Dirt Road Diary- Johnson Valley- The Hammers Part 2

You can find Part 1 HERE

After we left "The Backdoor" (see always dirty), we headed out in search of "The Giant Rock". Again also a real place.

On the way to the "Giant Rock" we found a soft sand hill that took each Cruiser 3 attempts to get up. It was super hilarious and we all clapped when we made it to the top!

As the sun started setting we made it to "Giant Rock". This place has a super interesting history and some cool graffiti.

they thought it was Ugg weather" 

Matty mentioned that the "Giant Rock" in Landers, California was the worlds largest free standing boulder and had an interesting history, but I did some research on the place and it's history is fascinating. Back in the way back days this was holy ground for the Hopi Native Americans. This is what the rock looked like when we were there.

You can clearly see that a big piece had broken off the side. As I dug deeper into research I found out this....

"People have not lost sight of the power at Giant Rock. It garnered new attention in February 2000 when a meditative reading foretold that the old Hopi legends could easily become true in a short time. Hopi shaman had known since before 1920 that the rebirth of the new 21st century could be foretold at Giant Rock. If the rock split in half the Earth Mother was disillusioned with man and would not accept the prayers given on behalf of mankind.

However if the rock split on the side relieving pressure on the Earth’s tectonic plates then man’s prayers were answered and a new era would be revealed. Although Giant Rock had not moved in a million years, the next morning a third of the rock split and broke away, exposing a gleaming white granite interior. The prophecy had been fulfilled."

CRAZY! Well the history of this place gets even more bizarre. In the early 1930's a prospector named Frank Critzer decided to build a home at the Giant Rock. Not just at it, but under it. He excavated a room where he lived. By chance Critzer met George Van Tassel, an aerospace engineer. Van Tassel went out to the desert to visit. During World War II, Critzer and his underground home came into the radar of the government. He was thought to be a possible German spy and during a raid of his "home" he was killed. 

In 1947 Van Tassel packed up his family and moved to the Giant Rock. It was here that he opened a cafe and plane strip. He also started weekly meditation session in the excavated room, It was also here that Van Tassel was visited by aliens from Venus. That's right aliens. The Giant Rock was a hub for alien communication. So much that he was the location of the Annual Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention from 1953-1978.

During one of his communication with aliens Van Tassel was given instructions to build a electrostatic magnetic generator. Using his given instruction Van Tassel built The Integratron just a few miles from the Giant Rock. A few months ago I heard about this place for the first time and was hoping to see it in real life one day and hopefully experience a sound bath.

We drove right past it!

Okay so back to the Cruisers. Next to the Giant Rock was a smaller rock that was perfect for the guys to "pose" their cars. Boys are weird.

So here we are, one happy off-roading family.

Here are the kids having a good time without a tablet in sight! I think this was the location of the cafe that Van Tassel built.

We ended the day with a dinner at a cafe where we all ate too much really good food.

Here is the whole crew. I finally got a group shot.

The Crew

We also want to wish Uncle Matty a very Happy Birthday today!