About two hours outside of Los Angeles is a strange landscape that feels worlds away from anywhere you’ve ever been. The hills are populated with scraggly ocotillo and creosote bush…and massive piles of boulders. If you were going to film a movie like Of Dust and Bones, this would be your place.
But when you get to Yucca Valley and head Northwest, you’ll find one of the last remaining slices of the B-western’s glory days.
Pioneertown was set up by Hollywood bad guy Dick Curtis as a live-in movie set where actors could slam out western themed films or TV shows in a couple of days without having to make the long commute to Hollywood. The idea wasn’t anything new – Corriganville, Spahn Ranch, Paramount Ranch and a dozen other Movie Ranches were scattered across California’s badlands.
Today Pioneertown is an unincorporated collection of private ranches with one remaining strip open to the public in the form of small shops with an old-timey Western atmosphere. Economically it’s probably not so different from what a Wild West village would have been like in 1888.
The main drag, dubbed “Mane Street” is dirt strip open to foot or hoof traffic only. Each end of town is anchored by a bustling saloon. The Red Dog Saloon is a bustling honky-tonk with live music events, a full menu and even fuller bar, that spills out across the street to little corral called “the dog park.”
At the other end of town is an old adobe known as Pappy and Harriet’s that brings in up-and-coming acts from across the country as well as known performers like Eric Burden, Paul McCartney, and Leon Russell.
Out behind the shops is the Pioneertown Corrals where you can book a campsite through Hipcamp. It’s a big flat open space with a few scrappy trees and two clear benefits – it’s got space for your horse, and you won’t have to drive offsite after hitting the saloons.
If sleeping rough isn’t your jam, right on the other side of the fence is the bunkhouse for the old Hollywood cowboys, newly refurbished to be the glampy Pioneertown Motel.
Ironically even though Pioneertown featured prominently in the short-lived TV comedy High Desert, the show runners chose to film at Sable Ranch in Santa Clarita to make it seem more realistic. Not to worry though, Pioneertown comes to life in the Kidz Bop version of Lil Nas X’s version of Old Town Road.
See Also
On your way to Pioneertown you might as well stop by Desert Christ Park, a gospel-oriented sculpture garden.
For other small adventures around Southern California see the notes at the bottom of 2024: the Year of Microadventure
