Scenic 395 - The Official Guide 2021/2022

9 2021-2022 Scenic 395 Ridgecrest travel spending. With the designation comes an opportunity to expand its footprint. The RACVB plans to set up a new location for the Welcome Center in a vacant building at 880 N. China Lake Blvd. in a former Goodwill Store building. “It will be a spacious visitors center area with a few different attractions that visitors will be able to use,” Crutcher says, in- cluding a virtual reality pro- gram. The RACVB and film commission offices will relocate to the new building and a por- tion dedicated to a community resource space. “While we’re going to promote the area, we’re also going to bring it inside and have more fun with it.” “One of the features we plan for the virtual reality program will be for the petroglyphs in our area,” Crutcher says. The Ridgecrest area is home to the Little Petroglyph Area and the largest collection of petro- glyphs in North America. How- ever, public access is limited due to its location aboard the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake ranges; only U.S. citizens can take tours arranged privately through the Navy base or through the Maturango Muse- um and limited by the number of people in the spring and fall months. Access can also be a problem because reaching the canyons require a sizeable hike. “We’re going to bring that pet- roglyph experience to the Wel- come Center, so that they can be much more accessible,” Crutcher says. The center expects to open be- tween mid-spring and early summer 2020. Continued from Page 8 PHOTO BY AARON CRUTCHFIELD The former Goodwill store location in Ridgecrest will open in spring or summer 2021 as a California Wel- come Center.