of a gold prospecting adventure.

Researching your area is the key to finding the location that you can drive to and have an equal opportunity to find yourself some gold. You should strongly consider joining a local gold prospecting club to maximize your experiences. The high desert area offers the First Class Miners, Inc., a 501(c)3 certified nonprofit educational organization. You will be informed of several group camp-outs annually right on a genuine gold mining claim. This club will provide you with a valuable education and five mining claims to test out your new skills.

The First Class Miners club has approximately 200 members and was started after the first placer mining class concluded in 1993 by the original students of this class held each February at Copper Mountain College. Their website is www.firstclassminers.org.

Next, you will need to have some equipment. I always say, keep it simple and within your budget. A shovel, geology hammer, masonry trough, dirt scoop and a gold pan is a good starter.

If you can afford a metal detector then this is also a very good investment. Proper hands-on training is highly recommended by a local dealer of a quality brand metal detector because without training it is really easy to become discouraged and frustrated!

Cheap metal detectors do NOT handle the ground mineralization in the desert. Future articles will discuss, in depth, what a metal detector is and why they work.

Before you leave in your 4X4 truck for a remote area 42 The Sun Runner – December 2011/January 2012

please take a minute and review some serious health and safety issues that may need to be addressed in the wilderness. The open desert is a very unforgiving wilderness environment so special attention to temperatures, clothing, spare tires, water, food, shade, 2 way radios, proper clothing, cell phones, hats, proper shoes, proper equipment, ingress and egress should be given serious attention. Once again we are just touching on some of the basics and will explore this subject in full detail in subsequent articles on safety in the wilderness. This article is simply to help you get the milk on the cookie!

The dangers encountered while prospecting can include weather conditions, extreme cold, flash floods, heat exposure, heat exhaustion, heat stroke, wild animals, rattlesnakes and scorpions under rocks, dangerous species of cactus, dangerous plants, rock slides, mining shafts, and dehydration—and a these are just a few! Learning about, and paying serious attention to your environment is highly recommended before you embark on a trip into the open desert or mountains for a gold prospecting trip. Never go out alone into the wilderness. Always take a partner or tell someone where you are going and for how long.

Just make sure you call them when you return!

The rules and regulations are pretty simple. You cannot prospect for gold in a national park or on U.S. Forest Service property. You can however prospect on BLM land, with recreational tools only.

Rule of thumb is that you will usually find gold where gold has already been found. Maps and books on the history of early gold prospecting are very helpful tools to compliment your research. Anyone in reasonable health can prospect for gold.

Like all recreational hobbies it is best to consult your doctor before attempting any new and strenuous outdoor activity.

Oh, and, yes, plenty of people find gold. When you actually hold a gold nugget you will notice the beautiful color and the amazing weight. Gold is 19 times heavier than water.

Your local club or your local prospecting supply company can help you to steer clear of the pitfalls of wasting valuable time in the wilderness. The more you learn and the more you prepare, the less time will be wasted!

Photo courtesy of the Maturango Museum.

P

etroglyphs prove the beauty and thoughts of the human mind can travel immense distances in time and the beauty can still be recognized and the thoughts still valued. Having a basic understanding of petroglyphs will give us a pathway to travel back in time to the environment in which they were made and give us some understanding of it. Then we can take this pathway and travel back to our own time and understand some of environmental attributes that have survived through the ages.

The first thing we must understand about petroglyphs is that they were part of a living culture, so these symbols lived and operated on other mediums besides stone. Often symbols would have been found on pieces of hide and wood and we can see the influence of this on the petroglyphs. They are rarely smaller than about two inches, a size that would fit well on a rabbit skin—and then we rarely find them more than about two feet across. Of course this would fit well on a deer or elk hide. Then there is the natural scale derived from the hand and the arm of a person.

So when we look at a petroglyph site, we may be missing some of the most important glyphs an ancient human would’ve seen, because they were carved on trees no longer there.

Then we must consider certain symbols would have been appropriate for trees, some for stone, and still others for hide.

