Pioneertown Motel
3.5-star hotel classPioneertown · Pioneertown · $$
Best for: Live music, couples, high desert
Day tripPappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace, 1940s film-set Mane Street.
Pioneertown, California
Old film-set street and Pappy & Harriet's
Pioneertown was built in 1946 as a working Western movie set with real buildings, and it never quite stopped being both. Twenty minutes above Yucca Valley in the high desert, its dirt Mane Street still looks like an 1880s frontier town, and Pappy and Harriet's at the end of it has become one of the most respected small music venues in California.
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Mane Street
The main drag was constructed as a facade-free film set - the buildings are genuine structures that doubled as sound stages, and dozens of Westerns and TV episodes were shot here through the 1950s. Today they house a handful of shops, a pottery studio, a bathhouse and a small saloon, most open Thursday through Sunday only.
Pappy and Harriet's
Originally a biker bar built inside a former cantina set, Pappy and Harriet's books national touring acts onto a stage the size of a living room, serves mesquite barbecue, and fills its outdoor courtyard on show nights. Reservations for dinner and tickets for shows both sell out well ahead.
Around Pioneertown
The Pioneertown Mountains Preserve offers quiet high-desert hiking with almost no crowds. The drive up Pioneertown Road from Yucca Valley is short but steep and dark at night. Joshua Tree National Park's west entrance is about twenty-five minutes away.
Staying
A few small inns and a growing set of high-desert rentals. Most visitors come for an evening from Joshua Tree or as a day trip from Palm Springs, which is about ninety minutes each way.
Where to stay
Pioneertown hotels
Food & drink
Where to eat in Pioneertown
Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace
Barbecue · Mane Street · $$
Pappy & Harriet's Pioneertown Palace is the desert's most famous roadhouse: a honky-tonk built on a 1940s Western movie set in Pioneertown, 45 minutes north of Palm Springs near Joshua Tree. Mesquite-grilled barbecue and Tex-Mex come out of the kitchen, but the reason people drive out is the stage — a lineup that mixes local bands with genuinely major acts who play the 300-capacity room, plus the outdoor stage for bigger shows. The bar is open late, the crowd is a mix of locals, bikers, festival-goers and tourists, and the parking lot under the stars is half the experience. Pair it with a Joshua Tree day trip.
PatioBrunch
Things to do
Sights and activities in Pioneertown
Neighborhoods
Where to base yourself in Pioneertown
- Mane Street, Pioneertown
- The 1940s western movie set that became a real street, next door to Pappy & Harriet's.
Guides
Pioneertown guides
Events email
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