Day Capsule · Devil’s Punchbowl → Pearblossom Highway → the boneyard

The Long
Straight

The furthest and emptiest of these days, and the only one where the road itself is one of the subjects. In April 1986 David Hockney spent a week at a desert crossroads making a photocollage out of it. The junction is still there, still unremarkable, and still exactly the thing he saw.

When
Any day · ideally clear and cool
Light
06:00 up · 20:00 down
Moving on
Driving from the Westside · ~240 mi round · leave on 100% · 🔴 two charge stops, Palmdale and Mojave, neither optional
Frame
X2D II · XCD 38V + 90V · color
01

The Threads

what the day is really about

Three stops across ninety miles of high desert, and the through-line is the horizontal — a fault that stood the ground on end, a road that runs dead flat to a vanishing point, and a field where aircraft are parked in rows because there is simply nowhere else that big and that dry.

Fault
The ground on end
Devil's Punchbowl is sandstone that the San Andreas has shoved from flat to nearly vertical, standing out of open scrub in slabs. It is the one stop today with real vertical in it, which is why it goes first — everything after this is horizontal, and the contrast is the point. County land, free, open from sunrise.
Road
A week at one junction
Hockney worked at the corner of Pearblossom Highway and 165th Street East for a week in April 1986 and assembled hundreds of prints into one photocollage now at the Getty. The subject is a two-lane road running to nothing, with litter, signs and scrub — deliberately the least remarkable place he could have chosen. Shoot from the shoulder and watch the traffic; it moves fast and does not expect anyone standing there.
Rows
Where aircraft go
Mojave is a working airport with a storage and scrapping field — airliners parked in the desert because it is dry enough that they do not corrode. 🔴 There is no photography permitted on the flightline side, and inside the boneyard needs written approval from the operator. What is available is the public side and the perimeter, and on the third Saturday the museum opens the transient ramp. Know the rule before going rather than being told it there.

And under it, one rhythm: vertical → horizontal → repeated. Ground stood on end, then a road laid dead flat, then the same shape parked forty times in a row.

Punchbowl at opening. Work the junction past the first good frame. Respect the flightline.

Teaches · Exhaust One — after Joel Meyerowitz · David Hockney

02

The Map

where it all is · tap a point for its leg

Open the whole day in Google Maps ↗ — in order: Devil’s Punchbowl · 165th St East · Mojave. It routes from wherever the phone is, and every spot below links its own leg the same way.

Tap any point for the leg it belongs to. Three stops spread across ninety miles of high desert — about two hundred and forty miles round with the two charge stops, comfortably the biggest drive of any capsule here. The first two are seven miles apart; the third is a fifty-mile run north on its own.

06:30
leave the Westside
08:15
the Punchbowl at opening
10:30
Hockney’s junction
12:25
charge in Palmdale, then north
14:15
the storage field
16:30
the long drive home

Nothing today is a locked door — the constraint is distance and heat. Ninety miles out and ninety back through open desert, with the middle of the day spent in it. Go on a cool clear one and start early; in high summer this day is genuinely unpleasant and there is no shade at any of the three stops.

03

The Day

three legs · and ninety miles between the ends

A day trip's unit is the leg, not the day — each carries a locator map, its theme, and an energy read. A gold pill on the clock means that time belongs to someone else: a door that opens or a slot that was booked. Everything unpilled is a suggested shape, not a schedule.

Leg I · Vertical — the fault
The only stop today with any height in it, taken at opening while the light is still low.
Leg 1 · Vertical
06:30–10:00
Sandstone
sharp

Ground stood on end, before the heat arrives.

06:301h35
Leave · north to the high desert
  • The 5 → the 14 · ~75 mi, ~1h35 from the Westside
  • leave on 100% — the climb to the Punchbowl alone costs about thirty miles of range
  • the longest single run of any day trip here
  • coffee before the 14

North out of the basin, up through Santa Clarita and out into the Antelope Valley. The landscape changes twice on the way and the second change — over the pass into open desert — is abrupt. The range on this page is planned for the way you actually drive, hard, not the sticker figure: call it a hundred and sixty-five usable miles from full, and every leg below is sized to land with margin on that.

