On 1-15, 113 miles North East of Los Angeles. Barstow originated as a railroad junction in 1886 and even today most people who arrive in the town are in transit – pausing just long enough to buy gasoline and a snack before continuing through miles of empty desert on the way to Las Vegas. Should desert touring, rather than gambling and shopping, be top of your agenda, make use of the town’s Desert Discovery Centre, 813 Barstow Road (www.desertdiscoverycenter.com) for the latest on desert weather and road conditions, and home of the Old Woman Meteorite – the second largest meteorite in the USA.

Detour – Rainbow Basin National Natural Monument

Drive north from Barstow on Fort Irwin Road, after about five miles turning left on to Fossil Beds Road and following the signs for Rainbow Basin National Natural Monument. Some 15 million years ago, this now barren and arid area was lush and fertile, and held several enormous lakes. Over tens of thousands of years, a changing climate caused the lakes to dry up, exposing their varied layers of sediment and the fossils of prehistoric creatures – such as three-toed horses, dog-bears and various gigantic insects. Take the signposted drive and feast your eyes on an other-worldly landscape of strangely-shaped, brightly-coloured rocks that seem to glow in the sun.

Fossils, too, are easily found, with a bit of exploration on foot, though removing them is forbidden.

Detour – Daggett

Off 1-40, 6 miles East of Barstow. Named after a man who walked from Ohio to California in 1850, Daggett is a dusty village of a few streets and the Stone Hotel, dating from 1875. A more bizarre sight stands just east, where hundreds of mirrors sticking out of the ground are actually heliostats belonging to the Solar One Power Plant. Call at the plant’s visitor centre for an explanation of the intriguing process which turns sunshine into electricity.