Part 1: The search for "The Pavilion" by Maidy and Mr.E
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 New art installation on the Owens Dry Lake Bed Credit: justthemaid |
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The husband is on injured reserve this week. As a diversion, we decided to do some 'splorin' and started by venturing out to find the new $4.6 MILLION dollar art installation the DWP just completed on the Owens dry lake bed.
LA Time article:
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-adv-owens-art-controversy-20160426-story.html
Original ST Thread:
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2804588/New-Owens-Lake-Art-LA-Times-Article
The thing doesn't really have a name other than “The Pavilion”??? as far as I can tell. Google the only two articles on the place and you get descriptions of how fabulous it is and how talented the artist is... uh... but no directions on how to find it.
Rwedgee provided the a nugget of information stating: "
The easiest way to get in is off 395 at Lubkin Canyon,at Boulder Creek RV park and go East then south just after the pumping station. Or from 136 take the dirt road a few miles north of Keeler." so off we went- confident that a giant stone structure on a flat lake bed wouldn't be that hard to find. We were wrong of course.
We headed to the turn-off at Boulder Creek Campground (south of Lone Pine), and as we turned off, there was a sign that said “something” at 3.5 miles, so we gunned it down the dirt road. Multiple dust plumes in the distance were “obviously” a parade of vehicles from the 395 to gawk at the newest Eastside Wonder. ;)
Actually, it was just the massive sand-storm of a belligerent 40-50 MPH wind from the north. In typical male fashion, Erik totally blew by the fancy kiosk that would later prove to hold pertinent information.
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 Info Kiosk. Not to be ignored evidently. Credit: justthemaid |
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We turned right down an obvious road where it looked like some structures/pumping station? were off in the distance. We ended up at this:
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 Here thar be art. Credit: justthemaid |
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OK- this was obviously “art” and there were “trails”... but it was not the pavilion. A circuitous raised walkway takes you out to a decorative interpretive display. Amazingly, we are the only ones here on a Saturday! Such luck! Did I mention it was really f*#king windy?? The winds were so strong it practically ripped the car door off and we were hard pressed to complete the trek out to the sign when we were physically being blown into the ditch next to the trail.
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 Credit: justthemaid |
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 Interpretive display on the trail. Credit: justthemaid |
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 Leaning against the 50MPH winds Credit: justthemaid |
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Pondering the mysteries of the universe. “Why do we have to wander random paths in the howling wind in the middle of nowhere to see rusty steel structures and random rocks and paths?
What does it all mean?”
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 Credit: justthemaid |
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So we decided to keep going- It must be further down the road... right???...as we convince ourselves that some mirage out in the distance is the final destination.
So began the 40 minutes of random wandering the maze of elevated roads that crisscross the Gulag that is the central dry lake bed. Experiencing the following:
1. Amazing bird habitats
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 Skert em. Credit: justthemaid |
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2. Weird flesh-eating foam - did we mention it was windy?
[Click to View YouTube Video]
3. Putrid pits that smelled like a combination of sulpher and raw sewage. The WORST thing we've smelled in years, BTW.
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 Credit: justthemaid |
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4. The mysterious world of DWP underground piping
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 Credit: justthemaid |
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5. Endless, circuitous elevated roads that mock you with weird random signs.
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 Credit: justthemaid |
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6. Hundreds of acres with a blanket of 1” X 1” sifted gravel laid over it adjacent to the 395 Highway - where one would think the $4MIL installation should be, right? Or maybe it IS part of the $4MIL installation? Baffling.
We don't know – but what we do know is this: we are just tired of being lost dumb-asses wandering the lake bed aimlessly and getting hammered by the wind.
At this point I'm like.. “maybe we should go back and read that kiosk.” Begrudgingly, we admit defeat and backtrack to the kiosk.
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 Credit: justthemaid |
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And... there's a map of course...
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 Credit: justthemaid |
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Turns out the Pavilion is completely on the other side of the lake bed- FAR from our imaginary location. The kiosk isn't even that clear- but we get that we are on the wrong side of the lake. It's so far east it almost isn't in the lake bed. There are supposed to be “arrows” giving directions. Erik: "So they ...put the fukking thing out in the middle of nowhere on the other side of the vast expanse, where your typical North-to-South traveler will NEVER see it." I guess they are relying on the Death Valley tourists and nudist hippies to take notice while they are toddling down the 136? Even though there in ZERO signage...oh, wait - maybe it's for the locals only?
Back out we go- heading east. We're in deep now- gotta find this damn thing.
On the way there are some additional “trails” they obviously dumped some of the budget into.
Short trail to nowhere:
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 50' paved and landscaped path to nowhere on the side of the road. We call them "display trails". Credit: justthemaid |
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A side road takes you to the Long Trail to Nowhere: There's a beautiful trash can! And the parking is expansive!
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 "Trailhead" ??? To what??? And another paved & landscaped 50' "display trail". Credit: justthemaid |
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Arrow to the LTTN (Long Trail to Nowhere) with sprinklers– it was too windy to get out of the car so we didn't walk it.
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 Credit: justthemaid |
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Exit sign: Just in case you were contemplating getting lost in a field of sprinklers.
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 Just in case you thought you might get lost... Credit: justthemaid |
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Finally we see something out in the distance:
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 soundbite: "angels singing " Credit: justthemaid |
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A left at the random interp pylon and a duplicate kiosk near the 136. Finally, we can see our objective in our sites.
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 East end interp pylon. Credit: justthemaid |
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The Pavilion at last
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 Credit: justthemaid |
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 Credit: justthemaid |
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 Credit: justthemaid |
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 Markers in the concrete denoting prominent mountains Credit: justthemaid |
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 FA of The Pavillion Credit: justthemaid |
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 Dozen or so artificial hills build around the structure. Credit: justthemaid |
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In conclusion:
All in all- we think it's a pretty cool installation. We like crazy art,
BUT- the location totally sucks and there was too much money spent on random orbitals. There's zero signage on any Hwy advertising it's existence. If you spend over $4+MIL, don't you want people to go look at it? The dry lake bed will never be a “destination” no matter how much cool stuff you put out there.
I sort of agree with the posts in the original thread: Rwedgee's comment about the stark weird beauty holding it's own and an additional comment by Reilly about the money being better spent on habitat restoration rather than PR, but you can't fault the DWP for trying. It's there to stay for anyone interested.
Directions/Info: If you plan on a visit and don't want to make the side trip to the central lake installation -it's actually easiest to access it from HWY 136. Go east 10.2 miles on 136 from the Lone Pine Visitor's Center then south down the dirt road and you can see the kiosk and the Pavilion from the road. The only restrooms (port-a-johns) on the whole lake bed are located at the Pavilion FYI.
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 Credit: justthemaid |
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This was not the end of the adventure BTW- (A shorter) Part 2 to come.
PS: As a random comment... This MUST be one of the worst DWP posts – the newbies get thrown out there to see if they survive?
