By Jim Farber

California Highway 79 is one of those idyllic backcountry roads best driven in a convertible with the top down and the wind in your hair. Heading south from Temecula, it weaves its way to the town of Julian through rolling hills of black oaks and grazing cattle.

That is, until you come to the intersection of Borrego Springs Road and encounter one of those "What the heck?!" moments. Just be careful not to jam on the brakes when you see rusting metal versions of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza next to Jesus on the cross pursued by a 20-foot-tall, 45-foot-long Tyrannosaurus rex.

Don't worry: You haven't crossed over into "The Twight Zone." You've just begun a close encounter with one of the most whimsical art installations you can imagine — the myriad metal sculptures of Ricardo Breceda and his outdoor art gallery.

"I don't consider myself an artist. I'm an accidental artist," said the former cowboy boot maker from Durango, Mexico. And while you can debate his art credentials and his wildly eclectic choice of subjects, there is no questioning the level of Breceda's craftsmanship.

You could say his newfound occupation began with the movie "Jurassic Park III." As he tells it, after he took his 6-year-old daughter to see the film, she asked him to build her a dinosaur for Christmas. And he did — out of metal. In fact, it's there rusting away amid the multiple generations of metal sculptures of every size and shape that followed it and sprawl across the landscape.

Every sculpture (numbering in the hundreds) is for sale — from the smallest delicately colored flowers and wall-climbing lizards to a life-size stagecoach pulled by a team of galloping horses. Rusting metal goats graze on the hillside along with every shape and size of dinosaur imaginable. It feels like a cross between a rusty junkyard, a roadside flea market and a fine art gallery all rolled into one.

The best way to experience Breceda's creations is to ask him for a tour. There is certainly no better guide, and his jovial, unpretentious approach is as much fun as his creations. If you don't like that flower in blue, just ask. He probably has it in green or red or purple. The one thing he doesn't talk about is his artistic philosophy beyond giving people a good time and making sales.

But as we stood next to two of his most recent creations — a pair of life-size Texas longhorns — it became clear exactly how far Breceda's craft has evolved since that first crude metal dinosaur he cobbled together for his daughter.

To create the longhorns, Breceda first had to fabricate an armature, on top of which went a multitude of metal plates and skillful crafting of the eyes that seem to follow you wherever you go. But it was creating the horns, he says with pride, that are his masterpiece. They are comprised of hundreds of strands of perfectly shaped thin metal rods wrapped with wire.

As we wandered from one sculpture to another, Breceda conceded he considers the entire world of literature, the history of the West, plants and animals along with all those dinosaurs as fair game to be molded in metal. In Breceda's wacky world, why shouldn't a herd of leaping wild horses, those shining metal-plated longhorns, cowboys and Natives, Don Quixote, Jesus Christ and dinosaurs exist side by side? And business has been so good, he now employs a whole atelier of assistants to help produce his encyclopedia of subjects.

While the "serious" art world might ignore Breceda and his eclectic taste in subject matter, more adventurous collectors and civic institutions have found ideal settings for his individual pieces. They include a 350-foot-long Chinese serpent whose slithering back rises and falls in the desert sands of Anza Borrego.

I had a great time visiting with Ricardo, and one of his beautifully crafted metal geckos is crawling up my backyard fence right now.

WHEN YOU GO

ricardoabreceda.com

Jim Farber is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

The lobby at Spa Pechanga in Temecula, California, is the portal to treatments that include the Zero Gravity Soundscape Relaxation Experience. Photo courtesy of Pechanga Resort Casino.