Road to Joshua Tree

// weekend wanderings //

By Lauren di Matteo

A couple of weeks ago my favorite travel buddy, Nicole Bravo, and I decided to hop in the car and drive to Joshua Tree. From San Diego, it’s only a few hours drive, and we both had plans to buckle down and do some work over the weekend so naturally, we managed to clear our schedules. Here are a few snaps of my first adventure of 2016.

Sculptor, Ricardo Breceda

Maybe an hour into the drive, just east of Temecula, we came across the incredible—larger than life—work of sculptor Ricardo Breceda. Well-known for his collection in Borrego Springs, he hopes to develop this plot of land, beside the 79 highway in the tiny town of Aguanga, into a place for families to come and enjoy the grandeur of his metal sculptures. We asked how he learned to do this, if he started small and then eventually managed to make some of his larger pieces. He shook his head and explained that people aren’t impressed with small things, so he started with a life-size sculpture of a T-Rex placed along the side of the road. He cocked his head back and laughed as he recalled the traffic being backed up on that highway for weeks from people gawking at it.