Hole In The Wall

Mojave Desert -- Winter is a good time to visit our neighboring deserts. In Los Angeles, we are blessed to have both the Mojave (high desert) and Colorado (low desert).

Pictured here are winter visitors exploring the rocky wonderland of Hole In The Wall, about three hours from Los Angeles. 

Kelso Depot (Continued)

One of my greatest pleasures is driving through the Mojave Desert. In the good old days, I had a VW Van--a Westfalia camper equipped with roll-down windows and a spray bottle as an air conditioner.

Every other weekend a small group of friends chose a remote desert location on a map and drove there. Back in '80s, Kelso was headed towards ruins. The 80s was all about New Wave music, building up cities and solving the Rubik's Cube. Old desert towns and buildings were used more for target practice and dirt bike destinations than being appreciated and left alone. Preservation was alive but struggling.

Today, Kelso is enjoying a revitalization. The East Mojave is now mostly a Preserve. Inside Kelso Depot, an old fashioned soda fountain greets visitors with turn-of-the-century charm and nostalgia. All the individual rooms in the train station are used as a museum and library. They even have original recordings of a 1950s radio show broadcasting from a nearby desert town.


Here, one finds a vibrant, living desert full of history and hidden treasures.

Today, I drive a car with air conditioning. But when I'm rolling through mirages on the sun-soaked highways of the East Mojave, you will often find me with my windows down and stereo playing Marty Robbins and the Sons of the Pioneers, singing,

"All day I've faced a barren waste
Without the taste of water,
cool water
Old Dan and I with throats burned dry
And souls that cry for water
Cool..., clear..., water...."

A Drive Through the East Mojave

Spring is a great time to visit the East Mojave National Preserve. This is Cima Road, south of Interstate 15. A beautiful, 22-mile drive takes you to the town of Keslo and Kelso Depot.

Today, temperatures only reached about 100-degrees Fahrenheit. But afternoon thunderstorms quickly cooled the landscape and desert air to a pleasant 90 degrees.

Whistle Stop at Kelso Depot

East Mojave Desert -- Deep in the heart of the Mojave National Preserve is the newly renovated Kelso Depot and Visitor Center. The old train depot was built during the mining boom in the 1920s and had over 2,000 residents up until the 1940s. Today, the town of Kelso is pretty much a ghost town except for the 1920s-style soda fountain bar, museum and old fashion jail cell at the Depot.

More on the Kelso Depot and East Mojave to follow...

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