08:151h45
Devil's Punchbowl · the tilted slabsAnchor
  • Devil's Punchbowl Natural Area · free parking
  • free · county natural area, opens at sunrise
  • low side light on the strata until about ten
  • 🔴 Nov–Mar go/no-go, the evening before: check roads.dot.ca.gov (or QuickMap) for SR-14 and SR-138, and LA County Parks for a Punchbowl closure. Snow or ice forecast down to 5,000 ft ⇒ skip the Punchbowl and run junction → Palmdale → Mojave instead. No chains, no snow driving

Sandstone beds shoved from horizontal to nearly vertical by the San Andreas, standing out of flat scrub in a way that looks staged. Low morning light across them is what gives the bedding its texture — by midday it flattens badly. The frame is the angle, and it is a 38V one: get low, let one slab run diagonally out of a corner, and keep the sky to a minimum so the tilt has nothing level to be measured against.

Leg II · Horizontal — Hockney's junction
A week's work at one crossroads, and the reason the whole day exists.
Leg 2 · Horizontal
10:00–12:30
The road
the peak

The flattest subject in these capsules, and the most deliberate.

10:0025 min
Down to the highway
  • Longview Rd → Pearblossom Hwy · ~7 mi, ~15 min
  • a fresh battery in

Off the ridge and down onto the valley floor. The junction with 165th Street East is unremarkable in every direction, which is the entire point of it.

10:252h
Pearblossom Highway · the collageAnchor
  • free · public highway shoulder
  • fast traffic — stand well back, this is a real road
  • flat high light, which is what he had

Hockney spent a week here in April 1986 photographing a junction from dozens of positions and assembling it into one image at the Getty. The instruction is his: shoot the same nothing from many angles rather than hunting one good frame. The road running to a vanishing point, the stop sign, the litter in the scrub, the signage — all given equal weight. It is the second capsule here to ask for a method rather than a picture, and like the Baltz one it is harder than it sounds. The X2D is a slow camera for a fast method: leave the tripod in the car, set it once, and let the number of positions do the work — the 38V for the road to its vanishing point, the 90V for the stop sign and the signage from well back off the traffic.

Leg III · Rows — the boneyard
A charge in Palmdale, fifty miles north to a field of parked aircraft, and one rule to know first.
Leg 3 · Rows
12:30–17:30
The field
steady

The furthest point of any of these days, and the one with a hard restriction on it.

12:2545 min
Charge · Palmdale, on the way northCharge
  • Palmdale Supercharger, 10th St W (Sierra Commons) · 24 stalls, 250 kW · open 24/7 · Tesla
  • ~22 mi from the junction, ~25 min, and on the line north — no detour
  • arrive on about 15–25% · charge to 50%, ~15 min
  • 🔴 not optional. If the car reads under 20% leaving the junction, come straight here, no side trips
  • backup: Antelope Valley Mall, 1233 Rancho Vista Blvd · 20 stalls, 250 kW, 24/7

The Punchbowl climb and the run out to the junction take nearly everything the morning had, so the car gets topped up here before the empty stretch rather than after it. Fifteen minutes, a coffee, and the next fifty miles stop being a question.

13:1035 min
North to MojaveCup
  • the 14 north · ~35 mi, ~35 min
  • food in Mojave town, or Palmdale before you leave it
  • ⚠️ if the Voyager Restaurant at the terminal is open, eat there instead — reported to close 14:30, so it is lunch or nothing. Unconfirmed; look when you arrive

Open desert with almost nothing on it. Eat on arrival while the car charges; there is no reason to do the field hungry.

13:4530 min
Charge · Mojave, before the field, and eatCharge
  • Mojave Supercharger, Sierra Hwy · 12 stalls, 250 kW · open 24/7 · 1 mi from the gate · Tesla
  • arrive on about 30% · charge to 90%, not 80% — about half an hour
  • 🔴 this beat is not optional. Priced on the gross climb over the pass (~2,400 ft), 90% gets you home on roughly a quarter; 80% is about a seventh, too thin on a hard drive

Half an hour on a 250 kW stall while the light is at its worst, one mile from the stop you came for. There are four Superchargers within two miles of the airport, so this is the easy one; the reason to take it to ninety is the ninety-five miles home, over a pass, with nothing worth stopping for on them.

