The Serpent of Galleta Meadows

There it is. A three-hundred-and-fifty-foot serpent, a sea-dragon, rising out of the desert floor in great rusted humps, diving under the road beneath your wheels, then surging back up out of the sand on the other side. It's so long the artist had to cut each body section in two just to truck it out here. This is the icon of the Galleta Meadows Sky Art. There are around a hundred and thirty of these giant welded-metal creatures scattered loose across the open desert around Borrego Springs, the work of a self-taught sculptor named Ricardo Breceda, set out on land that once belonged to a man named Dennis Avery. And here's the part people can't quite believe the first time: it's all completely free. No gate, no fence, no fee, no closing time. The beasts just live out here in the wide-open desert, day and night, for anyone who comes by. Stretch your legs, walk right up to the serpent, put your hand on the steel. When you're back in the car and ready to roll, stay parked a moment longer. Ranger Boone has the story of where these creatures really came from, and it's stranger than the serpent.