Amboy, CA & Roy’s Cafe

        Just north of Joshua Tree National Park, situated along Historic Route 66 is the town of Amboy, which consists of Roy’s Cafe and a decaying, 60 year old church. As you head north out of Joshua Tree, you will travel through Bristol Dry Lake to get to Amboy, where you can gas up and have a meal at Roy’s Cafe.

        Roy’s Cafe has been an institution in Amboy and Historic Route 66 since 1938, eventually serving travelers with food, a place to fix and/or gas up as well as stay the night. At the height of travel along Route 66, Roy’s employed 70 people. That all changed in 1972 when I-40 opened up to the north, which meant that Amboy would lose all the transcontinental traffic that made it into a boom town in the years after WWII. I-40 completely bypassed Amboy and Roy’s Cafe, so the area became a ghost town and fell into disrepair. As a visitor during Memorial Day weekend in 2010, it is hard to believe that 70 employees were needed to run the place because I saw less than a dozen travelers the entire time I was there. It is sad to think that 30 years ago, with the stroke of a pen on a map, Route 66 and the town of Amboy became relics of the past, and I-40 became the corridor of the future.
        Barstow, which lies to the west along I-40 boomed, while Amboy and Roy’s Cafe, along the instantly forgotten Route 66 were stripped of their status as a way point for travelers and were reduced to a point of curiosity that people only see if they specifically mean to go there.

Amboy Crater

        At the intersection of Amboy Road and Route 66 were some roadside vendors selling fresh jerky and cherries. The jerky vendor advertised a website: www.freshjerky.com that I explored and found that they have a two California retail locations: One in Olancha and another in Needles, as well as a location in Golden Valley, AZ. My cousin purchased a bag of jerky from this “retail outlet” of Gus’s Really Good Fresh Jerky and it was in fact really good and really fresh. The photo of Amboy Crater above as well as the top photo in this post were taken from the vantage of this roadside vendor.

Approaching Bristol Dry Lake, Amboy Crater & Roy’s Cafe

        The silent movie above shows just how timeless a journey through the desert can be. When you drive through a dry lake on the fringes of the Mojave desert, it is easy to forget what planet you are on, but it’s even easier to forget what year you are in. The grainy, jumpy video above might be 50 years or 50 days old. We just don’t know for sure.

Downtown Amboy

        Desert towns rely on a steady traffic flow of desert travelers for their economy to flourish. In 1972, when I-40 opened and bypassed the town of Amboy, the town went belly-up, and became a novelty destination, which does not encompass enough people to be sustainable for small desert town situated along a now defunct Route 66.

Historic Route 66 Shoe Tree

        After a nice meal at Roy’s Cafe, head east on Route 66 and you will see history rewind before your very eyes. So many people over so many years have passed through here that even roadside garbage has a story to tell.

Immortalized On Historic Route 66

        As you leave Amboy and head east on Route 66, you will notice the shoulder on the north side of the road contains the names of countless travelers, hand-printed with stones for miles and miles. It is difficult to say when this impromptu tradition started, but I think it must go back to the 1920′s. With that in mind, I decided to add my name, with dozens of carefully selected and positioned stones to the roster. Take the time to do the same and who knows what you’ll find in the process. For example, I planned on arranging my name with stones, snapping a picture and leaving. Who would have known that a .38 snub nose revolver and a beer can, so old that it was made out of steel would make an appearance? Either way, Historic Route 66 is American heritage, so on your next road trip, you really should veer off of our interstate highway system and detour along the original cross-country highway… Historic Route 66.

Joshua Trees In The National Park

        Even though I have not traveled much in the last ten years, I like to look at the laundry list of places I have been with pride and nostalgia. I have traveled to 5 continents, 18 countries and 17 American states. With any luck at all, those numbers will grow as will my understanding of the world. On Sunday of Memorial Day weekend 2010, I traveled with my cousins to Joshua Tree National Park.

        Joshua Tree National Park looks like the set of a motion picture where the story takes place on a planet that is not planet Earth. Earlier I mentioned the number of places I have been on this planet, not to brag, but for some perspective. Joshua Tree National Park is not like traveling on Earth, it’s like going the surface of an unknown moon of an unknown planet. The only familiar things are what you carry with you and the people you travel with.
        Skull Rock and The Hall Of Horrors can not be seen anywhere else. You must go to Joshua Tree National Park to see them, and countless other geologic, animalistic and aquatic features. Check out the Joshua Tree website and plan your trip today. A few major things to know: Bring your own water, firewood and DEFINITELY bring your camera.

Wildlife

        Located about 175 miles from San Diego, 140 miles from Los Angeles and 215 miles from Las Vegas, Joshua Tree National Park is an easy and interesting place to go for anyone in the southwest United States.

Flowers Reside Here Too

        For this journey, I had my trusty Nikon D5000 and two Nikkor lenses. Between these two lenses I covered the photographic spectrum from 18 to 200mm, and I ended up using every single bit of that distance. The one thing that I am lacking with this rig is macro capability; At 200mm, I have to be at least 3 feet away from my subject. Not a big deal, but it is something to consider when shooting flowers and bugs.

Hummingbird In Joshua Tree National Park

        The hummingbird you see above had one of the loudest wing beats I have ever heard. It almost sounded like a helicopter in the distance, or a very large bumblebee very near by. Either way, it landed and stood still long enough for me to take a single photo.

Rocks And Joshua Trees

        Aside from all the things to see in Joshua Tree National Park, there are a lot of rocks to climb. Seriously, this place is a rock climber’s dream. There are rock formations that that can be stared at for hours or climbed upon for days.

An Insect On A Thorny Plant

        For me, one of the best things about going to a National Park, or any outdoor/wilderness setting in general is being able to see the way non-humans live and go about their lives. Since animals do not have to compete with us for life inside a park, we are able (if we quiet our minds and take the time to just look & listen) to physically and personally see just how connected every living thing is. The photo above helps to illustrate how every plant and animal has a reason for being, and that reason is not to be subjugated by people.

Blue-Belly Lizard

        I saw a lot of lizards during my time in the park, but they are very fast and always seemed to be running away from me towards the cover of the nearest shrub or crack in the rocks. The specimen above was sunning on a rock, and stood still while I approached and photographed him.
        That will bring this post to a close, but stay tuned for another post in the next day or so that will feature some amazing things I saw just north of Joshua Tree National Park. I won’t give it away, but historic Route 66, the town and volcanic crater of Amboy, Roy’s Cafe, shoes and immortalizing myself with rocks are all on the menu. Cheers!

Joshua Tree National Park