Move over, LA – these desert towns are the new California hotspots
“Too peopley” is how a writer friend who lives in the Mojave desert describes Los Angeles. Like many an Angeleno, when the coronavirus pandemic struck, she hit the highway, headed east and swapped a stamp-sized apartment in the city for a laid-back life in the wilds.
With its canyon-filled horizons, starry skies and haunting coyote cries, California’s High Desert is an undisputed Shangri-La. An informally designated 62,137-mile area of the Mojave, it rises from 2,000 to 4,000ft and includes sleepy settlements such as Pioneertown, Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree and Twentynine Palms.
Since the 1940s, celebrities have been drawn to its mystical allure. Writer Aldous Huxley came to experiment with psychedelic drugs among the ethereal yuccas of the Joshua Tree National Park; a group of Hollywood legends, among them Roy Rogers and Gene Autry, built Pioneertown as a Western film set that is perfectly preserved today.
Drawn by the Mojave’s limitless space, hipster weekenders rock up to throw impromptu “burner parties” – Burning Man-style mini festivals. But the virus has accelerated the exodus from the cities.
These once-forgotten outposts are now thriving micro-communities, colonised by Hollywood escapees, remote-working creatives, five-star restaurants and cool motels. “People have always visited, but the real shift is in the rapidly growing community,” says Mike French, co-owner of the 20-room Pioneertown Motel (pioneertown-motel.com), the Red Dog Saloon and its adjacent Red Cabin “honeymoon suite” on Pioneertown’s Mane Street (reddogpioneertown.com).
In 2014, French moved to Pioneertown to fix up the derelict motel and artists, musicians, foodies and free spirits followed. “Mane Street is home to talented artists and makers,” says French, “and the latest influx is bringing a lot of exciting projects that will anchor the High Desert.”
Among them is the Ramsey 29 Palm motel in Twentynine Palms, which was renovated during the last lockdown. It’s near to the Kitchen in the Desert (kitcheninthedesert.com), a Caribbean-inspired cult restaurant which, like many desert restaurants, offers outside dining, curb-side service and cocktails to go. This open-air approach applies to pretty much everything. The desert is a virus-era safe space.
“Out here you have the freedom to do things you can’t or won’t do in the city. It’s a creative blank canvas,” says Joshua Tree immigrant, architect Malek Alqadi. Weary of designing movie-mogul mansions in LA, in 2019, he bought 100 acres of land and set about building his own prefab home and a series of experimental off-the-grid holiday huts.
At Folly Joshua Tree, located three miles outside the national park, guests can sleep under the stars in open-air cabins, and Folly Mojave, which opens in Wonder Valley in December, comes with its own private plunge pool and a stargazing suite (follycollection.com). “There’s so much to do,” says Alqadi. “A full cultural movement is still in its infancy, but it’s definitely coming.”