14:152h
Mojave Air and Space Port · the storage fieldAnchor
  • Mojave Air and Space Port · public areas only
  • 🔴 no photography on the flightline side · boneyard interior needs written approval
  • free · Plane Crazy Saturdays (3rd Sat) opens the transient ramp
  • ⚠️ UNCONFIRMED — check on the day, we are not going to settle it from here. The Voyager Restaurant is reported to be in this same terminal building, with a fenced patio said to be the operator’s sanctioned boneyard vantage. If so it is the best stop here — but it is also reported to close 14:30, which this 14:15–16:15 window would miss almost entirely. Confirm before building the afternoon on it

Airliners parked in rows in the desert because it is dry enough here that they do not rot. It is a working airport, not an attraction, and the photography rule is real: nothing on the flightline side, and the boneyard proper needs the operator's written approval. What you can shoot is the public side, the perimeter and whatever the ramp is showing. Go with that expectation, obey the posted signs, and the frame is repetition — on the 90V from the perimeter, the same tail shape stacked away from you until it stops being aircraft and becomes pattern.

16:302h
Home · ninety miles south
  • the 14 → the 5 → the 405 · ~95 mi, ~2h
  • leave by five or it is closer to two and a half

The longest drive home of any day trip here, and the reason this day starts at half six. Set off by five and it is a straight run; leave much later and the last stretch through the valley is slow.

04

The Spots

where to stand · what the light does · who built it

Three anchors and a lot of road. One has real vertical in it, one is a flat two-lane, and the third has a photography rule you need to know in advance. Tap a spot’s map for driving directions.

Devil's Punchbowl08:15 – 10:00the San Andreas fault
Stand
Low, close under the tilted slabs, on the loop trail from the parking area.
Light
Low side light until about ten gives the bedding its texture. Midday flattens it badly.
Frame
38V, low. Let one slab run diagonally out of a corner. Keep the sky minimal so nothing level measures the tilt.
See
Sandstone stood on end by the fault — the only vertical subject in ninety miles of horizontal day.
three frames to come back with
One slab as a pure diagonal, corner to corner
Bedding texture close, raked by low sun
Two slabs converging, the gap between them as subject
Devil's Punchbowl free lot, opens at sunrise, no fee Directions
Pearblossom Highway10:25 – 12:25David Hockney, 1986
Stand
On the shoulder, from many positions. Well back — the traffic is fast and not expecting you.
Light
Flat high desert light, which is exactly what he worked in. Nothing to wait for.
Frame
Hockney's method, not a photograph: the same nothing from a dozen angles, all given equal weight. Both lenses, handheld.
See
A junction he spent a week on, now a Getty photocollage — deliberately the least remarkable place he could find.
three frames to come back with
The two-lane running dead flat to a vanishing point
The stop sign square-on, scrub behind it
Litter in the roadside scrub, close, no horizon
165th St East pull off the highway onto the side road, not the shoulder Directions
Mojave Air and Space Port14:15 – 16:15a working storage field
Stand
Public side and perimeter only. Not the flightline.
Light
Hard flat desert light all afternoon — there is no good hour, only a bearable one.
Frame
90V. Repetition. Stack the same tail or engine shape away from you until it reads as pattern, not as aircraft.
See
Airliners parked in the desert because it is dry enough that they do not corrode — a working field, not an attraction.
three frames to come back with
Tails repeating away in a row, compressed
One engine nacelle, close, as pure cylinder
The field very wide, aircraft small in open desert
Mojave Air and Space Port 🔴 no photography on the flightline side — obey posted signs · ⚠️ the Voyager Restaurant patio here may be the only sanctioned vantage, and may close at 14:30 — unverified Directions
05

If the Day Turns

two speeds · pick one on the morning

Every leg below carries the same day at two speeds. Dawn is the early, light-driven version; Slow starts late, drops a stop and keeps the good one. Steady is the shape written above. None of them is the failure case — pick on the morning, from how the day actually feels.

