For better or worse you can read about Wonder Valley in:
In the California Desert: Vast Darkness, Vibrant Music, an Oasis
In Wonder Valley, the silence makes its own kind of noise. And Twentynine Palms makes its own kind of music.
The article was written by By Ivy Pochoda for the Decemeber 19, 2017 issue. Ms. Pochoda is the author of the book Wonder Valley.
Does this sound like us?
"Except for a bar and a used bookstore that’s rarely open, there were—and are— no amenities in Wonder Valley. There are no stoplights or streetlights, nothing to punctuate the night sky. After dark, dogs howl and coyotes yip in anticipation of a kill.
"The landscape is monotonous — a flat and almost ghostly expanse of scrubby desert whose most impressive feature is the tenacity of the flora, fauna and human beings who survive there. But there’s an unsettling sort of beauty in the challenges Wonder Valley presents, especially after dark. For night is when this far corner of the Mojave gave me its odd reassurance that it was still possible to go somewhere unexpected, that it wasn’t only O.K. to be lost, it was somehow necessary."That seems like a pretty fair assessment.
