Raise your expectations. There’s much to see in Twentynine Palms.
You might have been told that Twentynine Palms is in the middle of nowhere, not far from Death Valley. This is not completely true. Here are restaurants, hotels, banks, a library, Starbucks …the town has all the comforts of home, really. The desert architecture takes some getting used to. There’s a lot of low-slung houses and modular buildings.
But by the end of a weekend visit I began to be able to appreciate the different cactus, succulents, and palms. And the many rock gardens. The green and brown hue, paired with a wide open sky. There was something serene and yet defiant in the geography. It was a town that was operating along entirely different lines.
I was in California for a brief three day trip. This was to see my daughter, graduate from US Marine Corps Communications School. She was studying at the Marine base in Twentynine Palms. The trip came to be a good study in weekend tourism as well. What I discovered:
The desert landscape is stunning … Even in summer
This town, which I visited 40 years ago while a teenager, has certainly changed and developed during that time. The desert still appears rocky and barren. But upon a closer look, there is much life, with barrel cactuses, cholla, and the famous Joshua Tress. The hills to the south of town change color as the day advances. In the late afternoon they take on a red glow. The heat is real (104 degrees on the days I visited.) A desert breeze kept it from being completely stiffing. Nevertheless, sweat constantly runs down your back. You run the air conditioner the second you come in. You turn on the car and the A/C on before leaving.
A Crossroads of Four Cultures
Driving down the main thoroughfare, 29 Palms Highway, the town appears to be populated by artists, homeless people, and Marines. Each group has left their mark and a strange synchronicity pervades the environment.
The Artists
It’s impossible to ignore the influence of the artists. There are murals all over town, painted over the last 30 years. Many of them present the early history of the town, the founding parents, if you like. A favorite one is officially named “Operation Iraqi Freedom” but my daughter called it “The Baby Faced Marine.” It includes an inset of the removal of the statue of Saddam Hussein. Animals, sports, and natural history also figure.
The Homeless
This place is unquestionably rough-edged. There’s garbage in the gutters of 29 Palms Highway at the edge of town. In a dusty field we saw a pair of men who looked like wanderers trying to unstick their truck from the deep sand beside the road. Homeless people may be encountered if you walk down this main strip. But with so many cars going by, at least during the day it doesn’t feel unsafe. On the way to lunch, we passed a man who was yelling at someone who wasn’t present, swinging a bottle. It was filled with what looked like Coke but his behavior made you wonder.
The Marines
The Marines are in the town too. These can be picked out by their short haircut, their youth, and their look of purposefulness. Housing on base goes first to those with dependents. So my daughter’s digs were in town, in a group of four apartments off the main strip. Her place was in a kind of shed row barn house. It seemed to be set in a tray of sand and gravel, with hitching post type structures to mark the parking in front. One neighbor is a young marine couple, while the other two tenants were more reclusive. One she had never seen. Behind the house, each apartment had a bare yard of sand traversed by a single diagonal clothes line.
The Marines are a draw for barbers, and there are barber shops everywhere. Regulations say you must have short hair cut every two weeks. So places like Marine Haircut offer a much needed service.
Marine Haircut
Down the street, at Rocky’s New York Pizzaria, there was pretty respectable eats. Not truly like a pie from New York, but not like something from Dominoes, either. When we ate there, my daughter saw two officer-classmates with their dates. “No officer has a wife or girlfriend who is less than an 8,” she opined. This is what they say, as least. Marine officer’s girlfriends, at least when they go out to dinner, seem to all have long hair. And wear mini dresses.
The Marine Base at Twentynine Palms is the largest one in the United States, encompassing more than 1,100 square miles. The base is about a mile from the town of Twentynine Palms proper. My daughter and I entered through a guard shack and drove on to the campus. This reminded me of a very spartan, very dry university campus, populated with marines instead of college students. There was the library, the cafeteria, the dormitories, and the classrooms. Young marines walked around carrying brown backpacks. They sported short hair under their “cover” which is what the military calls a hat. When you’re in uniform outside, you must wear a cover, and you also must salute officers.
We washed her car at the coin car wash. I saw from the outside the hospital, medical clinic, the officer’s club, the enlisted club, the parade ground, the dorms in row upon row, the pool. Beside the road, there were trails where Marines did P/T, or Physical Training. P/T might be the Marines favorite activity, at least during peacetime. The base is characterized by pragmatic architecture, dry ground unembellished by flowers, rows of combat vehicles.
