Bagdad Cafe

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The 1987 cult classic film Bagdad Cafe was filmed in the California desert on Route 66. If you’ve seen it, you likely remember the lonely song “Calling You”, the quirky characters and the dusty location. I’m going to write about the movie, rather than describe the tens of millions of acres of the National Conservation Lands of the California Desert including the Mojave Trails and many large wilderness areas managed by the Bureau of Land Management, because the movie captures the weird, lonesome feeling of the desert and its ghost towns better than I can.

Carson McCullers wrote a novella called The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, which, along with the landscape, inspired a German director, Percy Adlon, to create this movie. He wrote a completely new script and renamed the cafe after a nearby ghost town in order to introduce a bit of magic into the story.

Here’s a hint for folks who may have missed the Aladdin connection. Instead of a magic lamp, a thief from Bagdad steals a gold colored coffee thermos from a German tourist named Jasmin. Trapped in the cafe (after being abandoned by her husband), Jasmin works her magic like a genie on three sad cafe folk: a piano player, an artist and the owner.

The film was a hit in the director’s home country of Germany and elsewhere in Europe, and bus loads of French tourists still frequently stop here to buy souvenirs. The movie was made into a TV show starring Whoopi Goldberg and Jean Stapleton, which didn’t do very well, because the adaptation removed both the magic and the whole ‘lonesome desert’ angle, by making the cafe busy and turning the characters into excellent communicators. Miscommunication among misfits is central to the film, as is the sparsely populated desert backdrop.

Sadly, the owner of the Bagdad Cafe just died, and I don’t know how long they’ll stay open, with I-10 no longer following the historic Route 66 past here and with the cafe known for a 40 year old movie. I’ve driven through many of these ghost towns and isolated places headed that way, and I often wonder what kind of dreams—broken or crazy—drove people to try to build lives out here in the middle of nowhere. Still, you never know about places like this; they may last another 40 years. I think the emptiness of the desert gives people a chance to live a different life than the routines and social norms in which most people are stuck. Anyway, watch the film, which conveys more than I can.

Mojave Trails from Amboy to Zzyzx

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Mojave Trails National Monument lies south of Mojave National Preserve and includes a section of 100 year old Route 66 in southern California. But the broader East Mojave Heritage Trails extend through both areas and far beyond, north to the Kingston Range near the Nevada border, east to the Dead Mountains Wilderness near Needles, and south to Sheephole Valley, Old Woman and Turtle Mountains wildernesses. Many of the trails follow the old Spanish trails and Native American routes through passes to water sources. Until this trip, I didn’t realize that California has more desert lands than Arizona, that there were so many huge wilderness conservation lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management, or just how diverse the landscapes are. Even without a four wheel drive off road vehicle, you can see Kelso Dunes, Soda Lake, and hike to lava tubes.

The monument has a stretch of ten whistle stop towns named alphabetically starting with Amboy, known for its volcanic crater above. The 250’ high crater can be hiked, but I just wandered around the viewing area nearby. Most of these towns have since returned to dust, but Roy’s Cafe is still open in Amboy, thanks to the son of a chicken chain owner who bought the town decades ago. I enjoy visiting ghost towns and dusty old cafes in the middle of nowhere, and California’s Route 66 has several photogenic spots. I’ll write about my favorite one next time.

If you’ve ever driven I-15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, you may have wondered about the exit for Zzyzx. Zzyzx was created as a health treatment by a radio conman in the 1940s on the shore of Soda Lake in the Mojave Desert. He developed an oasis resort and sold his salty cure-all by mail nationwide, until he ran into some legal trouble in the 1970s. Now most of the area is within the Mojave National Preserve, and a local college uses the buildings, but it’s still a beautiful spot not to be missed.

What is a national park unit?

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National park units in the national park system

Our 63 National Parks are both famous and clearly defined in law, but the other 370 national park units are less well known and are unclearly defined.

