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| The Desert Blooms in the Middle of No Where |
Leaving Twenty-Nine Palms takes one through the bleakest
parts of the drive. It is long flat and
straight beyond the point of monotony.
But stick with it and you will see something interesting after a
while. You see the lone ruins of a cabin
or a house. Long abandoned, the stand
empty in the blazing sun (and it is always blazing sun) and you wonder at the
regularity. This is actually one of the
sings of long vanquished dreams. These
are the remains of homesteading.
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| After I wrote this, I found this site all about the Homesteads out there. LINK |
Homesteading, for those of you not familiar, was once used
by the United States to open Federal lands to the public. Certain areas were given over to Homesteaders
who got a plot of land (usually 160 acres or a ¼ section). They could keep the land if they lived on it
and worked it (farming – usually) for five years. Then they would receive the title to the
land. The regularity of the dilapidated
houses out here is an artifact of the homesteading process.
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After what seems like forever, the road finally makes a huge
end left and up another hill. At the
crest of this rise, the large Amboy plateau greets you. The vegetation thickens here, as they get
more rainfall. Since there is no outlet
for water, there are large salt flats where the occasional rainwater collects
and then evaporates. There are salt
works here.
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| Amboy Crater |
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It is an interesting drive down into the hill, culminating
in the all but abandoned town of Amboy.
Right before you get to the “town”, you can see a lone hill to the
west. This is Amboy crater. A real life meteor crater you can hike to
when it is hot enough to kill you. The
road you are driving will end at a T in the intersection of Amboy. There is a light that sometimes works,
sometimes doesn’t. Town itself is
interesting as it has been sold a few times.
Grand plans to remake it into a resort or reopen the hotel have fizzled
over time. It’s only real use seems to be as a stop on the highway for soda and
a part time film location.
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| Amboy... Sitting in the Sun |
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The road you are now on is part of old Route 66. You can stop and take a picture if you want,
where the road name is stenciled on the ground.
It isn’t used anymore in any meaningful way. The freeway – Interstate 40 – took a route on
the other side of the Amboy Hills. This
lonely section of the road is a reminder of how desolate that route used to be
in parts.
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| Jane - Getting Her Kicks |
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The hills above Amboy - after a very wet winter.
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