The Indiginous
From the Joshua Tree National Park visitors center we learned through images, video and storytelling about the history of and natural preservation activity by local indigenous tribes. This included their struggle to retain their connection and care of the land in the face of European settlement. In particular it was interesting to see discussion about the care of the original oasis of Twentynine Palms. The tribes had observed various types of inappropriate stewardship of the oasis. In one case the local fire department cut down and chopped up several palms which had caught fire. This violated native religious practices. The tribes spoke out to object. There are now improved guidelines for care of the oasis and it’s palm trees.
Spokespersons for the tribes stated their intention to advocate, reach out to educate non-indigenous persons, and continue their duty to provide knowledgeable advocacy, oversight and information on the region, including both tribal lands lands. They will seek to maintain the region’s natural beauty and honor their spirituality here. Indigenous reservations in the area include Morongo and Agua Caliente, both near Palm Springs.
The Oasis is the Thing
There is more than one oasis in Joshua Tree, and you don’t have to travel far to get to one. A high point of the trip was visiting the Oasis of Fortynine Palms is in Joshua Tree National Park top of story pic). You reach the oasis by a 1.5 mile trail with a 500 feet elevation gain. This from a trailhead just south of the main 29 Palms Highway. Scarlett and I rose early to hike this well-maintained route of steps and rocky outcroppings. We saw warnings not to start without water. Also not to hike between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. in the summer. Although short, the trail is not actually for beginners. Apparently local search and rescue has to come and get victims of heat exhaustion not infrequently. When we reached the oasis, it was like nothing else Id ever seen. In a cleft of rock, green plants and moss grew. Down a ten foot drop, a pool of water was just visible under an overhang. This was a true spring in desert, water coming up through fault lines, mystically.
Two Visitors Centers
There are two visitors centers in Twentynine Palms. In addition to the National Park Visitor’s Center, there is a local one for the city. Both visitors centers are on 29 Palms Highway. The one for town offers gifts, maps, a video, and advice. We were able to gather information on hiking to the oasis, hot springs, and on local restaurants. And get postcards.
Kitchen in the Desert
We visited a hip restaurant one evening. Kitchen in the Desert is an outside kitchen and dining room featuring Caribbean inspired dishes, including many vegan offerings, and also hamburgers. My daughter had a whole dish just full of mushrooms. Overhead, triangular awnings made us feel were were in a Middle Eastern souk.
Music which was funky, optimistic, full of feeling and the fresh sound of emotional longing piped through the compound. Unique chairs, tables, and cactus surrounded us. Also a big mirrored disco ball, which was revolving. Our dinners were not huge (I think we had stumbled upon the small plates phenomenon and not realized it) but they were exquisitely prepared, with fragrant herbal notes. Kitchen in the Desert was somehow connected to soul of the desert, full of mystery and optimism. We finished off with large pieces of strawberry rhubarb pie.
The Observatory and a Dark Sky Park
Joshua Tree National Park is a dark sky park. This is an international designation that denotes a low level of lights in the neighborhood, That leads to the ability to see the stars and celestial bodies with unusual clarity. We did not get to try star gazing, which was a slight disappointment. However, there is a small observatory at the entrance to the park. We did get to stop and see the park surrounding that. Instructors hold sky watching events on a monthly basis. We enjoyed walking around a monumental model of the solar system, and a mega-sized sun dial. We saw various science-themed art and enjoyed building our own artwork with rocks in an area designated for this.
Crazy Artist in the Desert Vibe
As I came away from it all, I had to say that the whole experience had a kind of crazy artist in the desert vibe. Think Burning Man, perhaps. It was as if a group of people who wanted to do things their own way, who wanted to associate in a separate space, who wanted to make something special out of a region which other people didn’t understand or appreciate, had assembled in Twentynine Palms. They were doing it their way, for sure. The only truly conventional structure I saw in the whole place was a Starbucks on the north side of 29 Palms Boulevard. With all this activity and the native tribes watching over in a custodial role, it seemed to me that despite the many pressures on the land and the culture, Twentynine Palms would be a place with value and interest for a good long while.
More than meets the eye. Much under the sun. An oasis awaits. That’s Twentynine Palms.