  • 25 Battlefields & Military Parks
  • 76 specific Historic Sites, including some battlefields and many military forts
  • 64 general Historical Parks, including some more battlefields
  • 31 Memorials for people, places and both positive & tragic events
  • 11 Gardens and undesignated areas, including some more memorials
  • 87 Monuments, including natural areas, some more battlefields and more military forts
  • 76 Preserves, Recreation Areas, Rivers, Shores and Trails, both protecting wildlife and supporting fishing & hunting

President Lincoln first protected Yosemite Valley. Then Grant created the first national park, Yellowstone. Then Teddy Roosevelt created five more, plus various bird reserves, national forests, and monuments, and he signed the Antiquities Act into law. Then Wilson signed the Organic Act which created the National Park Service. Stephen Mather was instrumental in making the parks into what we see today. And since then, there has been a wide variety of additional legislation, creating, ending, renaming, and reorganizing various types of parks for different purposes, including historic sites, rivers, trails and wilderness.

Turns out, a national park unit is quite arbitrary. Either the President or Congress can authorize a national park unit under different legislation, and they can and do change their status too. Leaders regularly reinvent what a park unit is, what it’s for and why it’s important (or not). Presidents on average increase the total by a couple units per year. But it varies; last week the President shrank two national monuments in Utah. All of which makes my trip planning a moving target.

Officially, there are now 433 national park units of the National Park Service (NPS) managed under rules standardized in 1970. I’ve been to 400. I joined the non-profit National Park Travelers Club (NPTC) to track my visits on their parkstamps.org checklists, and their like-minded community of travelers has been wonderfully helpful. The NPTC got me interested in NPS-related affiliate sites, heritage areas and trails too, and I’ve been to over 100 of these.

  • 32 Affiliates including yet more battlefields, historic sites and memorials
  • 62 Heritage Areas covering broad areas
  • 27 Trails in addition to 6 Scenic Trails that are park units above

National park units outside the national park system

Confusingly, there are 1/2 a dozen other federal agencies that also manage exactly the same types of national park units as the NPS, sometimes jointly and sometimes on their own, often under different or even conflicting rules. This leads to confusion on many websites as to exactly how many national monuments and other types of park units there are in the US. And I have to decide whether to include these units or not.

When I began my quest to see our parks, I assumed that NPS management must mean that the site is worth visiting, but one of the first NPS sites I tried to visit is permanently closed to the public with nothing to see or do. Meanwhile, there are non-NPS national monuments over 1 million acres, extraordinarily beautiful, unique in the world, and as important as they are unforgettable.

If a national historic site, monument or recreation area is important enough to be so designated by the President and/or Congress, then it belongs on my EV road trip itinerary, regardless of which government agency manages it. If a President designates a new national monument in the middle of a large national forest, management likely goes to the US Forest Service (USFS), even though it’s not any less important than other national monuments.

So, don’t be surprised to read about a USFS national recreation area or a national monument managed by the Bureau of Land Management. I’ve already posted about several, and I plan to visit more of the following units outside the NPS.

  • 1 Historic Site
  • 51 Monuments
  • 23 Recreation Areas

Where to draw the line on what to see

But I’ve also decided I can’t visit everywhere I’d like to go. There are over 800 national wilderness areas in the US, plus over 500 national wildlife refuges. Many wildlife refuges do not have any roads, since they’re set aside for forests, wetlands and wildlife, not for people. And that is a problem for my electric car and for me. I’m an old man, and I don’t want to spend the rest of my life futilely checking off 2,600+ landmarks, 700+ lighthouses, and ~10,000 state parks. No, I need to draw the line for my own sanity.

I happily drive through national forests and cross scenic rivers every trip, but I usually do so without mention. I’m leaving wilderness areas and wildlife refuges to the plants and animals. I wish I could visit every forest, wild river, wilderness and wildlife refuge in the country, because they’re critically important for saving species, especially as so many lands are being damaged irreversibly by the climate crisis. But I can’t, so I will only mention a few of them occasionally in passing. However, these are our public lands, and I hope you care about and help protect them too. Thanks.

Chuckwalla National Monument

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In Southern California’s Chuckwalla Mountains—named after the chunky chuckwalla lizard—you can pull off I-10 and drive up into a BLM campground in the oasis above. Although there was a fire recently, half of the palms in the oasis are still okay. Honestly, my brief hike was a bit disappointing, with no sign of the lizard. Since it’s obviously hot in the desert, staying at a campground overnight can be a good way to hike early morning when it’s cooler.

