Joshua Tree Retreat | Private Pool, Gardens & Cave-Inspired Estate

We are located immediately on the park boundary. You can easily hike straight into the Joshua Tree National Park, Villa dei Fiori is an original homestead that has been renewed by a writer and film designer on 15 acres with a saltwater swimming pool surrounded by boulders and trees and seven terraces. I planted my gardens for others to appreciate. I was an art director for films, including "Battlestar Galactica, " "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas", and designing the pirate ship for "The Goonies." I designed music videos for Olivia Newton, Travolta, and Cindy Lauper. Villa dei Fiori and gardens are a movie set, more exotic and secluded than other vacation rentals. I studied philosophy and history at University of Tulsa and received my master's degree in film at UCLA. I hitchhiked across America and Central America, journeys that inspired the characters in my book, chapters which can be viewed for free on "CelineOnFire.com." A drone video of Villa dei Fiori, gardens and wildlife may be seen on VRBO and www.celineonfire.comwildlife.
Working as a journalist for a black newspaper, "The Oklahoma Eagle," I covered Martin Luther King’s march from Selma to Montgomery. I organized concerts for jazz musicians, Baby Face Willette and Odetta, and opened The Bastille, a folk music and dance club. I produced and directed the film "Death of the Red Planet," in 35mm Cinemascope, quadraphonic sound, the first film created by lasers. , filmed in the laboratories of Cal-Tech. Praised by "American Cinematographer," and "Hollywood Reporter," the film was invited to the Cannes Film Festival and played in 600 theaters across America. My first film design was "Battlestar Galactica." I worked with Steven Spielberg ("The Goonies"), Terry Gilliam ("Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas",) Paul Verhoeven ("Hollowman".) I wrote the screenplay for "East of the Moon," and " Celine on Fire." My novel, "Celine on Fire," is set in 1950s Paris and behind the Iron Curtain.

I first came to Joshua Tree in 1968 when I visited my family who were homestead settlers from Oklahoma who moved to California in the 1930s. My grandmother's sisters homesteaded in Joshua Tree in the early 1950s on Whitefeather Road, above the civic center and hospital a short distance from the Joshua Tree National Monument. Revena and Gwendolyn were original settlers. I purchased the property in 1988 and restored the original homestead house by taking it down to the studs and removing interior walls to open up the living room and kitchen, and installed thirteen French doors that open onto six terraces with pergolas laden with fragrant climbing plants.
I began the garden thirty-five years ago planting a grove of Italian Stone pines, now 35 years old,. The terraces and surrounding sculpted berms of decomposed granite have been sculpted over the years. Bighorn sheep often come off the park into our valley of the moon where bobcats, kit foxes, and roadrunners roam.

You will will find solidute and tranquility immediately adjacent to the Joshua Tree National Park. Despite the government shut down, we are on the park boundary. You can easily hike straight into the Joshua Tree National Park, Consequently, we have abundant wildlife. Children and adults love the three-chamber cavern partially open to the sky with a fire pit for dinner parties close to house. We provide linens and pillows for extra guests. Barbecue is on Kitchen terrace with a giant Joshua Tree in the boulders. Villa dei Fiori's boundary is immediately on the Joshua Tree National Park. Our Valley of the Moon is perfect for bouldering and rock climbing and exploring the canyons of the park adjacent to Villa dei Fiori..
Large saltwater pool surrounded by boulders and oversized Jacuzzi spa for six. Many windows and 13 glass French doors open to garden and boulder views from every room, the scent of cypress and French lavender enveloping the house.