The Mojave Tire Tree
I like to think that it’s some sort of votive thing, or maybe people throwing the tires onto the trees as they make a wish, but no such luck, I’m guessing. This one’s in the middle of the Mojave between Barstow and the Nevada border, just off Basin Road (which is itself off Interstate 15), but there are others around the greater Mojave.
Just another illustration of the omnipresent junk that litters the Californian deserts, I guess… people just shrug when I show them things like this. It’s a close relative of the California Cartridge Tree, also endemic to the deserts:
I long ago gave up being outraged by the sight of so much junk, but I still get irritated by how little people seem to care about it. I’m sure I’ll do a series on Desert Blooms some time — those glinting red and yellow and blue blooms you see so often in the desert…
