Desert Secrets

If you have read even one of my blogs, you know that I am deeply obsessed with/enamored of the desert. The immense blue skies and miles and miles of desolation are fabulous enough by themselves…but it’s the kooky inhabitants and weird hidden outposts in this vast wonderland that really enchant me.

Fortunately, I live right in the middle of the action. Just a 30-minute drive from Vegas, and I’m in the middle of nowhere — just the kind of splendid isolation I love. As an art nude model, I’m always dragging some bewitched East-Coast photographer out into the boonies…so I know the area better than most Las Vegans, who rarely bother to venture outside the air-conditioned confines of their suburban lard-assery. My love for the desert is such that I almost named myself Mojave Dessert instead of Wonderhussy…but I figured in this age of miserable spellers, no one would get it.

Anyhoo, below please find a handy map of my immediate stomping grounds. Many of the adventures detailed in my blog have been marked for your convenience….so if you ever want to check any of this shit out, you’ll have a handy guide. Links to blog entries relating to each location are provided below the map. ENJOY!

 

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  1. Abandoned Brothel — right on the side of the highway, and as of 2015 in fairly good shape!
  2. Abandoned Hot Spring Resort in the Middle Of Nowhere!
  3. Abandoned Waterpark in the Middle of the Desert
  4. Alkali Hot Spring — charming mini-soak with free camping near U.S.95
  5. Area 51 — secret government base!
  6. Arizona (White Rock/ Ringbolt) Hot Springs — possibly my favorite hot springs ever, in a slot canyon off the Colorado River
  7. Bagdad Cafe — greasy spoon off I-40; the Germans made a movie about it
  8. Big Dune — vast dunefield north of Vegas
  9. Cathedral Canyon — weird, crumbling religious shrine/monument
  10. Clown Motel — creepiest motel EVER
  11. Deep Creek Hot Springs — my #1 favorite hot springs of all time, tied with Saline Valley
  12. Delamar Ghost Town — fantastic stone ruins of a mining town
  13. Dumont Dunes — vast dunefield full of rednecks
  14. Five Palms Warm Well Oasis — crazy little oasis in the desert neat the Mexican border
  15. Goddess Sekhmet Temple — fertility temple just north of Vegas
  16. Gold Point Ghost Town — best ghost town EVER
  17. Goldstrike Hot Springs — another amazing hot springs hike near Vegas
  18. Kelso Dunes — my personal favorite sand dune field 
  19. Nelson/Techatticup Fake Ghost Town — poseur-ass fake ghost town outside Vegas
  20. Quartzsite, AZ — AMAZING little desert burg that hosts ginormous swap meet every January/February
  21. Roy’s Cafe — extremely Instragram-friendly old motel on Route 66
  22. Saline Valley Hot Springs — SUPER remote, amazing hot springs tied with Deep Creek for my #1 favorite
  23. The Salton Sea/ Salvation Mountain/ Slab City/ East Jesus — MOST AMAZING AREA E V E R
  24. Sunrise Rock/Mojave Memorial Cross — weird shrine outside Vegas in the desert
  25. Tecopa Hot Springs — really cool, funky little desert town
  26. The International Car Forest of the Last Church — bunch of cars planted nose-first in the desert, and painted all funky
  27. Valley of Fire — gorgeous geology, very hostile to nude models
  28. Wheel of Misfortune — astonishing graffiti installation just outside Henderson
  29. Wonder Valley — SUPER-KOOKY corner of the desert
  30. Zzyzyx Road — old abandoned health spa turned California State University Desert Studies Center
  31. Ginormous Abandoned Cement Plant Outside Vegas — very Mad Max-esque industrial wreckage; amazing photoshoot location!
  32. Noah Purifoy Outdoor Desert Art Museum — super funky collection of large-scale junk art
  33. Janie’s Ranch Abandoned Brothel — sprawling old brothel in the middle of NOWHERE, near many other abandoned ruins of fairly recent vintage
  34. Montgomery Pass Abandoned Casino Town — fabulous ruins of an entire casino town near Janie’s Ranch

 

51 Comments

Mark

Nice list! The hot springs outside of Beatty are an absolute treat. I was in Vegas last December doing a internet radio show. Due to icy road conditions on 95, decided to stay in Beatty and visit the hot springs. Great gravel bottom pools. Loved it. Glad I stopped for the night!

