The Mojave Desert

“It’s alive and waiting for you. Ready to kill you if you go too far. The sun will get you, or the cold at night. A thousand ways the desert can kill”

— Harry Essex

The Mojave is a desert of wind, temperature extremes, Joshua Trees and solitude. When most people hear the word ‘desert,’ images of tumbleweeds, rattlesnakes and bleak desolation typically come to mind. In reality, the Mojave is anything but a wasteland. Amongst the sand and sagebrush lie many places of beauty and wonder, and of historic importance. Some are the result of time and the elements, some are the result of man and his efforts to live in the Mojave, both in recent and prehistoric times. Let’s go see what we can find.

November 21, 2013

PC - Greetings from Death Valley

November 21, 2013/ Greetings from Death Valley/ Elliot Koeppel

"PC" for Post Card. I've got a lot of old postcards from the deserts of California and thought I might share a few of them here.

I particularly like the old Linen postcards. They were printed on a type of high rag card stock which produced a linen finish; a textured pattern you can actually see and feel on the card. This type of paper could be printed with brighter inks, which created vibrant colored images. Linen postcards had their heyday during the 1930s through 1945 and were the principal type of postcard created during those years. I especially like the "Greetings From" series, like this one.

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Joshua Tree National Park, the California Gold Country, forgotten places in the Mojave Desert. These are a few of my favorite things.

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Mojave/395/Rt66

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The Mojave Desert

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