Monolake

We were in the 41-degree desert yesterday and today there's snow. We stopped by Mono Lake on our way. This lake is like no other..

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Stratosphere Sundays

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Lone Pine

The first stop out of the desert was the John Wayne Café in Lone Pine. All the Western movies have been shot here, and the café on Highway 395, is full of autographed pictures. 

Artists Drive

Welcome to Artist Drive, another sight on our way through Death Valley.  This area is noted for having various colors of rock. These colors are caused by the oxidation of different metals.

Desert Mailboxes

    In the Mohave desert, there is something out there....

Desert Jets

A Recollection from Mr. Trip

When you leave Death Valley you drive up over the hills and cruise down into a salt plain with one of these roads that stretches into the horizon. I got out of the car to stretch my legs and take a few photos when suddenly I heard a sound, something that started as a low whoosh, like a gust of wind that quickly built into a roar. I grabbed for the camera and I turned, to see a fighter jet. It was like Top Gun. 

Titus Canyon

Titus Canyon is a deep, narrow gorge cut into the steep face of the Grapevine Mountains to the east of Death Valley in the Mojave Desert of southeastern California. The canyon features limestone rock formations, petroglyphs, and wildlife of various kinds.

Zabriskie Point

There’s not a lot to say about this place. Nature and sight seeing. An unearthly landscape that stretches in eroded rough-hewn peaks into the horizon. It is breathtakingly inhospitable, one of those places that makes you feel small and glad for the comforts of life, putting you in your place as a human being.

Stratosphere Sundays

11.28.08 CO97 TXL - EWR

To keep you in that frosty mood outside: a collection of christmas trees in the making, northern Canada.

Death Valley Skies

Devils Golf Course

"Only the devil could play golf" on its surface. A line in the 1934 edition of National Park Service Guide Book gave name to this place. 

Badwater Basin

Our next stop: Badwater Basin. The absolute lowest point in North America. 282ft (86m) below sea level, and as the name indicates, the water is bad and not drinkable. 

Death Valley Part 2

We are continuing our trip into Death Valley. The Valley received it's English name by prospectors during the California Gold Rush in 1849. Only one death was recorded during the time of the Rush, even though the hot and tough climate. 

Entering Death Valley

Stopping in the middle of nowhere we found this graveyard. On one little grave it says three little siblings must have died within some days in 1933.

The Inn at Furnace Creek

We’d heard a lot about how incredible the Inn was, and we’re not disappointed.

We were originally booked at The Ranch at Furnace Creek which is great for kids – there’s a pool and a playground, but, the hotel rooms are simple, almost boring. We immediately realized that while it was sufficient, it was nothing to write home about.

Quote of the Day

"The Journey, not the Arrival matters " T.S Eliot

Baker

Alien Fresh Jerky

In the middle of nowhere, literally, a truck-stop between Mohave and Death Valley. This was as close as we got to a supernatural alien experience in the desert. Well, if there are no real aliens, someone has to invent them. 

And apparently in the desert they are green. As everything else inside Alien Fresh Jerky. From italian olives to beef jerky, get some for the road. 

L'Invitation au Voyage - Venice, from Louis Vuitton

David Bowie appears in the second instalment of Vuitton’s “L’Invitation au Voyage” 

She lands on a hot air balloon on Venice' Piazza San Marco, serenaded by David Bowie performing a special version of 'I'd rather be high' Together with Arizona Muse, Bowie stars the second instalment of the Louis Vuitton multimedia project, directed by Roman Gavrais.

Introducing Stratosphere Sunday's

Observations from an isolated environment where time turns abstract

 11.08.07 Icelandair, BER-RKV



Photo: Marcus Gaab

Mohave

Amboy

I completely forgot about this place. An abandoned whistle-stop, a former ghost town, made up of the deserted Roy’s Motel and Café, an airport (where Harrison Ford sometimes lands his plane), a gas station, a garage, a school, a graveyard, and, after a treacherous hike in the desert, a volcanic crater. 

ENDLESS Modernist Tour in Palm Springs

The sun-drenched desert of Palm Springs has been the ideal get away from the traffic jams and hustle of L.A. In the 1930s and 40s Hollywood was booming making this little oasis the destination for starlets and leading men. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Liberace, Barbara Streisand and James Brolin, all live or have had homes here. It’s little known that Depression-era Hollywood contracts forbid stars from traveling further than 200 miles from the studios. Just 90 minutes away, this glamorous town has been thriving ever since.