Rachel

Ohhh, this list is amaaazing! Thank you for compiling this. I found you on youtube while searching for Travertine hot springs, and days later I’m still glued to your blog like a book I can’t put down. What a talented woman you are, and fucking hilarious to boot. Your Burning Man posts are the most entertaining writings I’ve read in a while (and that liquid psilocybin is GREAT, right?! I’m pretty positive the guy who makes them isn’t too far from you, actually. I love those things, haha).

Anyway, just needed to briefly profess my adoration for you and all your awesomeness. You are inspiring to me, so thank you 🙂

Christopher weber

O.k. so i stumbled upon you’re youtube Channel and watched the d -valley episode and watched your other AZ. Adventures and like that you stray away from the beaten path/ trail and present the desert in a back alley kind of way that us creatures know. You kick-Ass!

Verne Lomax

Janies,Yes I remember after reading post twice. My in laws had a miners cabin in Keeler.I helped them to renovate this place. You be on the commode look to your right and see high sierra mountain range thru large gap in wall, right up your alley lol.They went on adventures from there always by Janies. On the way back my m-law said they stopped at janies at it was here turn to drive,so she took a nap and f-in law had shots and brew and she drove back to Keeler. HA,thanks to you I know what the old bastard was up to.I bet the old lady knew and a nap was better than boning the old bastard.

Verne Lomax

Hey Wonder Hussy, Ileft out that love your site and what you do! You are my oldest daughters image. Her and b-f just got back from Costa rica .They go for cheap and have many roads they will remember.Deep Creek, used to go 1968 till71?. Thats anonther story when I havent bonged myself senless.Love your work and be carefull out there. I hate typing and have a hard time trying to say want I mean. Idrive truck for a living 40 plus years and Iam basicly a dumb shit ,Ha Cool

Verne Lomax

Hi drinklng a chelada and the medical thinking of you! Planning a trip, first Jannies back to the pass. Then back to Owens valley to fish and relax. Damn that rymes. You should get a bounty hunter detector cheap and works great.I have the prospecter, my kids birthday gift. Big 5 like 100 bucks.Many spots to explore in Owens valley. Reward mine you drive in large tunnel about a 1/4 mile and it has 7 levels of ladders and and chutes. No flip flops here! Keeler got to see that. Anyway, going to el pollo loco,Later

David R

Hello, Love your adventures throughout the desert. But I must comment one 1 thing I’ve noticed. Please protect your feet with something other than your flip flops! I know you have said your shots are up to date but other things can happen from stepping on a rusty nail or broken glass. Anyways, Keep up the adventures.

Roger

Just found your video’s,,love them. I could wear myself out,,going to those places,looks like fun ,& always interesting! Thank you,for sharing,much appreciated.

BGV

Hi Wonderhussy,
I’m Big Gay Virg. A fellow Burner and former resident of the Vegas valley. I grew up knocking all around South and Central Nevada with my folks who retired to Tonopah (I fled to a TV production career in L.A.). I just read your blog entry on Janies Brothel on S.R. 6 and wanted to let you know. Yes, it was indeed open into the early 90’s as was the casino/hotel/truck stop at Montgomery Pass. Route 6 over the pass is quite busy with trucking travelling from L.A to Reno, and is quite often the only road open as 395 gets a bit hairy in the wintertime so the girls and slot machines were probably kept busy. The area is the North end of the Chalfant Valley, right under Boundary Peak. The highest mountain in Nevada and part of the White Mountains. The Sierra’s lie another 60 miles to the West. As you know, a stunningly beautiful area. As times changed, the customers stopped coming. I guess we are so busy in this modern age, we don’t take the time to go slow and linger like we used to. The brothel went dark about the same time the casino closed. Then the casino burned and that was it for the commerce in the Pass. Now, it all rests in a state of splendid decay. Time marches on. I miss all the old brothel’s in NV. They all seemed like old friends along the highway back in the day. Janies, Bobbies, the Cottontail. Angels in Beatty still has an abandoned plane that crashed on it’s runway. I remember that plane when it was new. A bit of history for you. The Madam of the Cottontail back in the day was Beverly Harrell. She was well known and respected in Esmeralda County. So much so that she got elected to the County Commission back in the 70’s. While serving in that office, she made a somewhat tongue in cheek bid for the Nevada Governorship. Her campaign slogan was “Bringing new meaning to the phrase Madame Governor”. Ya gotta love Nevada.