The Punchbowl
Dawn
Be at the gate for sunrise. It opens then, the slabs face east, and the first half hour is the only time the bedding gets true raking light rather than side light. It also means clearing the stop before the heat, which in summer is the difference between a good stop and a short one.
Steady
Leave at half six, at the Punchbowl by quarter past eight, out by ten.
Slow
Leave at eight and take the Punchbowl in flatter light. It costs the strata texture but saves ninety minutes of alarm, and this is a long day either way.
The junction
Dawn
Do it properly: two hours minimum, thirty or forty frames from every position around the crossroads, and print a look at the Getty collage before going so the method is in your head rather than the idea of it.
Steady
Two hours on the shoulder, many angles, no hunting for the good one.
Slow
Forty minutes and a dozen frames. Even a short version teaches the thing, which is how uncomfortable it is to photograph somewhere deliberately unremarkable.
Mojave
Dawn
Go on a third Saturday — the Mojave Transportation Museum opens the transient ramp for Plane Crazy Saturdays, which is the only straightforward way to be close to aircraft here rather than behind a fence.
Steady
North after the junction, eat on arrival, two hours on the public side.
Slow
Skip Mojave — but still charge at Palmdale, 10th St W, on the way home. It is fifty miles each way for a stop with a photography restriction on it, and the Punchbowl plus the junction is a complete day. 🔴 It is not a no-charge day: the Punchbowl climb means going straight home from the junction lands below empty. Twenty-two flat miles to Palmdale, charge to 70% (~15 min), and home on about a quarter — the climb over the pass on the way home is priced in. Still the easiest cut in any of these capsules, and home well over an hour earlier.
06

Before You Go

the pack, and the rule at the third stop

Camera

  • Hasselblad X2D II, the 38V and the 90V — Mojave is a 90V stop from behind the fence
  • A CFexpress card as well as the internal SSD — the Hockney method wants volume
  • Spare batteries — a long day, and the X2D runs down faster than you expect
  • A tripod for the Punchbowl at opening; handheld everywhere after
  • A blower and cloth: high desert dust gets everywhere

Body

  • A hat, and far more water than feels necessary — no shade at any stop
  • Solid shoes for the Punchbowl trail
  • A layer for eight in the morning at altitude
  • Sunscreen. Six hours of open desert.

Logistics

  • Leave on 100%, and charge at Palmdale and Mojave — neither is optional
  • Nov–Mar: the evening-before snow check for the Punchbowl (SR-14, SR-138, LA County Parks)
  • Not a high-summer day if it can be avoided
  • Check the Mojave photography rule before going
  • Leave Mojave by five or the drive home stretches badly
Read the Mojave photography rule before going🔴 no photography anywhere on the flightline side, and the boneyard interior needs written approval from the operator — public areas and the perimeter are what is actually available
Consider a third Saturday for MojavePlane Crazy Saturdays opens the transient ramp, which is the only easy way to be close to the aircraft rather than behind a fence
Leave on 100%, and plan both chargesthis day covers about two hundred and forty miles with a 4,600 ft climb in it — Palmdale 10th St W to 50%, Mojave Sierra Hwy to 90%
Nov–Mar: snow go/no-go the evening beforeroads.dot.ca.gov or QuickMap for SR-14 and SR-138, plus LA County Parks for a Punchbowl closure; snow or ice forecast to 5,000 ft means skip the Punchbowl and run junction → Palmdale → Mojave
Water and a hat for all three stopsthere is no shade at any of them and the middle of the day is spent in open desert
Stabilizer off on the tripod at the Punchbowl, on again afterthe manual says stabilization on a tripod hurts image quality; the junction and Mojave are handheld
Spare batteries chargeda ten-hour day is more than one X2D charge
Look at the Getty collage before goingthe method is the subject at the junction, and it is much easier to hold in your head having just seen what it produces
•

What You Got

the frames that survived the edit

The geotag gets each frame close to where it stood — close, not exact; the last hundred yards are always a hunt. What a machine can't do is the part below: which ones survived, and whether the day was worth the drive.

The frame of the day.

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Could you actually work Hockney's way, or did you hunt one frame?

—

Was Mojave worth the extra hundred miles?

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What the light did at the Punchbowl, versus the plan.

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•

After

what the day taught

Vertical, horizontal, repeated — did that hold up across ninety miles?

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Which hour was actually the best one?

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Would you do this one again in winter?

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Where next — and closer to home, or further out?

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