A NUMBER OF CALIFORNIA HIGHWAYS... have distinctive reputations, beyond the fact that they help drivers toodle from Point A to Point B. Mention the 101, for example, and a salty ocean breeze fills the mind, and visions of waves and gulls and rolling hills. Say "Highway 395" to a devotee of the Eastern Sierra and natural wonders like Devils Postpile and Mono Lake soon capture the fancy. And as for Highway 62, which skirts Joshua Tree National Park? It's an oasis of the arts, with a number of creative spaces and art studios filling out its arid and awesome edges. Coming across a chance to peek inside those studios and meet the artists who find inspiration in the glorious desert-amazing surroundings is a treat, for sure, and it comes back around each year in October (which is, of course, one of the most gorgeous, cool-of-evening times in the Morongo Basin). It's the Hwy 62 Open Studios Art Tour, and it grandly spreads out, like the prickly arms of the local cholla cactus, over two weekends. Be there on...
OCT. 15 AND 16... or Oct. 22 and 23 and pop by some 90 studios and spots on the self-guided ramble-about. Prepare to admire metal work, jewelry, woodwork, sculpture, painting, photography, and a host of other pieces fashioned from all sorts of materials. Prepare, too, to meet artists along the way (and if you have your heart set on meeting a person you admire, make sure that their studio is open the weekend you attend). And prepare to soak in those mega vistas, the kind of stretched-out views of land and sky that provide instant inspiration to the many makers who call the Morongo Basin home. The desert, after all, gives and gives, and inspiration, and magic, can strike at any time. To see this at work, call upon the Hwy 62 Open Studios Art Tour for a spirit-emboldening experience.