Carl Metzski

I remember this place. I was there several times between 1975 – 1983. My parent was filthy rich & my grandfather, father & would charter an airplane to take us there. My mother & grandmother died simultaneously in a car wreck the year before we started going. We were doing better than most economically, but the settlement for the cause of their deaths left us with money to burn!

We would fly from Philadelphia or New York into Las Vegas & charter a flight. (No flight plan filed with the FAA.) The landing runway was the highway, but we had to assist with hitching up the aircraft to a truck with a tow hitch or push it to an area where it was away from the road a good distance. It wasn’t hard to find a space in traffic to land because the highway would be desolate for 15 to 20 minutes at a time. I was younger man then but I had a good time. It was perpetually in a state of being sexual aroused! The girls were gorgeous. I was old enough so I couldn’t touch them, but the girls knew what was going on in me. They seemed to enjoy the fact I couldn’t touch them so they teased me further with provocative poses & titilating me until I could stand it no more!

Miss Harrell, as I was told to address her, was always very nice to me. She treated me to anything I wanted. (Except what I had an urge for! And she knew I wanted to breed, too! She just could not allow it to happen!)

It was a very fun place, but better than the place, it was the people who made the place the memory I remember today!

If you get this far in reading this, I commented to several of your YouTube videos about Death Valley & the area. You may see me as Cockroach!

I have to ask, have you ever seen the sunset sky in Albuquerque, NM in the Fall? Like all deserts, the colors are spectacular! When I did, I cried! I couldn’t believe that the world could be that beautiful!

OK! Enough nostalgia, Carl! Get your tough hide back on! Life is about to deal you another blow if you let yourself get soft or weak!

wonderhussy

Wow!!!!!!! I loved reading this so much… Thank you for sharing your memories! I will keep my eye out for your other comments as well… In the meantime thanks for helping me put some life into this old ruin ❤

JM

I happened upon your youtube videos and found them quite interesting and entertaining. What started with the Beveridge Canyon video evolved into watching a few dozen. You’ve visited some great out of the way places and even given me a few new ideas for 2018. Thanks for making your videos….many places I’d like to visit in person but will probably never have the chance to make the trip.

wraith

bummbled onto your adventures on utube stired up my wander lust more than it has been just recently – additional exhibitionist or nudeist? gone wild on reddit may be worth posting pics on the general main GW has rules about none money makeing blar blar blar u would have to read small print but could expand your fan base thats if your unaware of it that is 🙂

wonderhussy

I’m not exactly sure which picture you mean… If it’s the one where we are all on a rock in the middle of water, that was at Lake Tahoe! There’s a nude beach over on the Nevada side.

Stan

I was looking up montgomery pass as I use to work there. Then I saw your video . When I was there I was a cook in the restaurant so I cooked for the girls from Janes brothel.the employees lived in those little houses and their was no motel. I plan on visiting there this July

Warren Kujansuu

Sarah I love your adventure videos and like you my wife and I love hotsprings. I lived in Banff Alberta working as an electrician and I will tell you there is nothing like a soak when it’s -30 outside. Mostly sulfur like springs amazingly therapeutic.
Keep having fun you are a natural ham and besides being full of great info you have a way of making it fun.

Take care Warren

David in Hawaii

Aloha Wonderhussy,
Will this map be updated to include more recent places that you visited?
Safe travels wherever you go!

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