Southern California Close-Ups: The Coachella Valley

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( Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times )

Dinny, a 150-foot-long apatosaurus, is one of two towering concrete dinosaurs standing guard in Cabazon, at the western gateway to Palm Springs and the other cities of the Coachella Valley. The towering creatures -- the other is Rex, a Tyrannosaurus rex -- were created by sculptor Claude Bell in the '70s and '80s from leftover freeway-building materials.