Desert Fortresses and The Apocolypse Part 2

Who surrounds their property with Cholla on purpose? “Honey, let’s move to the high desert and build a little fortress far from Los Angeles. We can shoot animals in our backyard, stay off the radar, build up our gun collection and be prepared for the zombie apocalypse.” Why else buy land in the high desert and build a house surrounded by walls?


We are six miles from Joshua Tree National Park. Two-thirds of the year you have views of San Gorgonio and San Jacinto covered with snow. The stars at night are amazing, the sunrise and sunsets and the full moon cause me pause on a regular basis. So what kind of person would move here only to build a house with walls that block out the beauty of the desert?

There is no parapet visible from the outside. My guess is that the house has small windows made of bullet proof glass. It’s the desert so I’m ruling out a moat---but certainly land mines make sense (except for the rabbits and coyotes). Oh how I want to see what the house behind the walls look like. Next time I pass these houses I’ll be getting an address so that I can see what’s visible via Google Earth.

Everything comes back to conspiracy theory. The walled-off house is only thirty minutes from the Marine base. However I’ve heard it said that ‘they’ want people to go the base if there’s an emergency so that ‘they’ can keep people confined and controlled. Whatever the thinking the Cholla is a great idea. My wife once stepped on a branch of cholla and the spikes drove up through the sole of her tennis shoe and into her foot. It’s not about enjoying the desert flora it’s about using them as weapons and shields.