{"id":453447,"date":"2026-09-04T15:18:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T15:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/453447\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T15:18:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T15:18:31","slug":"lost-attractions-and-oddities-did-you-know-san-diego-county-had-a-flying-saucer-repair-shop-no-really","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/453447\/","title":{"rendered":"Lost attractions and oddities: Did you know San Diego County had a flying saucer repair shop? (No, Really.)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>An alien ship (and many others) waiting to be repaired, with many others back in the day when the shop Coyote\u2019s Flying Saucer Retrievals and Repairs was open c. 2017. (Photo courtesy of Johnny Trekkie<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Part four of our series: San Diego\u2019s roadside relics \u2014\u00a0dinosaurs,<\/a>\u00a0doll heads,<\/a> and other highway oddities<\/a><\/p>\n

If you were driving along Interstate 8 near Jacumba a few years ago and spotted a collection of silver flying saucers sitting beside the road, you might have wondered whether you had taken a wrong turn somewhere between San Diego and another planet.<\/p>\n

You hadn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

You had found Coyote\u2019s Flying Saucer Retrievals and Repairs.<\/p>\n

The wonderfully strange roadside attraction sat on In-Ko-Pah Road near the Desert View Tower, where its collection of homemade flying saucers, junk-art creations and assorted desert oddities became an unexpected attraction for motorists traveling through East County.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Coyote\u2019s Flying Saucer Retrievals and Repairs. (Photo courtesy of Steven Hromnak.)<\/p>\n

Today, however, Coyote\u2019s place is gone. Roadside America<\/a> lists the attraction as \u201cGone,\u201d while a visitor in November 2024 reported that the site appeared largely abandoned, with only remnants remaining.<\/p>\n

But for years, Coyote was there to welcome visitors \u2014 and, if the mood struck, take them for a ride.<\/p>\n

The saucers weren\u2019t just decorative.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Piles of stuff that once needed repair at Coyote\u2019s Flying Saucer Retrievals and Repairs. (Photo courtesy of Steven Hromnak.)<\/p>\n

According to Roadside America, Coyote outfitted the saucers with mobile undercarriages so they could actually be piloted along the ground. He also transported them to festivals and fairs, including Burning Man. Visitors who caught him at the right time could climb aboard for a ride along the quiet road leading toward Desert View Tower<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Steven Hromnak was one of those visitors. A photographer, Hromnak stopped at the attraction in 2018 while he was in the area to visit the tower, another East County landmark with a rich history.<\/p>\n

Hromnak said he was driving along In-Ko-Pah Road<\/a> when he saw the unusual collection and stopped to photograph it.<\/p>\n

As he walked down the road taking pictures, he heard someone say hello.<\/p>\n

It was Coyote, sitting in a chair with his dog, Luna.\n<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Coyote and Luna from Coyote\u2019s Flying Saucer Retrievals and Repairs. Are they looking for aliens? (Photo courtesy of Steven Hromnak.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI was quite surprised, but he quickly introduced himself and started to tell me about the place,\u201d Hromnak recalled.<\/p>\n

Hromnak ended up spending about an hour talking with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a very gracious human that just happened to be in the business of repairing flying saucers,\u201d Hromnak said.<\/p>\n

Coyote was out of stickers that day, so instead he gave Hromnak a hand-colored rock decorated with an alien as a souvenir.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Colored rocks with aliens given to Hromnak instead of stickers during his visit before the site closed. (Photo courtesy of Steven Hromnak.)<\/p>\n

Hromnak\u2019s photographs capture what made the place so memorable: homemade saucers, desert artwork and an eccentric roadside collection that seemed to appear almost out of nowhere.<\/p>\n

And the flying saucers<\/a> were only part of the story.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Who is wearing a SpaceX hat? Coyote told Hromnak it was given to him by Elon Musk. But Hromnak said he could not verify the story. (Photo courtesy of Steven Hromnak.)<\/p>\n

The property also featured Coyote\u2019s Rattlesnake Saloon, an outdoor watering hole cobbled together from corrugated metal and scrap wood. Elsewhere nearby were unusual creations, including scarecrows inspired by Planet of the Apes. Roadside America described the property as a kind of ever-changing desert art installation.<\/p>\n

Visitors remembered it as the kind of place that made you stop the car simply because you couldn\u2019t believe what you were seeing.<\/p>\n

In 2015, one visitor described finding three or four saucers made from satellite dishes along with other works in progress. Another called the place \u201cfunky.\u201d By 2016, Coyote was offering free flying-saucer rides as part of a Jacumba community event.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lots of fun stuff once was at the site. Coyote\u2019s Flying Saucer Retrievals and Repairs. (Photo courtesy of Steven Hromnak.)<\/p>\n

The attraction eventually faded away.<\/p>\n

By November 2024, visitors reported seeing abandoned vehicles, trailers, and debris but no Coyote and only a hint of aliens and flying saucers. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s what makes Coyote\u2019s Flying Saucer Retrievals and Repairs such a perfect addition to San Diego County\u2019s collection of lost roadside oddities.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a major tourist attraction. It wasn\u2019t a museum. It wasn\u2019t even really a business in the traditional sense.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>An alien at Coyote\u2019s Flying Saucer Retrievals and Repairs. (Photo courtesy of Steven Hromnak.)<\/p>\n

It was something much harder to categorize: one man\u2019s homemade desert universe, parked beside the road.<\/p>\n

And for motorists who happened to discover it, that was probably the whole point.<\/p>\n

Read more history stories\u00a0here<\/a>. Do you have a story to tell? Send an email to DebbieSklar@cox.net<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

Roadside America<\/a>.
Photographs and recollections courtesy of Steven Hromnak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An alien ship (and many others) waiting to be repaired, with many others back in the day when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[147345,179175,4686,270,74,84,76,75,162404,25414,7760],"class_list":["post-453447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-aliens","tag-flying-saucers","tag-jacumba","tag-repair","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-spaceships","tag-ufos","tag-weird"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}