Joshua Tree is a national park with rocky hills, beautiful views, and wild native plates.
Commonly known as the little cousin of Monument Valley in northern Arizona, Valley of the Gods rests just to the north only a few miles up Highway 163 from the town of Mexican Hat, Utah just across the border. A 17 mile dirt road winds its way beginning at the southern entrance along Highway 163 and ending at its western entrance along Highway 261.
In the middle of the Simpson Desert, after many miles of dirt road, we bumped into an oasis called Dalhousie Springs. It's already dark when we arrive and the temperature drops swiftly.
The Desert Hot Springs is pretty small, only 4 rooms, but it is the only hotel designed by John Lautner, the architect that designed the Elrod house. The hotel is a fantastic blend of indoor and outdoor space like all Lautner buildings and has become something of an interpretive Lautner experience.
Havasu Falls is a 100-foot tall waterfall in the Grand Canyon that is a desert oasis in every sense of the word. It is one of the most photographed waterfall in the world, and for good reason.
Wonderful desert retreat on the California-Nevada Border. There is a small, historic motel and rustic camping available.
One of the most amazing national parks in Utah. It's the world's largest concentration of natural stone arches.
white sands is a national monument in southern new mexico...it's filled with incredible pure white sand dunes and has been described as "like snow, but not" by locals...
Remember the great "Dollar Trilogy" of the often underappreciated spaghetti western genre? Sergio Leone shot "A Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" (all of them starring a young and almost unknown American actor named Clint Eastwood) in the mid 60's in the desert of Tabernas in Almeria, Spain.
Mini Hollywood is a theme park that features some of the original sets used in all these movies, as well as occasional staged shootings and chasings performed by professional stunts.
Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and architectural school. Every year Wright and his fellowship of apprentices and students, would move between the summer home in Wisconsin, and here in the winter.