In knowing this we can get a sense of what is missing from the full array of symbols this society would have had. Then we can take this knowledge and make certain parallels to modern glyphs sites such as a gravesite and the Vietnam Memorial. Let’s start with the gravesite: we know the glyphs written on these stones relate directly to this site; that is to say, they describe or tell us something about the person buried there, and this is true of petroglyph sites as well.

Sometimes the glyphs will mark a water source or a game trail and thus they have an obvious connection to one another. There are others that have a more ceremonial position, much like the Vietnam Memorial. As we know, the war was not fought right there but rather far away in Vietnam. But this site derives most of its significance from the names or, perhaps one could say, the glyphs that represent the people who died in Vietnam and we will often see the same pattern at glyphs sites. One of the most common glyphs is the atlatl which shows up symbolically as a circle with a line through it. We see this at some glyphs sites written over and over again.

One could theorize that these repeating symbols represent individuals, relating themselves to a collective identity. Thereby we could understand the placement of this glyphs site may have more to do with an abstract or spiritual idea than a resource.

However, we must temper this concept with the understanding that people in a hunter-gatherer society rarely strayed too far from the resources they needed.

As you travel through the desert and discover these ancient glyphs sites, I hope you’ll see it as a pathway to the past the ancient people of the desert have left to us, and for those yet to come.

December 2011/January 2012 – The Sun Runner 43

I

’m sure all you travel buffs have seen them, those dome-topped signs along the highway with the little bear (the official California bear logo) at the top as well as the bronze plaques describing why the spot is historically important.

We’ve got them both right here on the Rand!

On Highway 395, north of Kramer Junction and south of the Ridgecrest turnoff, a Historical Landmark sign says “RAND MINING DISTRICT” with an arrow pointing the way to Randsburg.

A more elaborate bronze plaque briefly summarizing what happened here is displayed in front of the Rand Desert Museum. Did you ever wonder how these signs came to be? It was a curious journey….

In 1884, a rather eccentric Charles Fletcher Lummas, literally walked from Cincinnati to Los Angeles for a job at the Los Angeles Times. The journey took Lummas 143 days, during which time he became thoroughly enchanted with America’s Southwest and later published his adventures as “A Tramp Across the Continent.”

The year of 1895 found Lummas forming The Landmarks Club in Los Angeles which was dedicated to preserving California’s Historic Landmarks starting with the Missions. In 1895, the San Francisco Call published a rather amusing article describing plans for building a Southwest Museum emanating from Mr. Lummis’ peculiar brain. (The museum, now under the umbrella of the Autry Museum, still stands in close proximity to a

grand home once owned by Randsburg’s Charles and Dr. Rose Burcham)

Lummis’s Landmarks Club sought to identify and place signs at significant spots from California’s history. It was a rather casual, unstructured process in the early years and some of the lownumbered designated landmarks have been pronounced “quirky” by registration criteria which were tightened up in 1962…to add “dignity and integrity to the landmark program.” The Rand Mining District designation was awarded recently enough to avoid any sort of reevaluation of validity; the District is listed in the official California Register of Historical Resources.

Sunday, the seventh of June, 1964, at 2 p.m., was the proud day when the Rand Mining District’s California Historical Landmark was dedicated. Many people and organizations from all over Kern County were recognized (Kern County Historical Society, Native Daughters of the Golden West, Native Sons of the Golden West, Kern County Museum, Desert Lions Club, American Legion and others) for their help in making the dream of a State Historic District come true.

The dedication included a flag presentation, invocation, historical speakers, presentation of the plaque, unveiling of the plaque and acceptance of the plaque (by longtime resident Stuart Frasier) followed by a closing prayer. (Even Jack Dowty, Fred Kelsey and Harold Beck were acknowledged for “drilling holes.”)

What a dream! What a day! If this dream came true then why not dream a

44 The Sun Runner – December 2011/January 2012

bigger dream? As the programme stated: Over the years the Rand District has gone from discovery to boom, to bust again.

