Palm Springs, California

Giant VW Bug Spider

 
In front of "Hole in the Wall Welding," a Palm Springs welding shop, there's a marvelous, huge spider made of a VW bug with welded steel pipes for legs. It even has a glowing red hourglass on its underside! It also has some nice hair details in the legs. The landscaping around the Palm Springs spider is an interesting collection of rocks, cactus, and other welded sculptures.

If you want to see the giant spider, from Highway 10 take the Indian Canyon Drive exit going south towards downtown Palm Springs. The spider is one block from the freeway.

Below are some photos I took for my spider-obsessed friend Matt Plendl! I produced them in black-and-white because it adds to the "1950s atomic-monster" feel of the spider!

The last photo was taken driving along the main drag through Joshua Tree. Perhaps this photo explains the TRUE origin of the giant spider.......!!


 

View of the spider driving south on Indian Canyon.

 


Closer view.

 


View looking northeast from the shoulder of the road.

 


Looking east - there's a fairly high mound of rocks and rip-rap along here and that's what I stood on to take this and some of the other photos.

 


Another view. What else can I say about it?!

 


Pretty creepy looking, eh!

 


This is my favorite photo - looks the most realistic.

 


I've been informed that there are several more very-similar and possibly identical VW Bug spiders in Nevada as well. Anyone know where they are? Got photos?? Were they all made by the same person?

 


Reminds me of that 1950s movie "Tarantula" which scared the crap out of me when I was a little kid!

 


It's getting closer.......

 


And c-l-o-o-o-s-s-s-e-r.......

 


You can see how detailed it is - look at the joints!

 


Weird Tiki-esque head carved out of wood (I think). There are several of these around the property. They're pretty big -- about six feet tall.

 


After I left the Giant Spider, I continued driving north into Joshua Tree. I took lots more photos, but this one is the most interesting. "Is it real, or is it Memorex......?" I'll never tell --- but will just say that this area of the Southern California Desert near Palm Springs is notorious for the many "UFO kooks" who live there. In the early to mid 20th century, the area was a veritable hotbed of UFO-related activity. All sorts of strange new-age religions and "metaphysical-science institutes" were spawned in this area. Some are still there to this day.

 


 
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