Despite all those TV commercials suggesting that you need some big gas-guzzler to drive into the desert, I made it in my electric car. Desert unpaved roads are inconsistent depending on recent weather. But since it’s usually dry, the roads are usually fine. So I ignored the sign saying 4 wheel drive only, and I had no trouble in my low clearance sedan over the 6 mile road, which alternately is sandy, hard, flat, rocky and bumpy. A flash flood could wash out a road, so you do need to watch the weather especially if camping.

In my next post I’ll talk more about different types of national monuments and recreation areas, but this one extends the Joshua Tree ecosystem south and southeast, connecting over 600,000 acres of remote mountainous wilderness between the Sonoran and Mojave deserts.

Ice Cream

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July is National Ice Cream Month, so let’s talk about cattle, cost, drought, and methane.

Carbon pollution raises temperatures and increases drought. Excess heat makes it much more difficult to produce ice cream. Dairy cattle require copious water to drink and for their feed. Heat stress makes them drink more and hurts their health and fertility. Dairy farmers need to invest in barns with cooling equipment to make cows more comfortable. All this makes ice cream more expensive.

Cows also produce methane. Some dairy farmers are trying to reduce this greenhouse gas, but the process also makes dairy products more expensive.

Some folks are concerned about the cost of stopping carbon pollution, but doing nothing will cost far more. Here are some other ice cream ingredients at risk.

  • Banana crops lost due to fungi thriving in warmer weather.
  • Blueberry drought in Maine.
  • Chocolate hurt by longer dry seasons.
  • Peach crops lost in unseasonal freezes due to increasingly volatile weather.
  • Peanut yields decreasing with heat.

Here are some basic foods at risk.

  • Chickens & turkeys have been dying in heat waves.
  • Coffee, especially premium Arabica, has been hit by heat and resulting fungus.
  • Corn & wheat affected by floods & heatwaves and become less nutritious.
  • Orange crops in Florida hurt by hurricanes & insect-borne diseases exacerbated by climate change.
  • Potatoes hurt by less reliable water.
  • Rice yields fall with heat.
  • Tea grows in a narrow climate band, and moving plantations is difficult.
  • Tomato yields dropping due to heat.

Here are some fancier foods at risk.

  • Avocados need water and growers are encroaching on butterfly habitats.
  • Chilies more expensive due to drought.
  • French cheese production is down due to shorter cattle grazing shorter seasons.
  • Grapes ripen too quickly under heat to make good wine.
  • Italian olive oil prices are up sharply due to climate change.
  • Lime prices up sharply due to drought & flooding.
  • Lobster pushed out of their natural habitats by warming waters.
  • Shellfish threatened by acidification, rising toxicity.
  • Snow crabs decimated by billions in marine heatwaves off Alaska.

I could go on, as the foods affected increase every year. Extreme weather events, wildfires and pests more frequently wipe out crops globally. Our quality of life decreases as the abundance of life is reduced by climate change.

Kern Wild & Scenic River

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This is a fun river up in the Sequoia National Forest above Bakersfield California, with various rafting trips both above and below the Lake Isabella Dam. The north fork of the river starts up in Sequoia National Park and includes much more challenging whitewater. Kernville, where most float trips meet, is a cute town with some good places to eat, and it makes a good stop if you’re heading up this way to Giant Sequoia NM or Kings Canyon. The south fork travels through some wilderness and has an Audubon Preserve for birds. Nice area to retire in if you travel to a lot of national parks by EV.

Giant Sequoia National Monument

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The US Forest Service manages this national monument inside the Sequoia National Forest in California. I took the photo on the popular Trail of 100 Giants in the south part of the monument, and you can see some of the fire damage from many huge carbon-pollution driven wildfires. Outside the monument, the devastation is far worse, and I drove through over 30 miles of fatally burned trees to get to the protected Giant Sequoia grove above.