Perhaps her star will rise again as the demand rises for some overlooked or not now important mineral.

Come out to the Rand Mining District and visit the delights of Randsburg, a living ghost town. Walk the old streets, see the old buildings, and visit the old stores. Dream the dream! Mining towns have been known to reward dreamers….

Editor’s note: Randsburg is a must-see town when exploring the Mojave Desert.

Wander the streets, stick your friends in jail, stop in for a phosphate soda and sit at the bar in the Randsburg General Store, visit the museum, shop for antiques, and take lots of photos.

But remember not to take artifacts, and to show respect for private property.

Enjoy this living ghost town, but don’t trespass, remove things, or vandalize anything. Leave Randsburg as you found it, and for future generations to discover and enjoy.

Plus, we don’t want to hear news that you fell down a mine shaft.

Desert Theatre Beat

By Jack Lyons Sun Runner Theatre Editor

S

o far we’ve been able to keep Ol’ Man Winter snowed in up at the “Pole,” but Mother Nature and Mrs. Claus have other ideas. So, button up those coats, get out the gloves, scarves, and earmuffs and prepare for the Season… the theatre season as well.

Here’s what upcoming over the holidays.

HI-DESERT THEATRES …

Theatre 29 – Twentynine Palms Theatre 29 is currently performing the hilarious Christmas show, “Bless Me Father”, written by T.A. Powell, and directed by Cheryl Gillon. This is Gillon’s directorial debut and she’s chosen a comedy, bordering on farce, for her first effort. The story revolves around the church janitor, who unwittingly becomes locked in the confessional box, and, with that, the hilarity goes in every direction.

Performances are given Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. through December 17. Up next is the Neil Simon comedy “Jakes Women,” directed by Butch Pelfrey. Simon’s comedy hit opens on Friday, January 13 at 7 p.m. and runs through February 11. For tickets and reservations call the box office at (760)361-4151.

The Groves Cabin Theatre – Morongo Valley The “mighty Groves” with only 22 seats, but large on Desert Theatre League awards, is opening their 2012 season with Edward Albee’s “Three Tall Women,” directed by Debbie Hagadorn. The award winning drama opens Saturday, February 12 at 8 p.m. and performs on Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. through March 3. Theatre size dictates that reservations are a must. Call the box office at (760)365-4523.

COACHELLAVALLEY THEATRES …

Palm Canyon Theatre – Palm Springs The flagship theatre of Palm Springs

kicks off their holiday season with “White Christmas.” The musical is based on the 1954 Paramount Pictures holiday classic that starred Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney. The cast includes: Luke Rainey, Erik Bradley Nikki Hock, Jamie Walker, Suzie Thomas Wourms, and Shelbey Mae. The PCT show, directed by the theatre founder Dr. William Layne features the music and songs of Irving Berlin with music selections by Music Director David McLaughlin. Performances of “White Christmas” are given on Thursdays at 7 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. through December 18.

Following “White Christmas” comes the popular musical comedy “Hairspray,” directed by Dane Whitlock. The musical opens on January 27 and runs through February 12. Box Office: (760)323-5123.

Dezart Performs – Palm Springs Now in its third season, Dezart Performs, the stage reading performing arts company, is presenting the winner of last season’s stage reading festival—“The Old Bird,” written by Lynn Wells Nelson, and directed by Charles Rinaldo.

Now, the world premiere of the play is being fully produced; complete with set design, lights and sound, props, costumes, the works. The play stars the wonderful character actor, Louise Tonti, as Jeanne Calment, and a cast that includes Andrew Hamling, John Alex Houlton, Peter Nicholson, and Louise Ross.

The play about the real-life story of the world’s oldest living person, Jeanne Calment—who lived to be 122 years old—is being presented at the Palm Springs Women’s Club, 314 S. Cahuilla Road, Palm Springs. Performances are on December 1-3, at 7:30 p.m. and December 9 and 10 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, December 11 at 2 p.m. Call (760)3220179 or visit www.dezartperfforms.com.

