Most people, when they think of Southern California, they conjure up one of two images: perfectly tanned beach babes with their movie producer/actor/director boyfriends or AK toting gangbangers driving around in lifted Denali’s with chrome plated spinners. While both stereotypes are very much real, all you really have to do to break the stereotype is drive an hour east on the I-10 or I-15. You do that and I’ll show you a totally different side of California.
I grew up in that area, around the outskirts of Los Angeles and Orange County. Beyond Disneyland and the Hollywood Hills, where the streets are paved with gold and everyone is beautiful, are miles and miles of nothing. Meth labs, junk yards and the occasional cheesy tourist trap dot the map all the way to the Arizona and Nevada borders. Anyone that has spent any time around LA knows these freeways well because it’s the only way to Las Vegas. Everyone has their own story about driving to Vegas on the 4th of July or Memorial Day, where the temperature is 120 and traffic is moving at 35 mph. In this case when you’re spending 5 hours in the Mojave Desert on your way to Vegas, it’s actually the destination – not the journey that's is important, but that’s not to say there isn’t anything worthwhile out there.
I grew up in that area, around the outskirts of Los Angeles and Orange County. Beyond Disneyland and the Hollywood Hills, where the streets are paved with gold and everyone is beautiful, are miles and miles of nothing. Meth labs, junk yards and the occasional cheesy tourist trap dot the map all the way to the Arizona and Nevada borders. Anyone that has spent any time around LA knows these freeways well because it’s the only way to Las Vegas. Everyone has their own story about driving to Vegas on the 4th of July or Memorial Day, where the temperature is 120 and traffic is moving at 35 mph. In this case when you’re spending 5 hours in the Mojave Desert on your way to Vegas, it’s actually the destination – not the journey that's is important, but that’s not to say there isn’t anything worthwhile out there.
Off one of the two main freeways that lead East, the Interstate 10, there’s a pretty odd but nonetheless cool town called Cabazon. It’s home to the same giant dinosaurs that were in Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. It’s a nice stop to get some food, look at the dinosaurs and stretch your legs if you’re on a road trip to Havasu (aka The River) or Phoenix.
You can't go inside the T-Rex, but the Brontosaurus has several flights of stairs that lead through one of the legs and into the stomach where there's a pretty garish gift shop.
Moving on, there’s Death Valley. It’s one the most desolate and beautiful places I’ve ever been. Just make sure you go in the winter or spring. Summer temperatures reach 135 degrees. 
At the entrance to the Valley in the Mojave lies one of two of California's bona fide ghost towns, Calico (the other is Bodie). Calico is a weird place - no American would ever be caught dead there, so most of the visitors are French or Germans, gleefully giving away their money to see fake gun shows, short train rides around the city and panning for gold that yields nothing but pebbles. It used to be a thriving mining town but in the 1890's, the price of silver plummeted causing the abandonment of many towns. Walter Knott, founder of Knott's Berry Farm, purchased the town, renovated it based on historic photographs, and donated the town to the county of San Bernardino. It's a county regional park and a California Historic Monument. There's not much to see here, so I would suggest passing on Calico unless you are really really into ghost towns or a sucker for novelty like I am.
The highlight of the Mojave is Bun Boy in Baker. You ask anyone in Southern California or Nevada about Bun Boy and they will say, "Oh the world's largest thermometer." If you don't love Bun Boy and the 134 ft thermometer, you must hate America and puppies too. Here's an interesting factoid about Bun Boy: the store has produced more instant millionaires in the California Super Lotto than any other single location in the state. How does that stack up against your odds at the blackjack table at Circus Circus?
While you're in Baker, stop by Zzyzx. It's a tiny town off the I-15 that was founded in 1946 by Curtis Springer. He named the town and the road that leads into the town Zzyzx, claiming it was the last word in the English language. He built a spa and a mineral spring on the land which he ran until 1974. The Federal government found out about it and
At the entrance to the Valley in the Mojave lies one of two of California's bona fide ghost towns, Calico (the other is Bodie). Calico is a weird place - no American would ever be caught dead there, so most of the visitors are French or Germans, gleefully giving away their money to see fake gun shows, short train rides around the city and panning for gold that yields nothing but pebbles. It used to be a thriving mining town but in the 1890's, the price of silver plummeted causing the abandonment of many towns. Walter Knott, founder of Knott's Berry Farm, purchased the town, renovated it based on historic photographs, and donated the town to the county of San Bernardino. It's a county regional park and a California Historic Monument. There's not much to see here, so I would suggest passing on Calico unless you are really really into ghost towns or a sucker for novelty like I am. The highlight of the Mojave is Bun Boy in Baker. You ask anyone in Southern California or Nevada about Bun Boy and they will say, "Oh the world's largest thermometer." If you don't love Bun Boy and the 134 ft thermometer, you must hate America and puppies too. Here's an interesting factoid about Bun Boy: the store has produced more instant millionaires in the California Super Lotto than any other single location in the state. How does that stack up against your odds at the blackjack table at Circus Circus?
While you're in Baker, stop by Zzyzx. It's a tiny town off the I-15 that was founded in 1946 by Curtis Springer. He named the town and the road that leads into the town Zzyzx, claiming it was the last word in the English language. He built a spa and a mineral spring on the land which he ran until 1974. The Federal government found out about it and confiscated the land from him and threw him in jail. It's federal land which he didn't own and couldn't legally set up a business, let alone found a whole town. Nothing beats the immensity of Vegas or the beautiful beaches of Orange County, but if you have some free time and are traveling between the two cities, spend some time exploring. I know there's a lot more out there and I've only scratched the surface. I guarantee you will be surprised at what you can discover out there.
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