Amboy, California
Amboy, California has a population of 4 people… but that doesn’t stop it from being an interesting stop on any roadtrip through southeast California. First of all, it’s on Route 66! Although, both directions of Route 66 are closed just outside the city limits due to the Mother Road and a few bridges being swept away in a desert monsoon rainstorm.
The motel’s not operational but the gas station next door is and it’s filled with postcards, Route 66 goodies, snacks, drinks, ice cream, and an AC unit that works well enough to cool one down if you visit during the summer. You can walk into the shells of motel rooms and transport yourself back to the atomic era and imagine cars pulling up as the neon sign (still operational) lights up the excited parking lot. The motel reception, complete with an alluring retro bar, is a perfectly encapsulated time freeze from the 50s and I believe it would be operational if it was able to get potable water. You can and should still peer through the tall glass walls at the awesome decor.
As you enter the town from the east you will notice two strange Asian statues of stylized lions or dogs that are apparently protecting the town. It’s not generally known who put them there or why and it is strange to see them.
Also nearby to the gas station is a fairly recent volcanic cinder cone with a blackened lava rock field spilling out onto the desert landscape around it. You can park and hike up to the lip of the Amboy Crater Natural Landmark if you desire. If you go during the summer though, know that it can get very hot.
But the strangest thing about Amboy are the lines of pyramids that dot the dried up Pleistocene lake bed. I tried to find out why they’re there from the internet but I couldn’t come up with something definitive. Although by deduction, I assume they’re some byproduct of the Chloride mining.
Not quite in Amboy proper but located on Amboy Road, east of Twentynine Palms, there are two noteworthy picture stops worth taking a moment of driving time to see. The first is THE END OF THE WORLD and the second is The Palms Restaurant.
The END OF THE WORLD is an art instillation by Jack Pierson and you can walk up to it and around it.
The Palms Restaurant appeared to be open… just not when we drove by it early on a hot Sunday afternoon in July. Both are technically in Twentynine Palms in what’s called Wonder Valley but they’re on Amboy Road so they get lumped in with that strange Route 66 Americana blink and you miss it of a town.