The hillsides of Palm Springs are dotted with wildflowers throughout the warmer months and it’s the only place in the U.S. where palm trees are native. While all this sounds picturesque, Mother Nature reveals her wicked side here as well. In addition to almost unbearable summer temperatures, which often reach 110°F, torrential rains cause water to come shooting down the mountains rushing into Palm Canyons with an unfathomable speed, etching its way into the hillsides as patterns of erosion. Michael, of The Modern Tour in Palm Springs explained, “Because it was an ancient lakebed, and because it’s so flat, if you go up 75 feet, the views are totally panoramic. At the same time, if you look at the mountains, you would think that they would suck water up like a sponge when it rains, but it’s just the opposite.”

Joshua Trees

The Mojave desert, this place is hot and full of trees. Actually not trees to be honest, but world's largest Yucca plant, the Joshua Tree, and it grows only here, in the Mojave Desert.

We were fascinated about these eh? "trees" and had to snap a couple of favourites of these Dr Seuss characters.

They grow 2- 3 inches ( aprox 6-7 cm ) a year, takes 50 to 60 years to mature and they live for around 150 years.

Mormon pioneers are said to have named this species "Joshua" tree because it mimicked the Old Testament prophet Joshua waving them, with upraised arms, on toward the promised land. 

Redesign of UN North Delegates Lounge in NYC by Hella Jongerius

Our good friend and designer Hella Jongerius is working on a several interesting design projects. Recently she redesigned the Business Class for Dutch Airline KLM with  the aim to make you feel truly home during your flight. More about this and Hella Jongerius in our Endless No.02 which will be on news stands in November 2013.

But we would like to mention her most recent project, the redesign of the UN North Delegates lounge in NYC that officially opened earlier this week.

Levi's Station to Station

Our friends at Levi`s has teamed up with a number of creative institutions, artists and musicians to create this amazing artistic journey that takes you by train from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Coast, from NYC to California.  „ A nomadic happening“ as they call it.

9 stops, a mix of big cities and off-grid locations. Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minneapolis, Santa Fe/Lamy, Winslow Arizona, Barstow California, Los Angeles California and Oakland, California. Every stop offering a constantly changing program of creative content. The train, designed by California multimedia artist Doug Aitken, is not only used for transport, it also functions as a studio, broadcasting unique content from on and off the road.

Station to Station unites some of the leading figures in the creative field with the most interesting underground creators for a series of interventions and site specific happenings. To embrace constantly changing stories, unexpected encounters and creative collissions between music art and film.

Follow the whole trip online on http://stationtostation.com

Here are some images from the first part of the trip. Enjoy!

Off it goes, the train has left NYC, headed to Union Station, Pittsburgh 

29 Palms

On it goes, into the Mojave Desert. Next stop: 29 Palms

The last time we were here in August 2008, it was 41 degrees Celsius. Getting out of the car felt like stepping into a sauna – a dry heat that burned the skin immediately.

The town was named in 1852 for the 29 palm trees that grew in this oasis, which was also a stop for wagons on the Utah trail. You wouldn’t think of the middle of the desert as the ideal training grounds for the Marines (who are usually water-based), but here, in the middle of almost nothing, is the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center.

Rob Machado on Nowness

Endless Summer on Nowness.com

Our first video from Endless No. 02 California is on NOWNESS today, featuring surfer Rob Machado! 
Rob Machado weaves over the Pacific Coast surf in today’s short from photographer and filmmaker Marcus Gaab. The veteran of the board was presented with his own accolade on Huntingdon Beach’s Surfing Walk of Fame in 2011 following a career that has seen him win multiple titles including Hawaii's prestigious Pipe Line in 2000, as well as film cameos in the 2007 animated film Surf’s Up and his own 2009 documentary, The Drifter. Shot here in his hometown of Cardiff, California, Machado is known for his relaxed style: “It’s a cliché that you expect a surfer guy to be very zen in all regards, but he really was like that,” says Gaab, who has shot for The New York Times, Vanity Fair and Hermés. “I think that’s what we tried to get across.” The film was conceived as part of The Trip Family Meets...,  a new film series for Gaab’s travel magazine Endless which sees him enjoy a road trip through the Golden State with his wife, Christiane Bördner, and their two children. Meeting Machado was the first of several pit-stops that included taking in “hippies in Big Sur,” the Eames family house, celebrities in LA, and Death Valley. “My kids have to go through a lot, but they really enjoy it,” he adds. “Whenever we say we’re leaving, they’ll always run, pack their luggage, and stand in the doorway. And having them with us on the interviews, they are the best icebreakers you can imagine.”