Pioneertown and Mane Street

It was built as a movie set and people moved in

Pioneertown went up in the years after the Second World War as a working Western film set that people could also live in. The idea was that the facades on the main street would double as real businesses, so the place would pay for itself between productions. Mane Street is the result: a dirt-and-boardwalk main drag lined with wooden false fronts, with actual residents behind some of them and horses in the frame often enough that it stops registering as a novelty.

It reads smaller than the photographs suggest. Walking the length of Mane Street takes a few minutes, and the appeal is atmosphere rather than a list of things to do. Businesses along the boardwalk turn over, and hours are short and seasonal, so treat any particular shop or kitchen as something to confirm rather than count on.

The other half of the draw is music. Pioneertown has a live-music reputation well out of scale with its size, and shows pull people up from across the desert and down from the Coachella Valley on weekend nights.

Time the drive for dusk, and plan the way back

The road up is Pioneertown Road, climbing out of Yucca Valley into higher, rockier country studded with boulders and pinyon. The landscape changes noticeably over those few miles. It stops feeling like the flats along Highway 62 and starts feeling like the edge of a mountain range, which is what it is.

Go at dusk if the day allows it. The last hour of light on those rocks is the reason a lot of people make the drive at all, and the town itself looks considerably better then than it does at noon.

Parking is limited and informal, and a busy Saturday night fills whatever exists. Arrive earlier than feels necessary. If dinner or a show is the plan, confirm the night before rather than discovering a locked door at the top of the hill.

The drive back down is the part worth planning. It is dark, unlit and curving, and it is shared with animals that do not check for headlights. If the evening involves drinks, decide who is driving before you leave the house, because rideshare coverage out here thins out badly at night. Your local manager can tell you what is running that weekend.