YOU ARE THERE, at the Last Supper. Pose with the Lord through a convenient window at Desert Christ Park, Yucca Valley,

Desert Christ Park

Yucca Valley, California

A oddly beautiful desert hillside has been the location of Desert Christ Park for over 70 years. An earthquake in 1992 wreaked havoc with many of the statues, but this is still a striking and meditative attraction.

Desert Christ Park (called for a time Antone Martin Memorial Park) is the only place in the world where you can be a participant in The Last Supper. The larger-than-life bas-relief features a window perfect for posing next to JC. Any pangs of sacrilege dispel when you notice that the back of the tableau has been tiered to encourage this photo-op.

For ten years, beginning in 1951, sculptor Frank Antone Martin fashioned concrete into nearly 40 Biblical figures. Despite the apparent theme, he created the park as his personal statement of peace rather than religious devotion.

Statues dot the hillside, wrapping above the Evangelical Free Church in a fashion seen today only in surreal pharmaceutical commercials.

There are groupings of disciples listening to the Sermon on the Mount, apostles and other biblical characters in discussion or contemplation. The bright alabaster sculptures of followers tend to face away from the sun, while the Messiah images all face the bustling town of Yucca Valley.

There is a Tomb of Christ, a Garden of Gethsemane, a well and women drawing water from it. Or they would be if the earthquake hadn't done it's dirty work.

That 1992 earthquake -- a shaky 7.3 magnitude just north in Landers -- took off the heads and hands of many of the sculptures. On some, rebar stuck out like bone stumps.

Restoration work began in 2016, and a dry, rainless climate has protected most of the works from aggressive weathering. The fragments have been cleared away, and the park now appears well maintained.

Desert Christ Park is free, and always open (although you can't camp overnight). We spotted a few other souls during our late afternoon visit -- two local teens sitting at a sculpted table, who disappeared when the smartphone cameras came out.