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, Scarlett, graduate from US Marine Corps Communications School. She was studying at the Marine base in Twentynine Palms. Scarlett will be leaving for the Marine base in Okinawa next week. 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.) Still, 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 Three 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 Scarlett called it “The Baby Faced Marine.” Therein is 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 Scarlett’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.
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, Scarlett 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 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. You reach the oasis by a 1.5 mile trail with a 500 feet elevation gain. This from a trail from a trailhead just south of the main 29 Palms Highway. Scarlett and I rose early to hike this rocky, 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 an get victims of heat exhaustion not infrequently during the summer. When we reached the oasis, it was like nothing else. There was a true spring in desert, water coming up through fault lines underneath. Palms trees were growing surrounded by rocks.
Marines Have a History Here
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. Scarlett 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. Scarlett tells me that when you’re in uniform outside, you must wear a cover, and you also must salute.
Scarlett and I washed her car at the coin car wash. Then she drove around and I saw the hospital, medical clinic, the officer’s club, where she never went. Then the enlisted club, where she also never went, the parade ground, the dorms in row upon row. The pool was there, and the trails where Marines did P/T, or Physical Training. P/T might be the Marines favorite activity, at least during peacetime. At her OTC graduation, one speaker suggested that Marines like to suffer. I have to admit, there does seem to be an ascetic tendency on base. Pragmatic architecture, dry ground unembellished by flowers, rows of combat vehicles.
Two Visitors Centers
There are two visitors centers in Twentynine Palms. First of all, the local one for the city. Second of all, the larger one for Joshua Tree National Park. This park which adjoins the town immediately on the south side. Both visitors centers are on 29 Palms Highway. The one for town offers gifts, maps, a video, and good advice. On the day I was there the advice was from a woman who knew about hiking hot springs, and food.
The Joshua Tree National Park visitor’s center, when we went in, was showing a description of life and activities of local native American 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 natives had observed various types of inappropraite stewardship of the oasis. In one case by the local fire department, which cut down and chopped up several palms which had caught fire. This violated native religious practices. Local tribes spoke out to object. There are now improved guidelines for care of the oasis and it’s palm trees.
The tribes stated that they intended to continue their concern and oversight for the region. They would seek to maintain the regions natural beauty and honor thier native spirituality here. Reservations in the area include Morongo and Agua Caliente, both near Palm Springs.
Kitchen in the Desert
Scarlett and I visited a hip restaurant one evening, Kitchen in the Desert. This outside kitchen and dining room features Caribbean inspired dishes, including many vegan offerings, but also hamburgers. Scarlett 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.
Chairs, tables, and cactus surrounded us. Also a big mirrored disco ball, which was revolving, mounted to a stage. 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 and unique ingredients, and the pieces of pie we ordered afterwards were huge … and delicious as well. Not even a total lack of after dinner coffee (they had run out!) could dispel the magic feel of this place. Kitchen in the Desert was somehow connected to soul of the desert. The soul of the desert was full of mystery and optimism. And 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. Scarlett and I 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.
