The Onyx Store

A dry goods shop that's been around since America's Antebellum Era. There are only so many things in California that old still up and running.

The old counter sits under all sorts of odds and ends with an old stove in the center of the room. The shelves are stacked high with canned goods. Prices were a bit high on just about everything.

Everywhere you walk in the shop signs insist that photography is prohibited and will get you thrown out.

The Onyx Store is one of the few places we could stop going through Walker Pass from Ridgecrest to Kernville, which of course means "bathroom break."  While making purchases, some of the folks in my group inquired about the bathroom and told there's a portable toilet down the road. Every person in my group complained of the porta-john's grossness with no place to wash up. Kind of a bummer if you're ordering sandwiches.

In short, it's worth stopping just to pop through the screen door, stretch your legs, take a turn about the room, staring at the tiled ceiling, and maybe pick up a couple drinks before getting back on the road.

Excellent deli sandwich, very fresh. Good service and cute store. Worth a stop if your traveling on highway 178.

I live up here close to the Onyx Store and have never witnessed cranky women. The have both been nice. Also, you have to understand, these businesses have to pump their water from a well and have their septic tank dug up and pumped out. Flushing the toilet takes 5 gallons of water and if the had every Tom, Dick and Harry using their toilet, the septic tank would have to be pumped every other month and it isn't cheap. About a mile up the road are toilets in the campground.