Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch

Elmer Long grew up in the Victorville-Oro Grande area in the 1950s and 1960s, the son of a longtime High Desert family with deep roots in the region's mining and small-ranching traditions. His father Albert Long worked at the local cement plant and was a passionate amateur archaeologist and bottle collector who spent decades exploring desert dump sites, abandoned mining camps, and ghost town remains across the Mojave. Albert's collection of glass bottles, mining artifacts, and roadside ephemera grew to fill multiple sheds and outbuildings on the family property over four decades.

When Albert died in the early 2000s, Elmer inherited the collection and faced the practical question of what to do with it. The bottles were the largest single category — thousands of individual pieces ranging from rare 19th-century medicine bottles to common 20th-century soda bottles, in colors spanning amber, cobalt blue, emerald green, clear, and several rare purple and red glass tones. The collection's volume made conventional indoor display impractical, and Elmer wanted a solution that honored his father's collecting tradition rather than dispersing or selling the bottles.

The bottle tree concept came from Elmer's awareness of the Southern American folk-art tradition in which bottles are hung from tree branches or specialized armatures in yards and gardens — a practice with roots in African and African-American Deep South folk traditions where the bottles were believed to catch and trap evil spirits. Elmer was not himself working in that specific spiritual tradition but admired the visual form, and he began welding steel pipe armatures into branching tree shapes and hanging his father's bottles on them. The first few trees went up around 2000; by 2005 there were dozens; by 2015 over 200.

The ranch property is roughly two acres along the National Trails Highway, organized loosely as a walkable sculpture garden with a packed-dirt path winding among the bottle trees and standalone sculptures. There is no formal entrance, no admission booth, and no required circuit — visitors simply pull off the highway onto the small dirt parking area, walk through the open gate, and explore at their own pace. The path is mostly flat with some uneven sections; comfortable closed-toe shoes are appropriate.

The bottle trees themselves are the central spectacle. Each tree consists of a welded steel pipe armature shaped roughly like a tree trunk and branches, with glass bottles slipped over the branch ends. The bottles catch and refract sunlight, producing a constantly shifting light show as visitors move among the trees — morning light produces dramatic shadows; midday produces saturated color through the glass; late-afternoon golden hour is the consensus best photography time. The trees vary substantially in height (some are 6-8 feet, others reach 15-20 feet), in density of bottles (some are densely packed, others are sparser and more sculptural), and in color schemes (some trees are monochromatic, others are deliberately rainbow-colored).

Beyond the bottle trees, the property includes dozens of standalone assemblage sculptures incorporating vintage cars, typewriters, traffic signs, gas pumps, mining implements, kitchen appliances, and a remarkable variety of found objects. Several of the sculptures are arranged into thematic tableaus — a 'dining table' set with rusted plates and forks, a 'gas station' with vintage pumps and signage, a 'bandstand' with welded-together musical instruments. The variety rewards slow walking and careful looking; many visitors find new details on second and third visits that they missed initially.

The Bottle Tree Ranch is one of the most consistently photogenic Route 66 stops in California and probably the single most-photographed roadside attraction in the High Desert. The combination of brilliant desert light, saturated bottle colors, branching armature silhouettes, and the open desert backdrop produces compositions that are difficult to take badly. Even casual smartphone photographers leave with several memorable images; serious photographers find enough material for hours of work.

Light timing matters substantially. Early morning (6-8am during summer, 7-9am during winter) produces long shadows, low-angle light through the bottles, and the warmest color cast of the day. Midday (10am-2pm) produces high-contrast saturated color through the bottles but flat shadow patterns. Late afternoon golden hour (the last 90 minutes before sunset) is the consensus best photography time — the low sun lights the bottles from a dramatic angle, the surrounding desert glows warm, and the shadows produce strong compositional structure. Cloudy days are good for documentary-style photography but lack the saturated color drama that the ranch is known for.

The ranch is private property and the family asks visitors to respect basic courtesies. Don't climb on the bottle trees or other sculptures (the welded armatures aren't built to support body weight and damaged trees are difficult to repair). Don't take bottles, found objects, or any artifacts as souvenirs — everything visible is part of the installation. Dogs are welcome on leash. Drone photography is generally permitted but check the property's posted signage for any current restrictions. A small donation box near the entrance is the family's primary maintenance funding source; a few dollars per visitor is appreciated.

The 5-mile stretch of National Trails Highway between Oro Grande and Victorville is one of the more atmospheric Route 66 segments in California — open desert on both sides, the Mojave River valley visible in the middle distance, and a scattering of period roadside ruins along the highway shoulder. Driving this stretch with the windows down and no particular schedule is part of the experience; the Bottle Tree Ranch is the headline stop but the surrounding desert landscape is the genuine setting.

Oro Grande itself is a tiny unincorporated community with a population of a few hundred, a single operating truck stop diner (the Oro Grande Truck Stop Diner mentioned in some Route 66 guides), and the cement plant that has been the area's primary employer for over a century. The community has a small handful of period buildings along the National Trails Highway and a quiet, almost-abandoned atmosphere that appeals to photographers and Route 66 enthusiasts seeking less-developed segments of the road.

For travelers based in Victorville (or stopping at the California Route 66 Museum), the Bottle Tree Ranch is a 10-minute drive north along the National Trails Highway and forms the natural northern bookend of a Victorville-Oro Grande morning. Continuing further north reaches Barstow at 35 miles total (roughly 35-40 minutes from Victorville); continuing south down Cajon Pass reaches San Bernardino at 35 miles total. The Bottle Tree Ranch is genuinely a free attraction worth a half-hour or full-hour stop and shouldn't be skipped on any California Route 66 itinerary.

The ranch is technically open dawn to dusk every day of the year — there is no formal closing schedule because there is no formal staff. Practically, the best visits happen on weekday mornings outside peak summer (visitor volume is low) and on golden-hour weekends in spring and fall (light is best but expect to share the property with other photographers). Summer midday visits can be challenging because of Mojave heat — desert temperatures regularly exceed 100°F from June through September and there is no shade on the property.

Wear closed-toe shoes (the dirt path has occasional broken glass and uneven sections), carry water (the property has no facilities — no restrooms, no water, no shade), and plan 30-60 minutes for a focused visit. Serious photographers and folk-art enthusiasts often spend 90 minutes to 2 hours; casual road-trippers can complete a satisfying visit in 20-30 minutes. There is no gift shop, no admission booth, and no restroom — plan your facility stops in Victorville or Barstow.

The natural itinerary combines the Bottle Tree Ranch with the California Route 66 Museum in Victorville (10 minutes south) for a half-day Route 66 morning, with Emma Jean's Holland Burger Cafe in Victorville as the lunch anchor. Travelers continuing north toward Barstow can add the Route 66 Mother Road Museum at the Casa del Desierto in Barstow as an afternoon pairing. Travelers heading south down Cajon Pass should aim to clear Victorville by mid-afternoon to make the descent into San Bernardino during daylight.