Mojave Rock Ranch

Mojave Rock Ranch Plays Host to Natural Cactus Garden Setting

Duo spend 20 years transforming Depression era homestead shack

Maria Zang Attractions

Mojave Rock Ranch
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MARIA ZANG

 

In the California high desert north of Palm Springs, there is a rebirth, a reinvention of old to new that’s taking place.

The homestead shacks from the early 1930s that once dotted the desert landscape are having their second coming, but in a whole new light.

High above a hill, not far from Joshua Tree National Park, approximately 42 miles north of Palm Springs, lies a former homestead shack that’s allowed for the manifestation of organic architecture to bloom and prosper in its place. Christened by it’s creators, Gino Dreese and Troy Williams, as the Mojave Rock Ranch, the place looks as though it naturally sprouted up from the ground.

 

Mojave Rock Ranch
Mojave Rock Ranch was designed to co-habitat with it’s natural surroundings.

 

Over the course of 20 years, the duo have painstakingly rebuilt the original homestead shack, and created a cactus garden of monumental proportions. Each exotic stone, mineral, and found objects have been hand cut and placed into the making of a whole seamless magical wonderland of organic landscape and architecture. It’s almost as though the homestead shack of old serves merely to frame and play host to its natural garden setting.

Just the way Dreese prefers it, as he proudly shares, “I’m heavy into detail.”

Dreese has mastered the artful craft of blending native stone with hundreds of collected objects from their worldly travels into a mosaic story wall, which most often pays homage to their past and to the people in their lives.

Mojave Rock Ranch is a private residence that can be rented out for private events (maximum 50 people), photo shoots, and film locations.

Mojave Rock Ranch, www.mojaverockranch.net