Palm Desert Stage Company – Palm Desert PD Stage Company launches their second season with a production of “It’s A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play,” adapted

by Joe Landry. The classic Christmas story of the Bailey family and small town American values, so wonderfully brought to the screen in the 1946 Frank Capra movie, is being presented in the Arthur Newman Theatre at the Joslyn Center, Palm Desert.

The production, produced and directed by Colleen Kelley, opens Thursday, December 1 and will perform on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7 p.m. and on Sundays at 2 p.m. through

December 18.

For reservations and ticket information go to www.pdstage.com or purchase tickets at The Joslyn Center front desk, 73-750 Catalina Way, Palm Desert.

California Desert Chorale – Palm Desert The California Desert Chorale, under the artistic directorship of Tim Bruneau, presents its annual “Holiday Joys & Wonder” production at The Indian Wells Theatre, Palm Desert. The chorale will give three performances only: December 2 at 7 p.m., December 4 at 3 p.m., and December 11 at 3 p.m.

The California Desert Chorale is one of the musical treasures we’re blessed with here in our fair desert. Their annual holiday show is always a great favorite with not only the locals, but with visitors (our snowbirds) alike.

One can purchase tickets online at www.CaliforniaDesertChorale.org or by calling (760)346-4933.

Indio Performing Arts Center – Indio The east valley’s IPAC venue presents “Holiday Tradition at IPAC” on Fridays, and Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. beginning December 9 and running through Sunday, December 18 at IPAC, 45-175 Fargo Street, Old Town Indio.

Directed by Bob Reinhagen, the show features the Act II performance of “The Nutcracker Ballet” choreographed and danced by son Rob Reinhagen.

Performance dates, are December 9 at 7 p.m., December 10—two shows at 2:30 p.m. and again at 7 p.m., and on December 11 at 2:30 p.m. IPAC Executive Director David Clinton Reid will begin each performance with the reading of the famous Dylan Thomas poem, “A Welsh Christmas.”

IPAC also will present “Sister Robert Anne’s Cabaret Class” starring Francesca Amari as Sister Robert Anne, with John Salerno on the piano beginning Friday, January 13 at 7 p.m. Performances will be given on Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. through February 12.

For reservations and ticket information call IPAC at (760)775-5200.

CV Repertory Company – Rancho Mirage Artistic Director Ron Celona, launched another huge fundraising bash last month at the Equity theatre group’s permanent home in The Atrium. Following a catered dinner for 100 guests by the Acqua Pazza/ Lulu restaurant group, Celona presented a one woman, 90-minute show, performed by desert resident and Hollywood movie

December 2011/January 2012 – The Sun Runner 45

and TV star Judith Chapman.

The show entitled “Vivien” covers parts of the beautiful English actress Vivien Leigh’s stormy marriage to Sir Lawrence Olivier. It also covers her personal and professional dark periods where she endures electric shock treatments as a way of restoring her life to some sort of medical compromise where she could find work, without the stigma of a manic/depressive personality haunting her career. As it was, her famous bouts with chronic alcoholism were slowly sapping her talent and her beauty in her later years.

Chapman, who portrays Gloria Bardwell in the current cast of TV’s “The Young and The Restless,” delivered a mesmerizing and dazzling one-woman, tour de force performance as Vivien Leigh.

At times, Chapman displayed flashes of sheer brilliance, as she laid bare the soul of one of Hollywood’s great tortured beauties. It was a wonderful and highly nuanced performance by a talented performer at the height of her powers.

Chapman literally gave the audience a show business “master class” evening.

She combined elements and techniques of stage, screen, and TV, into a single memorable theatrical moment.

Keep an eye out for any repeat performances of “Vivien”, and make sure you catch her one-woman show wherever you find it being presented.

Last, but not least… The Desert Theatre League Desert Stars Awards ceremonies is being held on Sunday, December 4 at 5 p.m.

This is the one night of the year when the desert’s theatrical community gathers to honor their own: the actors, directors, writers, producers and technical wizards for the 2010/2011 theatre season.

