Visitors say it feels like sleeping on Mars. Minimalism to the max in the Mojave desert. That’s the ethos at Reset, the first new hotel built from scratch in the Joshua Tree area in 15 years. The focus is an array of chic modular containers that double as gorgeous guest rooms. It’s part of a desert boom that’s transforming a once-sleepy military town into the region’s most unlikely creative hotspot.
And not a moment too soon, I say. For years, word circulated that Twentynine Palms was “next.” Any day now, the scrappy town of 26,000 would catch the energy radiating from Joshua Tree and Yucca Valley. Galleries would materialize. Oat milk would flow. Except it never quite happened. The barbershops and dispensaries remained. The Pizza Huts endured. Marines from the local base still outnumbered artists by a comfortable margin, and if you asked most people in nearby Joshua Tree, they’d tell you Twentynine Palms was where you went for gas, maybe barbecue, but definitely not a weekend getaway.
Twentynine Palms: From Up-and-Coming to Up-and-Sprung
Then the pandemic hit, and suddenly everyone wanted out of the city. Desert real estate went bonkers. And a particular breed of pioneer (the kind with savings, vision, and TikTok orations about YOLO) started looking at Twentynine Palms differently.
Reset Hotel, which opened this past summer, may be the most visible proof that “up-and-coming” has finally up-and-sprung. Conceived and led by Adam Wininger, the project was developed in partnership with HP Investors, with design collaboration from Gry Space and Ben Uyeda—whose YouTube channel, HomeMade Modern, has nearly 1.7 million followers. The hotel has emerged as an end-of-the-road escape that’s both barebones and high style. You might call it Mad Max meets Modernism Week, with really comfortable bed linens.
Twentynine Palms By Way of Minimalism To the Max
Reset’s 65 guest rooms are purpose-built, prefabricated modular units, designed specifically to be lived in and slept in as hotel rooms, not repurposed shipping containers. Each sparsely furnished unit comes with carefully curated amenities: pour-over coffee supplies, Flamingo Estate toiletries, Solo Stoves for outdoor grilling or s’mores, and more. A number of rooms have an al fresco bathtub on a private patio for gawking at all those desert stars (guests can borrow Celestron telescopes overnight). A sauna and cold plunge near the large pool make the hotel feel more like a spa.
The seeds of Reset were planted in 2020 when the team acquired 180 acres of commercial property. Construction began in 2023, with room modules manufactured in Ontario, Canada, while foundation work happened simultaneously in Twentynine Palms. Throughout the process, the designers documented everything on social media feeds, giving followers a front-row seat to the hotel’s creation.
Wininger and Uyeda wanted to create lodging that wouldn’t displace locals. “We’re both native Californians,” Uyeda told the Los Angeles Times. “There is a real demand for this kind of hospitality.” As Airbnbs proliferated across the desert converting much-needed housing into short-term rentals, their approach was to build purpose-designed modular structures on commercially zoned land, helping meet tourism demand without eroding the local housing supply.
What Else Is Booming In Twentynine Palms
What’s interesting is that Reset isn’t happening in a vacuum. All along Twentynine Palms Highway, you’ll encounter a whole ecosystem of people making similar bets on this part of the desert.
There’s Sara Lyons at Scorpion Lollipop, who moved from Anaheim in 2022 and opened her craft beverage and gift store less than two months later when a friend mentioned a primo storefront across from the new Joshua Tree National Park visitors center. Her cheerful shop with hot pink and turquoise accents specializes in natural wines and nonalcoholic options, but she also stocks greeting cards, tarot-inspired art prints, and nail polish. Tourists love it but she says half of her customers are people from the community.
There’s Steve Przybylowski at White Label Vinyl, often seen with his small black dog Cannoli in a sling, who calls Twentynine Palms “the Island of Misfit Toys” with obvious affection. He quit his L.A. marketing job during “the mass exodus” of 2020, as he told The Times. “You couldn’t rent a U-Haul,” he recalled. Now he’s running a record store in a shared space with other independents, and he’s president of the new business owners association Rediscover 29.
There’s Liz Lapp at Hi-Desert Times Magazines, who dipped into her retirement fund to open a magazine shop because she was tired of algorithms deciding what she should read (she’s my kind of entrepreneur!). “I need to die in this space to make it worthwhile,” she’s confessed. Her shop sells glossies ranging from Vogue to smaller art publications and local zines.
At Very Very, co-owner Rich Good, who happens to play guitar in the Psychedelic Furs, and his partner Dana Longuevan have created a dangerous little shop where you walk in for nothing and walk out with creosote wreaths, color-changing nail polish, and matte postcards of the high desert you definitely don’t need but absolutely must have.
Even the Historic Plaza, Twentynine Palms’ commercial hub in the 1920s and ’30s that had fallen into neglect, is experiencing something of a renaissance. Paul Razo and Heather Basile of Mojave Moon Apothecary convinced the owners of Sun of the Desert to move in next door, collectively launched a nonprofit called Friends of the Historic Plaza, and started hosting events, including car shows, winter markets, with a chalk festival and art fair coming in March.
It’s not all desert roses. Several promising businesses have shuttered in recent years (although some, including Out There Bar, have closed and reopened under new management). Being farther from L.A. than Joshua Tree and a few degrees hotter makes Twentynine Palms a challenge. But those who’ve stuck around remain bullish. More hotels are in the works. An escape room is coming soon. An art-themed mini-golf course called Mojaveland hopes to break ground this year. After the L.A. fires, desert communities saw more people relocating in search of cleaner air and open space.
At Reset, Uyeda has bigger plans for Twentynine Palms, too. He’s carving low-impact trails into the desert and constructing outdoor conversation pits and outback artforms, like a moonpad viewing bed, where you can gaze at star-studded skies or simply picture yourself on a red planet a few million miles down the road from this one.