The California Desert

I've never been a fan of the desert. In fact, the desert is the last place I like to visit. Give me green trees, waterfalls, babbling brooks, forests, lakes, and seas. But pleeeeze, not the desert!
I reluctantly agreed to drive through Joshua Tree with Melanie on the way home from our evening at the Integratron.

Hey, who said the desert is nothing but hot sand and cactus? I've been misled! The desert is actually beautiful! Above is a rock that people were rappelling on. There was a guy at the top. Above is a Joshua Tree. Strangely beautiful. They actually get as big and bushy as the trees we think of as trees.

OK. this looks like a nice picnic spot. You call this the desert?

Like I said, I like green. But hey, look at the variety here.

Yes, at times it was breathtaking.

Melanie and I found Skull Rock. It was very windy. I had to brace myself to take these pictures.









There were even flowers in the desert if you looked closely. Yellow, white, purple. I'm holding one of the yellow ones to take a picture because it was so windy.
Well, when I switched to Preview I see that the flowers disappeared! One of the problems that I seem to have frequently when I use this blog site. Anyone else have this problem?









We stopped for lunch in a Mexican restaurant in Yucca Valley before heading home.

The last shot is of the back of the Rocky Mountains as we head back home to the coast. Probably the back of Big Bear. I'll never think of the desert the same way again!

The Integratron

Last weekend I went with Melanie to "Venus Rising", a celebration of the arrival of Spring, at the Integratron in Landers, CA. It was quite an interesting weekend. A little bit of the Renaissance Pleasure Faire, a little bit of back to the 60's and the Hippie era, a little bit of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), quite a few artists and their art, music, and a touch of UFO's thrown in.We passed the future of energy (Wind Power) on the way out to Landers.
We stopped nearby at the property Melanie inherited from her parents. There was a cabin on the property and Melanie remembers many happy weekends there with her parents during her childhood years. Unfortunately, there was a fire and the cabin burned down. We found the foundation and Melanie described the rooms to us. This is Melanie and Carol next to Melanie's mother's rock garden.

Melanie and I in front of the Integratron, a dome shaped structure in the middle of the desert. I was amazed at how many people came out here to the middle of nowhere for this event!
Inside the Integratron we attended a "Sound Bath." It was a meditative experience of relaxation and healing listening to tones played on 9 different sized quartz crystal bowls. They claim that each bowl is keyed to the different chakras of the body. It was very relaxing.
The guy who originally built the Integatron, believed in UFO's and held regular meetings of UFO affectionados. Funny enough, as the sun went down, I looked out one of the windows of the Integratron and saw my own UFO!
As the sun set, several of us relaxed in the dome. The guy in the middle is playing a Hang Drum. It is actually shaped like a UFO. (Don't know if he believed in UFOs.) I was told that you can only get this drum in Switzerland and you must go there to buy it. Anyway, the sound was enchanting. It did not sound like any drum I have ever heard before. It had a range of sounds from deep metal to tinkling. Very melodic. He played it very well. At the point the picture was taken, he was joined by a guy on a more traditional drum.
After the drum playing there was another very interesting piece of art. One guy sat at a laptop and projected images on a screen while interesting music played. The images faded from one to the next. They started with celestial shots of galaxies and ended with DNA dividing to form primitive one-celled life forms which slowly evolved into more advanced life forms until finally man appeared. All the while a second artist was drawing unrelated pictures over the images. You can see him drawing above. It was very interesting to see him draw as his images emerged. Most of the time you saw the first guy's images integrated, sometimes the background receded. Then the second guy's drawings somehow became embossed, then looked like negatives, then turned back into images like above. Quite an interesting art experience!

We decided to join the crowd outside where the band was playing and ran into this interesting character. He was actually all lit up in blue lights. A giant insect walking around on stilts! Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture of him without my flash which drowned out his interesting blue lights.After the band stopped playing, we stood around metal barrels with interesting cutouts filled with wood fires to keep warm in the cold night desert air. The sky was so beautiful with stars we never see in the city. Then the fire dancers came out. This guy has 2 hula hoops on fire, one around his waist and one around his neck! He had an open mesh top on! Hardly fire retardant.There were 3 fire dancers, 2 men and one women. They performed separately and then together. The woman was doing an exotic middle eastern arabian-type dance. Very beautiful. The last guy who is furthest away in the picture was wearing only a vest on top. Shortly after I snapped this shot he caught on fire! Fortunately, they had attendants who ran out with blankets and quickly put out the fire. Then the show went on!!

All in all, a very interesting experience!