The event is being held at Sun City Shadow Hills, in Indio, and is open to the public. For tickets and information call (760)772-9617 or email info@deserttheatreleague.org.

The Desert Theatre League’s Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree this year is none other than your Sun Runner Magazine co-theatre editor and “Spotlight On” columnist, Jeannette Lyons.

Congratulations Mrs. Lyons. You deserve it!

T

rained in the classics as a child actress and during graduate work in Drama at Catholic University, in Washington, D.C. (MFA), Jeannette Lyons has performed in all areas of stage, film, and television, during some 50 years of active participation in acting, directing, teaching, researching, and “carrying a spear.” Her acting versatility has been showcased in such roles as Gertrude in “Hamlet,” Ruth in “Wonderful Town,” Eliza in “Look Homeward Angel,” Eleanor in “The Lion in Winter,” and four Mother Gibbs’ in “Our Town.”

Following graduate school, Jeannette taught at Webster College in St. Louis and wrote and participated in several productions for Educational TV in St. Paul. She was a 30-year member and participant of the Kentwood Players in Los Angeles, and she is often asked to judge student competitions.

Since moving to the desert in 1993, Jeannette has received Desert Theatre League nominations for her work in “The Rimers of Eldritch,” at COD; “Hatful of Snow,” at Desert Rose Theatre; and “Shadowbox,” at The Groves Theatre.

She received the DTL Best Supporting Actress Award in a Musical for her role in “My Fair Lady” at The Palm Canyon Theatre, and Best Actress in a Comedy for “The Cemetery Club” at The Joslyn Players. In 2008/2009 season she performed in “The Women” at PCT; 2009/2010 season in “Gigi” at PCT. In 2005, Jeannette joined her hus-

46 The Sun Runner – December 2011/January 2012

band Jack as co-theatre editors for The Sun Runner Magazine, a relationship they continue to enjoy to the present.

In the 2007-2008 theatrical season Jeannette directed “Doubt, a Parable,” for the Groves Cabin Theatre. The production received a Desert Entertainment This Week Encore Award for Excellence in the Performing Arts, as well as nominations from the DTL for Best Director and Best Drama. In 2009/2010 season Jeannette received the DTL Award for Best Director of a Stage Reading for “Ellipses,” at Dezart Performs.

In some 50 years of continuous theatrical activity, Jeannette figures that she has been an actor in, or involved with, close to 80 stage productions. (TV, film, and commercials are extra). A long time active member of the Desert Theatre League, Jeannette has served many years on the association’s Board of Directors.

In 2008 she was presented with one of the DTL’s community service Honors—The Sidney Harmon Award, in recognition for the advancement of theatrical excellence, both on and off the stage.

The Sun Runner proudly congratulates Jeannette Lyons on being selected the Desert Theatre League Lifetime Achievement Award Honoree for 2011.

Editor’s note: Jeannette isn’t just any contributor. She’s more like the concerned surrogate mother for the magazine and its publisher. And drama isn’t something Jeannette reserves for the stage either. It is the natural environment in which Jeannette thrives—as much a part of her life as the air she breathes in—in between telling Jack and I what we’re doing wrong, that is.

I’ve had the delightful pleasure of knowing these two exceptional people on a professional and personal basis for a decade, both when I served as the news editor for the Desert Post Weakly, and as the head honcho dude here at The Sun Runner (ie: the guy who gets stuck with the printing bills, and yes, we pay ours, unlike some desert publications, but that’s another story), and you just can’t find better people than these two. Period.

I not only congratulate Jeannette on this well-deserved honor, but I thank both her and Jack for their support and help with the magazine—and life—over the years. I respect and love them both, and am extremely grateful for the blessing of having them in my life, as well as on the pages of this magazine It is a delight and an honor to be associated with this wonderful couple.

Congratulations Jeannette! You’ve earned it. – SB

Glenn Close will receive the Career Achievement Award, and George Clooney w i l l re c e i v e t h e Chairman’s Award at the 23rd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival this January.

