Yes! This place it totally killer! I got lost looking for pizza and found this little bookshop that sells weird, but curated stuff and it’s mostly about the history of the area and land art. Then I found out it was the HQ for the big High Desert Test Sites event(which I’m dying to check out one year soon.) Def recommend stopping by on the weekend my L.A. bros!
Drea K.
Place rating: 5 Los Angeles, CA
this is the headquarters for high desert test sites, an organization that supports experimental art that engages with the local environment within a short stretch of intimate and diverse desert communities that include joshua tree, pioneertown, wonder valley, yucca valley, and twentynine palms. high desert test sites generates physical and conceptual spaces for art exploring the intersections between contemporary art and life at large. these works are scattered througout the desert and there are both fleeting and long-term experimental projects in the roster of work produced. inside the headquarters you can pick up a free detailed map to several of the permanent installations in the area and it came quite in handy during our desert explorations. the map provides some excellently written directions– some of the sites are located off the grid in places that would be hard, if not impossible, to find without their extremely explicit instructions. the headquarters also houses a small archival library and a shop filled with a lovingly curated selection of zines, books, camping/survival gear, gems & minerals, and a variety of artist-made goods. i picked up a piece of green calcite for two dollars and a short field guide to the local night sky. i highly recommended stopping by the high desert test sites hq if you’re hanging out in the high desert and want a chance to connect with some spectacular in-situ art works.
