Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch, Helendale California

This is a sight to behold! Elmer Long, the bearded wizard of this desert spectacle, didn’t set out to create a tourist trap. It all began in the 1950s, when young Elmer and his father roamed the Mojave Desert, collecting bottles like treasure hunters with a knack for the peculiar. Later when Elmer, then a retired welder with a penchant for tinkering, inherited his dad’s hoard of colorful glass, instead of letting it gather dust, he welded his first “bottle tree”. A metal pole adorned with bottles that caught the desert sun like a disco ball in a sandstorm. Eventually, the forest grew to over 200 bottle trees spread over 2 acres. But, it’s not just bottles. Elmer’s imagination ran wild, incorporating everything from rusted typewriters to a decommissioned missile casings and other relics from his childhood. The wind adds its own soundtrack, turning the hollow bottles into a chorus of eerie whistles and clinks. Visit at sunrise or sunset for the best light show, when the bottles glow like they’re auditioning for a Pixar movie, on National Trails Highway in Helendale, CA