FADE IN: The Desert Film Society members get to enjoy the environs and the welcoming atmosphere of the Camelot Theatres, Palm Springs, throughout the year. The venue is where they screen their monthly selections. The Camelot is the desert’s premiere venue for outstanding independent and foreign films. The society’s Saturday, December 3 selection is the powerful, yet disturbing film “La Raffle.”

The movie, a co-production effort between the countries of France/Germany and Hungary, is presented in French, German, and Yiddish, with English subtitles.

Based on the true story of Jo Weisman, a young Jewish Parisian boy, the film depicts the infamous Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup, the mass arrests of Jews by French police who were Nazi and Vichy collaborators in Paris in July of 1942.

According to the film critic of The Jewish Advocate “… it’s a powerful, heartwrenching film about everyday bravery and about those who would collaborate with evil. The people who most need to see it wouldn’t dream of attending.”

The Camelot’s doors open at 9 a.m.

There is a film introduction that begins at 9:20 a.m., and the movie rolls at 9:30 a.m., sharp! There will be a Q&A session following the film. Admission is free to Society members, and $ 15 at the door to non-members (proceeds go the Desert Film Society & Tolerance Education Center).

The Society’s December selection is the French/Belgium comedy/drama “La Fee,” with English subtitles. The story is set near the port city of Le Havre. One night Dom, a night clerk at a small hotel is confronted by a woman who arrives at

his front desk with no luggage, and no shoes; looking for a room. Her name is Fiona and she tells Dom that she is a fairy that can grant him three wishes. Let the Gallic humor and fun begin…

Next month, beginning January 5, one of the behemoths of film festivals rolls into our fair valley. The 23rd annual Palm Springs International Film Festival flexes its muscles once again, and, as usual, it packs a wallop with Hollywood and international stars in attendance for the annual Black Tie Awards Gala and Festival.

This year’s Gala honors Glenn Close with the Career Achievement Award and also honors George Clooney with the prestigious Chairman’s Award. As in the past, tons of Hollywood stars and celebrities will walk the red carpet as presenters for this year’s event which is being held at the Palm Springs Convention Center on Saturday, January 7.

Close joins a list of past Career Achievement Award recipients that include: Cate Blanchett, Robert Duvall, Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Samuel L. Jackson and Helen Mirren.

Clooney’s Chairman Award includes such past recipients as: Ben Affleck, Dustin Hoffman and Nicole Kidman.

Michelle Williams will receive the Desert Palm Achievement Award for her role as Marilyn Monroe in the film “My Week With Marilyn,” and French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius receives the Sonny Bono Visionary Award for directing the film “The Artist” at the 2012 Festival. The movie is a throwback of sorts to the time of black and white photography and silent films prior to talking pictures.

The film received rave reviews when it premiered at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival last May. This year’s 23rd PSIFF festival is shaping up to be the best to date. It is already the third largest film festival in North America. Visitors and industry types including worldwide press and media execs, along with Hollywood writers, producers, directors, distributors, and actors will bring more than 130, 000 attendees to Palm Springs over the 10 days of the festival, which in turn should warm the cockles and the hearts of Palm Springs and valley merchants, restaurateurs, and hoteliers, as well as popular “watering hole” proprietors.

For tickets, passes, special film packages, and all information about the Festival call (760)322-2930, 1-800-8987256, or visit www.psfest.org.

FADE OUT:

December 2011/January 2012 – The Sun Runner 47

Ted Quinn and Judy pay a visit to Judy Van Ruggles, below. Harry O sings out, right.

C

ongratulations to Travis Cline and Shea Dunn who were married on October 1! I feel a bit responsible as I introduced them to each other, and what a lovely pair they make. The reception was held at Bobby Furst’s outstanding studio where family and friends danced into the night to the Paul Chesne Band. We wish them well on their journey of love!

