yucca valley - twentynine palms

[ArizonaBear]

Originally Posted by Chaseplace

Everything has happened just like you said. We now have Morongo Basin Transit. Home Depot is open. A Casino and Walmart are coming to Twentynine Palms. We have a weird assortment of diverse people but I find those that are so different from me to get along fine with me Mr. plain conservative white bread. Bugs, Snakes may be gone but the HOT Sun has yet to be run from the area. However, Yucca Valley is 10 degrees cooler than Wonder Valley per my truck Thermometer.

Note that I presently live in the Phx area-------that place gets hot!

Side note: apparently the gas station @ Roy's in Amboy is now open for business again

[dogmom]

I am also dogmom, lol. The previous post was my mom, so it was my grandparent's who homesteaded in Yucca out on the mesa when I was a little girl...wow that was the middle of nowhere but now lots of homes..I just drove through Yucca/JT/29 Palms yesterday on my way back to So.Utah from Desert Hot Springs. So many changes..when I was young all we had to do in Yucca when we went to visit was the Cornet five and dime store. One mom and pop grocery. Now everything is there. I could live there easily.

There are bugs, there are bugs everywhere. We have them here, we had them when we lived in L.A. county, we had them in NorCal, we have them in the pacific northwest where we are heading. They are a fact of life and I don't think they are any worse in the high desert. I don't recall in all our visits to the grandparents anyone complaining about bugs. Now snakes, ask my mom about that one. I almost sat on a rattler when I was about 3 but my grand pa got it. And it was close to a water spigot outside if I can recall.
We watched out for snakes, never worried about them getting too close, they don't like you, either.

In any case, wherever you settle,RENT first. Good luck!

[Melsky]

I used to own a house in Wonder Valley and lived there for two years, one year by myself! It's beautiful out there. I never had any problems with crime, never saw a meth lab (that I knew of anyway) and I enjoyed living there a lot, though I have moved on and have no plans to go back.

The problems I did have were the bugs - I don't like having scorpions in the house. We also had sun spiders, velvet ants (that sting) tarantula hawk wasps, and millions of assorted crickets, beetles and flies. I've lived in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto and Syracuse and there are more bugs in a half acre of Wonder Valley than all those other places put together.

I'm not really scared of bugs or that grossed out by them. In fact I used to catch scorpions and put them in an aquarium filled with sand to observe them for a while before I would take them further out in the desert and release them. But I did not like having to wonder if there was one in my bed and I was scared one of them would sting my cats. That can be fatal to a cat.

The other problem was wild dogs. Where I lived people would let their dogs run free and I think there may be some dogs that were semi-feral. Perhaps people were using them to keep people away from their meth labs! At any rate, it worked. When I moved there I had hopes of walking around and exploring some of the dirt roads on foot but that never happened because of the dogs.

People will also come out there and ride ATVs. It's a huge area but for some reason they just had to ride them on my property and kick up dust. I asked them to please stay off my property and they said ok and just kept doing it. Frankly I didn't like to mess with them so I would just go inside and shut the door and windows to keep out the dust and noise.

But it was beautiful. I loved the sunsets, and watching the animals like kangaroo rats and lizards. I am an artist and painted a lot of scenes of the desert too. It was very inspirational to me. But people thinking of moving there should know about the good and the bad before they decide to buy a place.

[desertheat225]

i can tell you that he is not pulling your leg on the bug issue..when i was there visiting my cousin during the summer months we saw 3 scorpions (ew) and there really is a huge roach problem and above all THE CRICKETS ARE EVERYWHERE in your house. You see alot more things than you ever would want to..she's lived there for 2 years and isnt even close to getting used to it

[groundedone1]

In the year 2000 I bought 10 acres with a nice house, garage, and trees fenced in from an estate sale.
I have been fixing it up ever since spending all my weekends & extra days off there. my best friend bought a 5 acre place adjacent to mine. Another close friend bought a couple acres away. My brother bought in Yucca Valley. All are working, waiting to retire. We are located close , 2 miles from the base out in the country. You have no idea of the beauty calmness quietness or how many animals there are out there. I am amazed how the place is growing & the people are really fine people living there. Remember it takes all kinds of people to make up a population. I am really starting to recognize people & be recognized around the twin cities. Having a job at the base is really a good deal, as the economy is slow there and really taking a hit now, it was starting to take off & they were going to build in 29 Palms a Indian Casino but it is put on hold now. I hope to retire there next year. Good luck with your decision I encourage you to give it a try. Yucca Valley, Joshua Tree, or 29 Palms there are some really beautiful areas out there, and a lot of history.

[coyote58]

Thanks, Grounded Nice to here of folks creating positivity within they're own sphere. I am in the coastal mountains east of Arcata (Willow Creek) and enjoy visiting the desert in the winter. I also have a close friend who attained captain on base at 29 a few years ago. I stayed at his rental on occaision visiting and was fortunate to have him as tour guide. We climbed in J tree and also did some climbing over in Mt.San Jacinto . He has been stationed elsewhere with the Marines since. I am loosely thinking of getting something in the area as a second place and notice on an elevation map that Yucca is 1000 feet higher than 29 Wonder V. I see progressive pockets throughout the valley. I know one thing is for sure, I'll never have trouble finding a barber!!!!!

[msa76]

My husband was stationed there for 4 years. It was awful. I would not recommend it. And it's not the marines, despite comments to the contrary - the drugs and gangs that make it unsafe to walk the street at night are made up of LOCALS. The local Samoan gang routinely puts marines and their WIVES in the ICU for looking at them the wrong way. It's the crystal meth capital of the southwestern U.S. and right near a prison, where they just let the prisoners loose in our valley at the end of their sentences. The schools are awful, there are no jobs, no stores (the locals are very anti-growth and hate the base, even though there wouldn't be a town without it), and it's 120 degrees in the shade. Avoid it at all costs.