Despite all the fossil fuel and timber industry attempts to avoid talking about the actual cause of the unprecedented new age of fire, it’s very clear that the climate surrounding these groves has changed dramatically due to man. The snow is on the ground for a much shorter period of time, the air and soil are drier, the temperature is higher and there’s even more wind and lightning. These trees evolved for cold, high altitude winters with lots of runoff all year long from snowmelt. On a hot day, a mature Giant Sequoia needs to consume 500 to 800 gallons of water. Today, the creek is tiny, the soil is very dry and the climate is much hotter than it was before the oil industry began. Forest fires, once limited to small areas in cold wet forests, now burn unprecedented huge areas, hotter than ever before, for a longer fire season than ever before. Make no mistake, the primary threat to these trees is our carbon pollution.

The few remaining multi-thousand year old Giant Sequoia are surrounded by giant stumps, where loggers once cut them down to make shingles and pencils, seen at places like Stump Meadows in the north part of the monument. Environmentalists began saving the groves, creating Sequoia National Park in 1890 and expanding the area over the years to protect more groves. Clinton made this grove a national monument in 2000. Now the forest service must treat the groves as special gardens, regularly removing other trees, spraying fire retardant in the area, wrapping famous trees with fire resistant tarps, and even using sprinklers and helicopters to spray thousands of gallons of water per day to protect specific trees from imminent fires.

I first visited the Trail of 100 Giants with my family many years ago, when we appreciated the stroller-friendly hiking trail. Years later, my grown kids wanted to stop here again, and I took the photo below on August 14, 2020. I remember saying how terribly dry everything was. A few days later, I was driving them north on I-5, and I watched the incredible lightning storm that sparked the SQF Complex fire that burned 171,000 acres around here, killing around 10,000 Giant Sequoias. I remember saying that it was the most lightning I had ever seen in my life. The next year there was the 98,000 acre Windy Fire, which killed 1,000 Giant Sequoias, and also the 88,000 acre KNP Complex Fire, which killed 2,000 Giant Sequoias. And the fires continue to threaten the last remaining groves, while we continue burning fossil fuel unnecessarily.

Pyramids of Mexico

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UNESCO has designated many pre-Hispanic world heritage sites in Mexico, but the country has many more ruins, some still undiscovered or un-excavated. In the caves of Mitla & Yagul, there is evidence of agricultural cultivation from 10,000 years ago. The 25 ton Olmec Head #1 above is over 3,000 years old, reflecting the early civilization that arose in the fertile river valleys in southern Veracruz and Tabasco. El Tajin preserves both later pyramids built in this region 600-1200, and UNESCO also recognizes the living, continuing cultural heritage of the Papantla Flyers that reflect rain ceremonies dating back over 2,000 years.

The Mayans also date back over 3,000 years, with new discoveries still being uncovered in the Yucatán jungle. Along what’s now the Guatemalan border, the Mayans eventually built great pyramids at Palenque flourishing between 100-740 and Calakmul 50-850 among other temple jungle cities, like Uxmal which displays the artistry of later Mayan temples. Chief among the Mayan cities was Chichén Itzá, an important center for 12 centuries, used at the end by the warrior Toltecs.

2,500 years ago the Zapotecs began building grand pyramids atop Monte Albán overlooking the valley of Oaxaca, a cultural, trading and religious center for 14 centuries.

2,000 years ago, perhaps the grandest pyramids, below, were built in Teotihuacán in central Mexico, reflecting an ancient empire with influence over most of modern Mexico for seven centuries. After it fell, a smaller set of pyramids continued many of the same traditions in central Mexican for six more centuries at Xochicalco. And trade continued, even to the far north as seen at Paquimé, 1150-1350.

The Aztecs built and ruled Tenochtitlan between 1375-1521, and the ruins of the Templo Mayor can be seen under the foundations of Mexico City and the network of canals and lakes seen at Xochimilco. Before its downfall, this city was larger than London or Paris.

As you can tell, many of the pre-Hispanic pyramid empires co-existed on the gulf coast in Veracruz, the highlands of Oaxaca, the Yucatán peninsula and the center of Mexico. These civilizations created sophisticated calendars, used math (based on 20), made detailed observations of the stars, constructed great pyramids engineered to reflect sounds, light, follow the seasons and align with the stars. The four Papantla fliers each spin 13 times, representing the four seasons in 52 revolutions. These civilizations preserved their heritage in traditions and their history in both images and their written script. They traded goods, practiced medicine, built roads, maintained diplomatic relations and held public games, as in contemporaneous Rome.