To celebrate the birthday of Gram Parsons the Joshua Tree Inn held a special party and concert with Dennis Jay. Also playing that night were Steve Lester and Gar Robertson. And to everyone’s surprise, who else should show up in town but the road mangler himself—Phil Kaufman! If you are not familiar with the story, Phil was Gram’s manager and the one who stole his body from the airport in a rented hearse and burned it out at Cap Rock in Joshua Tree National Monument. Phil and Gram made a pact that was what Gram wanted and Phil stuck to it.

That’s what friends do.

If you get the movie Grand Theft Parsons with Johnny Knoxville playing Phil you can learn the whole story. Phil is a legend out here and what a character. One day I want to sit down with him one on one. To tell the truth, when I moved here I did not know much about Gram, but he seems to follow me everywhere I go now and just paid my respects out at Cap Rock yesterday.

Mick Taylor from the Rolling Stones showed up at Pappy and Harriet’s unannounced and got onstage and played Honky Tonk Women. Wow! How amazing is that? There have been a few special people showing up at Pappy’s including Pattie Boyd who was married to George Harrison (who wrote “Something” for her) and Eric Clapton (who wrote “ Layla” for her).

I had just finished her book, another desert double, and actress Helen Mirren was in town to see legendary English rock singer Terry Reid. You just never know who will show up at Pappy’s!

Gram (Grim) Rabbit’s Halloween Bash was once again a huge success at Pappy’s, the costumes were off the hook this year with the waitresses dressed as cockroaches and owners Robyn and Linda dressed as exterminators. Opening for the Rabbit’s were their alter-ego The Country.

Arjuna has a new CD out called Harmonic Heaven and it truly is. Produced and engineered by Gar Robertson it is all 48 The Sun Runner – December 2011/January 2012

Arjuna’s harmonic vocals and is truly an amazing blending of sounds. Like Gar says, it is like a combination of a Baptist choir and Tibetan Monks chanting. If you ever get a chance to see him live you will be amazed.

Ma Rouge Coffee House has been starting to have shows with the first one being Gypsy Fire, who packed the place.

Rock Art ( Robbi Robb, Amritakripa Watts-Robb and Ted Quinn) finally released their much anticipated CD, “Sunburst Golden Border,” on 11/11/11, and what a gem it is. It is kind of psychedelic tribal space rock with a desert feel.

In honor of our dear friend Barbara Buckland’s birthday, a special open mic was held at Pappy and Harriet’s. Her friend from Seattle, Harry Oesterreicher, flew out to play and be with us for a few days. Harry O clearly won over our hearts and got what we call the “Joshuatreeitis,” which is where you come hear here and want to move here and we really hope he does.

It was a special time in her memory, and who was playing pool during the show? Woody Harrelson, in town filming “Seven Psychopaths.”

We would like to wish our dear friend Judy Van Ruggles love and light during her battle with cancer. What an amazing, strong women who is still a feisty fighter. She has her banjo and even did a few songs during a recent visit. Who could not forget Judy dancing to the Thrift Store All Stars every Sunday night and passing the tip jar. We love you Judy.

Also get well wishes and hugs to Art Kunkin who is home now from the hospital and already back to work! Vista Music has re-opened in their same location next to Yellow Mart in Yucca Valley. How sad was it that in a town filled with musicians and music lovers there was nowhere to get any music except the Evil Empire (WalMart)!

I am very excited for a couple of shows coming up at Pappy’s: Multi-talented singer songwriter John Elliot and the Hereafter on February 2 who is described as Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan reborn; and Peter Case and Paul Collins on March 9! One of the first shows I saw when I moved out here was Peter Case at the Beatnik Café in Joshua Tree. I had known Peter from when I managed bands in Los Angeles, and I knew then that everything was going to be all right for me.

December 2011/January 2012 – The Sun Runner 49

M

y loyal and faithful friend Burke LeSage physically died November 7. Burke was a longtime strong and positive force in the maintenance and continued improvements of Desert Christ Park, located on the north side of the Town of Yucca Valley.

In Burke’s honor a beautiful plaque will be dedicated in his memory at a public ceremony in the Park, 1 p.m., February 11. As a dedicated supporter of the park myself and a person who loves Burke very much, I hope you will try to attend.

