So, Where Are These Joshua Trees Then?

Ashly and I have driven a lot, and it’s worth noting that Ashly doesn’t drive. No license, never driven and hates it. This means that I will drive thousands of miles and Ashly will sit with her divine toes up on the dashboard occasionally saying interesting things like ‘stop!’ or ‘look, cows,’  I take this all with good grace and now have decided to let Ashly drive the car through Arizona. It is a joyful three minutes. Ashly is in heaven as she flattens prairie dogs at a thunderous 5mph. As she said…

I loved the driving and I drove about 2 kilometres. I looked pretty good behind the wheel but would hate ‘real’ roads. Missed all the prairie dogs and freaked Tim out a little. And by the way I sang ‘One Day At A Time Sweet Jesus’ – not my usual default song but it just seemed to suit.

It’s 103F. You’ve a genuinely worn cowboy hat, showered, clean clothes and out on the road by 7:30 – you’re so in the groove of this landscape you can smell the dust devils from miles away, the car is full of fuel, the road is straight and the sky goes on forever. You’re a 59 year old privileged white male with a happy partner and expensive 1.5 aviator prescription sunglasses on.

Pick any route between the two points today and you can’t fail. That’s a bit academic as you need to go through the Joshua Tree National Park south to north to land at  The Mojave Sands Motel in Joshua Tree CA. So, gloriously, there is only one route and it will pass the strange and little known landmark called the ‘Rice Shoe Fence.’ A place that just kept popping up on the internet when you research this desolate part of California.

The Rice Shoe Fence

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice,_California

Nobody knows why. It’s just there like a lot of the strange things in the high desert are just ‘there’ . A German guy in a black Dodge Challenger (movie buff irony) stopped to take pictures with what looked like an astronomical telescope, stayed for a minute and left saying “80’s Air Jordan’s”. It’s confusing how thousands of old shoes tied to knackered fencing and a few trees can be so magical. We spend as long here as we did at the Grand Canyon. This part of the road was also in Vanishing Point; 75 miles of arrow straight heat hazed wonderland spotted with abandoned and collapsing buildings that people once tried to make work as a business. The light is brutal.

Needles CA is so hot that we obviously stop to buy honey. Joshua Tree National Park is extremely quiet and we wonder where all the U2 fans are. The flora and fauna is unworldly and very Star Trek, we don’t see a Joshua Tree for a disturbingly long time and, of course, as I’m drafting my letter of complaint the familiar silhouettes appear all around. The Cholla forest is beautiful sight #456. 

 

The desert calms you and strokes your forehead, the heat becomes a cosy pair of socks and you want to stay forever…

The Mojave Sands Motel is perfect. That’s all. It’s so cool it’s uncool to even mention it. When googled you see that it’s used for high-end fashion shoots. Of course it is. The outside bath is worth the trip alone.