Coso Mountains, Inyo County, CA. On Easter weekend 2013 Desert Survivors traveled to the Coso Mountains and hiked to a remote and eerie place-- the crash site of two F-4 Phantom fighter jets from the China Lake Naval Weapons Station that collided in 1974. Anne Sexton of Barstow, CA climbed a steep canyon side to get a close view of this wing. Desert Survivors sponsor car camp, backpack and service trips to beautiful and inturiging places in the desert. Become a member and join us on our wilderness adventures. Photo by N. Blake

Latest News & Upcoming Events

SPRING IS THE BEST SEASON TO VISIT THE DESERT
Late-April and May 2013 will be busy times for Desert Survivors. We are sponsoring service trips to the Nopah Mountains Wilderness and the Mojave National Preserve. There is a backpack into the Inyo Mountains and a petroglyph-viewing car camp in the Tinnemaha area of Inyo County. Desert Survivors is taking part in a weekend "Insects and Arthropods of the Eastern Mojave" course sponsored by U.C. Riverside in Zzyzx, CA. Bugs in Zzyzx! It does not get any better than this.

Learn all about it by going to the Trips Page.

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Joshua Tree National Park tagged by graffiti vandalism.

The Los Angeles Times reports that boulders in Joshua Tree National Park have been spray painted with graffiti. In some cases the crudely sprayed scribbles have defaced ancient American petroglyph sites. The newspaper reports that the vandals have been bragging of their exploits on social media sitees such as Facebook. To learn more about this and to see photos please go to LA Times.

Extinct trout species returns to Pyramid Lake.

The Lahontan trout-- a species of giant trout that lived in Pyramid Lake, NV and was driven to extinction in the 1940's by over-fishing and pollution-- has been reintroduced to the lake and thriving according to a recent article in the New York Times. Scientists discovered surviving specimens of the Lahontan in a creek in eastern Nevada and in the late-1990's began reintroducing the trout to Pyramid waters. The fish grow astonishingly fast and can reach over 40 pounds in weight. Read the New York Times article.

About people who live in the desert.

Here are two links that we have come across recently about the people who live in the American deserts. The first is an essay by Ruben Martinez published in the February 25, 2013 edition of the New York Times titled, Now the Desert Is Just a Desert.

The second is an interview with Claire Vaye Watkins on the NPR show Fresh Air. Ms. Watkins authored an award winning book of short stories titled Battleborn-- which explores the present and past American west, specifically Nevada. She grew up in Tacopa, CA and Pahrump, NV.

These are worth checking out!

Please check back to this website for any additional Desert Survivors trips and events that may be added to our schedule. Join Desert Survivors! This website is maintained by Desert Survivors as a public service. Desert Survivors is a 501(c)3 non-profit public-benefit organization based in Oakland, California. More than 95% of our revenue comes from membership dues and donations. We have no corporate sponsors. You can support our work by becoming a member for $30 per year (or more if you can). Non-member donations are also gratefully accepted. Send checks to Desert Survivors, PO. Box 20991, Oakland, CA 94620-0991. All donations are tax-deductible. To pay with a credit card, click here for membership, or here for donation. Thank you for supporting Desert Survivors!