We still know little about these pyramid builders, as many of the hierarchical societies collapsed. Apparently lacking draft animals, with limited useful applications of the wheel, and without advanced metallurgy, it is difficult to imagine how they built their grand markets and pyramids. The pre-Hispanic empires also went to war, took prisoners and engaged in brutal human sacrifice, often on a large scale. And our knowledge of even the surviving cultures is also very limited, as their religious beliefs, their temples and much of their culture was destroyed by the Spanish and diseases brought from the old world. Not all ancient culture was destroyed—the Huichol still practice their beliefs that date back over 1,500 years—, and many pre-Hispanic traditions survived conquest and forced assimilation to continue today.

Exploring the ancient pyramids of Mexico is a thrilling glimpse into our mysterious past.

Calakmul

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While the broad plazas of Teotihuacán in central Mexico are justifiably crowded with visitors, there you can only look up at the pyramids. Here in the remote Yucatán jungle where I saw more monkeys than tourists, climbing pyramids is delightful. The scale of the ancient Mayan city of Calakmul is difficult to comprehend, and only a small fraction of the ruins have been excavated. I thought the pyramid in the tall trees on the left was big, until I climbed this one, which has both the lower top in front and the higher one from where I took the photo. But the third was even higher with 360° views including tops of both other pyramids.

Above the trees you get commanding views of the jungle into neighboring Guatemala, where rival city Tikal also sits on the Mayan Meridian. Since many Mayan hieroglyphics have been translated at Calakmul, we learned about the changing alliances, wars and fortunes of these related jungle empires. Our knowledgeable guide explained the beautiful carvings near the base and answered many questions, although a knee injury kept him on the forest floor.

Up there we saw an Ornate Hawk-Eagle, which is a magnificent bird, the largest here, with a spiky blue crest, orangish plumage, black and white stripes and more stunning designs. Near the ruins we saw both howler and spider monkeys, including two juveniles play-fighting below. This is the jungle ruins of my dreams, with stunning steep-stepped temples rising out of a great forest with dense foliage and hidden jaguars. I recommend taking a guided tour for the long drive into the biosphere reserve and to interpret the stylized carvings around the temples.

National Parks to Visit in July

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To avoid heat, July is all about high latitude and altitude, and I recommend visiting these northern mountain parks: Glacier, Lassen Volcanic, Mount Rainier, North Cascades and Rocky Mountain . While many other parks are hot and crowded, these are at their peak with plenty of space to explore.

The key to visiting Glacier is to understand that there is only one road through the park, and it doesn’t open until late June. The park is full of activities by June, but the accumulated snow takes a long time to melt at Logan Pass. And it’s a long way around. So if you want to see the sights and do the activities on both sides of the park, then you need to wait until July. August is even busier. The high mountain waterfalls are glorious along the Going to the Sun Road in July.

Lassen Volcanic similarly has its main road blocked late by snow, but by July almost everything is open including some wildflowers. For Bumpass Hell, the full trail usually opens later in July, but there are boiling mud pits and other fascinating volcanic features around the park. Fire damaged parts of the park have mostly reopened this year.

Mount Rainier too is better if you wait until July, when leftover snow recedes to open up roads and trails. I hiked the Paradise Trails in mid July and only crossed one patch of snow. Wildflowers were out, temps were pleasant and the mountain is big enough to handle many happy hikers. Plan your arrival, as the parking lots fill up.

North Cascades is also glorious in July, with wildflowers and waterfalls. Depending on where you want to hike, you may need to go later in the month for all roads to be fully open. But there are many great hiking options all month.

Rocky is another high elevation park, and July is a good time to see wildlife up there. I realize it’s crowded, but if you reserve campgrounds in advance you can reach the best areas early. Visiting in July means that you can move around early, like the elk, and it’s a good time to find bighorn sheep or pikas. I’ve visited in September and felt limited by wind and storms.