You may have noticed some of your favorite local businesses closing their doors for periods of the summer.
Summer is peak travel time for most of the country, when tourist destinations are marked by congested traffic and long restaurant lines. However, those in the Morongo Basin know that life here does not follow this typical model. Instead, summer is the slowest time of year in the Hi-Desert when intense heat keeps visitors away.
Businesses across the Morongo Basin adapt to this slow pace in different ways. Restaurants such as Luna Sourdough, La Copine, and The Palms in Wonder Valley have closed for August. Joshua Tree boutique El Duende closed its doors for the majority of summer, whereas other shops such as White Label Vinyl and the Wine & Rock Shop have limited their hours.
Photo: Adeline J. Wells
Another local business with limited Funky Desert Vintage, located in Old Town, Yucca Valley. Long-time resident Evelyn Hanna has owned the vintage shop for the last 14 years. After keeping the shop open full-time for the first eight years, she then began adopting summer hours citing low tourism, traveling staff, and the heat as factors.
“On the weekends it’s slow, but during the week it’s almost like a ghost town. A lot of people who work here leave who work here in the summer. Everybody takes vacations because it is so hot, and I do try to keep people who help out with the shop employed for that time. Unlike other businesses up here, I do not have A.C. in my shop; I only have a swamp cooler, so in August it gets pretty hot here.”
Hanna noted that different businesses in Old Town close for various lengths of time. Several have not resumed full hours since the COVID pandemic, while others, particularly new businesses that are establishing themselves, have kept their full time hours.
“I know summers are dead up here and in Palm Springs because it’s so hot that I actually save up just for summers so that I can get through them.”
Hanna has lived in the Hi-Desert since childhood, and sees increasing tourism as an important facet of the local, growing economy. As a business owner, this pays off when she can relax on those beautiful desert summer nights.
“Tourism is up. I think the Hi-Desert is still one of those places that people are unsure of in the summer. But we do have beautiful summer nights up here and lots of music still going on. Personally, I like it.”
Funky Desert Vintage is located at 55812 29 Palms Highway; the shop will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday through Sunday through the end of August.
