Coyote Crossing

Michael Gordon Show at the Kelso Depot Nov. 5 - Feb. 5

Gordon Postcard

Mojave Preserve Conservancy events

My colleagues at the MNPC are holding two events in the Preserve: a Star Party on September 24, and a fence removal work party on October 8. Details are below.

Star Party September 24, Hole In The Wall Campground

If you’ve never seen the Milky

What once was desert, from the air

Erin Whitefield photo, Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Station construction site.

There are more photos, and some description of each, at Basin and Range Watch, whose proprietors have stronger stomachs than … (continues)

Western Watersheds sues to stop Ivanpah SEGS

[Some good news for your MLK Day.]

WWP Sues to Stop Fast Tracked Power Plant in CA

For immediate release - January 17, 2011

LOS ANGELES — On Friday January 14, 2011 Western Watersheds Project filed suit in federal court to halt construction of

Lost and Ancient Archives

In May 2008, as long-time readers of this blog know, I left the San Francisco Bay Area where I had lived for a quarter century and moved to the Mojave Desert.  I remember the next month through a bit of a veil. There was a lot of work hauling

Weather Report From Granite Cove

In this morning’s email, a message from Jim Andre (director of UC Riverside’s Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Research Center) (reposted with permission):

Hey folks, not sure if I sent this link to you but we have a new real-time weather station

Solar Gold: The Ivanpah Spirit Run (video)

Filmmaker Robert Lundahl joined us at the Ivanpah Spirit Run last weekend. This is the result. Edited among images and interviews with Spirit Run participants are snippets of a longer interview with Sweeney Granite Mountains Desert Research Center

A moment during the Ivanpah Spirit Run

He was taking a moment in between running along Ivanpah Road to collect rocks. There are plenty of rocks along Ivanpah Road, debris washed off two mountain ranges. He had a fistful of nice quartz. Five hours later on the Ivanpah Lake playa seven

Stars

I’m up in my writers’ group this week, and I’m cranking out Chapter 11* of the Joshua tree book, writing about the night I took this photo. So here it is.

*No bankruptcy jokes please. Too close to home what with working 10 hours a … (continues)

Camp Ivanpah: The Video

Journalist Claes Andreasson, who has been doing good work covering desert solar for Swedish Public Radio and other outlets, came out to see us at Camp Ivanpah the week before last. He interviewed a number of participants, including yours truly, and

Paving the ancient desert

Above is a map, adapted from the BLM’s Geocommunicator site, of the Ivanpah Valley. The aerial image covers about 25 miles of the desert left to right. Interstate 15 is the broad blue stripe running more or less vertically. The boundaries of the

Last Summer at Ivanpah

Ancient desert slated for destruction. Laura Cunningham photo.

There is a story that has haunted me since I first heard it, and it comes to mind often these days. It was in the early 1960s, and the Sierra Club — playing politics in order to save

Bad news on Ivanpah Solar

The California Energy Commission has approved the hideously destructive Ivanpah Solar Energy Generating System. From their notice, forwarded to Coyote Crossing by our friends at Basin and Range Watch;

This Decision contains the Commission’s

Fantastic news: Ivanpah Airport project suspended

Last week the Mojave Desert got some good news for a change:

Development of the proposed Ivanpah Airport, considered crucial to Southern Nevada’s future just a few years ago, has been suspended indefinitely because of lower passenger numbers and

On Teutonia

The verges of Cima Road are lined with penstemon flowers just past their peak, with desert milkweed and evening primrose, datura full open despite it being midday. The Teutonia Peak trail winds past mainly spent desert bloom. Mojave mound and

Sunrise Rock without the Mojave Cross

It looks better this … (continues)

Saturday night on Cima Dome

… (continues)

The Cross thief speaks

Morongo Bill and Scott Fajack have alerted me to a new development. Looks like I may have spoken unfairly as to the character of the person who took the Sunrise Rock cross from its site in the Mojave National Preserve. The Barstow Desert Dispatch

A couple of sticks

I’m unnerved and upset by the attention the theft of the Mojave Cross has brought to the Mojave National Preserve.

First off, the basics. I recognize the importance of memorializing those who fell almost a century ago in the First World War, and

Mojave cross stolen

Looks like someone stole the Sunrise Rock Cross this weekend.

For the record: I think this is an inflammatory act that does neither side much … (continues)