Arrival. We tried out the facilities and found them sterling from the moment of our arrival, in a lovingly designed building secluded from the general public by a long dirt road and a locked gate. The full moon created a magical wonderland out of the nighttime surroundings, we walked along wide roads amid the desert brush with the surrounding rock formations looming high into the starry night. I recommend aiming towards new moon the next time and bringing telescopes!

The barking dunes. The nearby Kelso dunes are a vast dune field adorned with delicate ripple details. Darker sand deposits added a superficial banding and streaking to the sandy landscape not unlike that seen on Martian terrain. The dunes piled themselves into a sizable hill near the center of the widespread sand field. Joel alone made it near the crest of this huge dune, and he got to hear an obscure sound recently described in Scientific American, that of sand grains of the proper shape and dryness sliding together. As sand was disturbed it made a kind of digeridoo like sound. The view from there is a goal for next time, especially near sunset! A sensitive microphone, perhaps as an accessory to a camcorder might just pick up the long fabled ‘singing sands’ at a future visit.

The wind scoured lava and final arrivals. Next day after a properly leisurely drive with stops to appreciate the surroundings and document them, we attempted to explore a large rocky field with lava flows abruptly ending into ramparts of jagged black rocks and boulders. Rising above the dark nearby ridges were imposing dark cinder cones. An old rusting truck body riddled with bullet holes served as the landmark for the start of that day’s trek but we ended up diverging on paths taken towards the goal of climbing up the nearest large cone. The wind scoured bubble filled volcanic rocks projected above the ‘desert pavement’ of smaller rocks throughout the region. This and the accompanying shrubbery made us think of being on a terraformed Mars.

The blue vastness. The final natural wonder we visited was Amboy crater, a fine volcanic cone overlooking a wide lava field. A complex mosaic like floor of small rocks was sparser than at yesterday’s site but the rocks were evenly sorted thoughwidely separated. We parked in a depression in many low ridges, so a car seat was upended in a prominent place to guide us back. The climb to the top was a warm dry trek up a rocky path, the trick is to doit on a day of reasonable temperature and not to be in a hurry. The view changes on the way up, encouraging you to stop and shoot some pictures anyway. After the climb, the view from the crest was fantastic! The complex textures of the surrounding volcanic terrain were awash with deep blue luminance in the shadows as they stretched to the distant horizon. The area affected by the volcanoes presence gave way to the vast desert flatness, bounded only by jagged mountain ridges nearly hidden by the sheer volume of clean air between them and us. The sides of Amboy crater were built of piles of large spongy looking ochre brown rocks, with more recent inner pits within the volcanoes central depression made of rocks of distinctly different colors.

We started back as the shadows lengthened, and Michael Carroll first spotted the vertical dark line of the shaded part of the upended car seat among an otherwise unrecognizable mass of coral pink rock textures. I want to bring a series of tall flags next time. And flashlights.

From the empty to the crowded. The caretakers made it clear that they loved us and will gladly have a larger contingent of our group back next year, after suitable scheduling arrangements. Friday the 17th, after a leisurely last local trek and cleanup, we drove to the small town of Mojave, near where the next day the big Air Force 50th anniversary air show would take place at Edwards. Before we left, those present saw and heard General Chuck Yeager exceed the speed of sound one last time. A modest but noticeable boom we heard at the Kelso Dunes may have been an additional flight by Yeager to repeat to the very day the ‘first breaking of the sound barrier’ he accomplished half a century before in the Bell X-1. Seeing the ‘Big Three’ behemoths of aviation flying in close formation was a thrill, the venerable B-52, the difficultly birthed B-1, and the black boomerang shaped descendent of the fabled Flying Wing, the B-2 stealth bomber. To cap off his trip, Joel was fortunate enough to meet General Yeager as he entered the VIP area near the close of the air show.

Going our separate ways. On Sunday Joel went his way while I drove back to LA with Jackie, Carter following with Dave. We piled into my apartment after shopping at Universal Citywalk and spent the night sprawled across any sleepable surface. The next and final day of our get together Carter said his goodbyes and headed toward Orange county to get a look at the Lunar Module set at the sound stage where the HBO Apollo dramatic series was being filmed. Dave, Jackie and I did the Universal theme park tour before we returned to my apartment, bundled up all their things, and got them to LAX in plenty of time for their flight home. Thus ended a fantastic gathering of artists, with the promise of an official workshop soon with ideal facilities under potentially dark skies.