pioneertown + the stagecoach inn

Before I forget and get TOO lazy, let me wrap up my desert trip from May! (PS – Can you believe it’s JULY now?!)

On the last day of our trip (which was on Memorial Day itself), we headed up to Pioneertown which is not too far away from Yucca Valley. There’s a road that leads up to Pioneertown. The town is located just up over the hills in the distance of Yucca Valley. It takes about 10 minutes to drive there from Yucca Valley. This is the first sign you see before entering the town. Those Joshua Trees are all over the place!

We parked at the edge of town, not too far from the famous Pappy + Harriet’s. I wanted to visit Pappy + Harriet’s for lunch, but we had already eaten breakfast at Morongo Valley Cafe and just didn’t have any room in our bellies at the time. Seems like a shame now since I’ve heard great things about Pappy + Harriet’s. I guess we’ll just have to go back!

Pioneertown started as a live-in Old West movie set. It was designed so the actors could live here while using their homes as part of the set. 

It was quite deserted the day we went. There were a few other tourists roaming about the town. One of the tourists was quite in love with Maya and even took a photo of her.

There’s a lot of tongue-in-cheek things around here that amused me. 

Including a lot of the signs. 

Maya got to see some chickens again. She totally chased a chicken at the house we stayed in at Morongo Valley and I managed to stop her before she really got her paws on it. Luckily this time she couldn’t get to the chickens and merely observed – no chasing.

Locked up in jail. 

Totally real horses. Wink, wink. 

I got a kick out of the menu at the Mane Street Hotel. Grizzly Bear Steak for only $1.50! 

I like to call this photo, “The Lady, the Cowboy, and the Little Dog”. 

They have gunfights and wild west shows on the weekend. We didn’t know about this, otherwise we would have come up a day earlier. 

There were only a few spots open during our visit – the general store was open and there was a large hall space selling old, used books. Everything else was closed for the day, including the old bowling alley (which I didn’t photograph). It was fun walking through town! Mostly I loved this place for the kooky Old West feel and the opportunity to take silly photos. 

We started to head back home after our visit to Pioneertown. We started out on the 10 but the traffic was CRAZY PANTS so we turned around and went through Palm Springs instead. Palm Springs was much hotter – in the 90’s – compared to the cooler temperatures of Yucca Valley (which was in the 70’s). I wanted to stop for lunch in Palm Springs but it was too hot to leave Maya in the car so we just kept driving. 

We tried to stop at another place along the way, but they closed just as we pulled up. We ended up making a pit stop for a snack here at the Stagecoach Inn. The Stagecoach Inn is located way out on Highway 79 past Temecula.

The Stagecoach Inn had outdoor seating so Maya could come out with us. There was only one table with an umbrella so that’s where we sat (and why these photos are all tinged with red). 

[sampler platter / $11.95]

We didn’t want much and ended up sharing just two items. One was this sampler platter. You got to pick four items from this list: Fried Green Beans, Beer Battered Zucchini, Mozzarella Sticks, Egg Rolls, Pot Stickers, Hot Wings & Drummies or Chicken Taquitos. 

If Jake and T had chosen, we would have NOT gotten the green beans haha. 

Our choices:

The chicken wings: little over fried, not much seasoning, decent batter/crunch

Mozzarella sticks: These are the flat rectangles you see above. Very thick coating, just tasted okay. They didn’t have any marinara sauce for dipping, either.

Chicken taquitos: Tasted like they came frozen out of a box. It is what it is.

Green beans: These were my favorite of the bunch. They still tasted like green beans (hooray) and had a nice crunchy coating. I suspect these are also frozen creations but they actually tasted good.

[chili cheese fries / $7.99]

We also ordered the Chili cheese fries. I saw painted somewhere on the building that they had homemade chili so I felt like trying it. It was… just okay. I wish the cheese had been melted more, and that the chili had had more flavor and oomph. It just tasted average, really. Nothing to go out of your way for. Decent if you’re hungry.

In retrospect, I don’t know why we thought this was a great idea. We weren’t hungry enough for a full meal but these appetizers were really just your average “I guess there’s nothing else to eat” kind of food. At least we know for the future that we can safely skip this place.

Stagecoach Inn
43851 Hwy 79
South Aguanga, CA 92536
951-767-9466