For the thousands of people who read this fine publication but do not live in the immediate area of the park, just remember it is a great place to visit when you have an opportunity.

It was better than 60 years ago that Pastor Eddie Carver invited artist/sculptor Frank Antone Martin of Los Angeles to bring his 15-foot statue of The Christ to Yucca Valley with the promise that Pastor Carver and his church members would erect it on the side of the hill overlooking the town. Martin accepted the invitation and that decision was the start of something good.

Today better than 55 larger-than-life statues dominate the less than four acres that make up Desert Christ Park. There are groupings of disciples listening to the Sermon on the Mount, apostles and other biblical characters in discussion or contemplation. The bright alabaster sculptures of followers tend to face away from the sun, while the Messiah images all face the 50 The Sun Runner – December 2011/January 2012

bustling Town of Yucca Valley.

There is a Tomb of Christ, a Garden of Gethsemane, a well and women drawing water from it.

One more thing must be noted. Despite the obvious religious themes, Antone Martin maintained that his sculptures were inspired by his devotion to peace on earth and not because of any particular religious doctrine.

Desert Christ Park is operated by the non-profit Desert Christ Park Foundation. Information available at (760) 3653984, or www.desertchristpark.org.

Editor’s note: Burke was a heck of a nice guy, a big supporter of this magazine, and a legendary race car driver. I’ll miss him and we send our condolences to his family.

Check out Lou’s book: Positive Living with Dr. Lou Gerhardt, A Tough Minded Optimist. You can find it on Amazon.com or through Barnes & Noble.

December 2011/January 2012 – The Sun Runner 51

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December 2011/January 2012 – The Sun Runner 53

54 The Sun Runner – December 2011/January 2012

December 2011/January 2012 – The Sun Runner 55

Circle C Lodge

Private oasis offers 12 spacious guest rooms nestled in a lush garden courtyard with heated pool, spa, BBQ pit. Full kitchen, A/C, HBO, phones, continental breakfast.

AAA, extended stay available.

6340 El Rey Ave., 29 Palms, CA (760)367-7615 • 800-545-9696 www.circleclodge.com

EL RANCHO DOLORES MOTEL

A respite for desert travelers since 1940, downtown 29 Palms. Swimming pool, courtyard, A/C, direct phones, satellite TV/HBO. Refrigerators/microwaves, kitchenettes available. Ken Patel, Manager.

73352 29 Palms Hwy., 29 Palms, CA 92277 (760)367-3528 virtual29.com/a-z/dolores

56 The Sun Runner – December 2011/January 2012

Roughley Manor

Bed & Breakfast Inn. Gorgeous 1928 stone manor on 25-acre historic Campbell Ranch. Gardens, elegant guest rooms, fireplaces, grand piano in great room, fine linens, gourmet food, catered functions.

Gary & Jan Peters.

74744 Joe Davis Dr., 29 Palms, CA 92277 (760)367-3238 www.roughleymanor.com

SUNNYVALE GARDEN SUITES Condo-like suites with a touch of the “old west.”

Junior, 1 & 2 bedroom suites, full kitchens, living rooms, dining rooms, private patios w/barbecues, Cable TV, DVD, patio area, playground, spa and fitness center.

Tony & Cora Naraval, owners.

73843 Sunnyvale Dr., 29 Palms, CA 92277 (760)361-3939 www.sunnyvalesuites.com

29 Palms Inn

Fine food & lodging since 1928. Lunch, dinner, continental breakfast, Sunday brunch. Art-filled dining room, bar. Heated pool, poolside patio, adobe bungalows. “Oasis of Mara” and trails, near JT National Park headquarters and visitor center.

Paul & Jane Smith, Innkeepers.

73950 Inn Ave., 29 Palms, CA 92277 (760)367-3505 www.29palmsinn.com

December 2011/January 2012 – The Sun Runner 57

58 The Sun Runner – December 2011/January 2012