On the outskirts of Joshua Tree, Southern California’s transcendental national park in the high desert, is Pioneertown, a 350-person hamlet unlike any other. Founded in the 1940s by a group of Western movie stars—most notably, Roy Rogers—Pioneertown was created so they could shoot their films by day and perhaps live the life of a late-19th-century cowboy once the sun went down and the cameras stopped rolling. Pioneertown is exactly how you would imagine a Western set, with its faux saloon, trading post, and jail lining a dusty street in the middle of the desert. You would not be surprised if you saw a tumbleweed being carried along by the wind, and you might even feel inspired to purchase a pair of chaps and boots with spurs.
Today artists, musicians, hipsters, and creatives are all flocking to this one-horse town to stay at the newly renovated and perfectly curated Pioneertown Motel, with its cowhide rugs and Aztec-inspired blankets, and eat catfish sandwiches and chili dogs at Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, where musicians big (think Paul McCartney big) and small play their tunes while onlookers sip beer from mason jars. Our suggestion: Buy a cowboy hat and head to the desert.
