Family Adventure on the Mojave Road

We ran across this family's trip on the Mojave Road and thought we'd share.

MOJAVE ROAD CLOSED OVER PIUTE RANGE: NEW DETOUR AVAILABLE

As of April 19, 2016, the National Park Service has closed the Mojave Road between Mile 27.0 and 30.5 in the Mojave National Preserve. This closure is due to a washout on the old underground telephone cable road connecting Piute Valley with Lanfair Valley. No date has been set for completion of repairs to the road.

The National Park Service recommends a 29-mile bypass on their Web page.

The Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association, the publishers of the official Mojave Road Guide, have developed an alternate 14.2-mile detour for Mojave Road travelers who would prefer a shorter, more historic and scenic route. A PDF with a map and road log is available for download on the home page of their Web site, www.mdhca.org.

MNP Campground Closures This Week

Just noted this on the Mojave National Preserve Web site:

Campground closures scheduled for the week of October 20
Roads in campgrounds will be graveled this week. Mid Hills will be closed on Tuesday and Wedensday, October 22-23. Hole-in-the-Wall Campground may be closed on Thursday and Friday, October 24-25.

Road Conditions in the East Mojave

Severe weather has hit the East Mojave over the past couple days, so before you travel out there, you might want to confirm with Caltrans that roads are open. Currently, Highway 95 is closed from the junction of the I-40 to the Nevada state line.

Some of the roads in the Mojave National Preserve are damaged. Here's the information provided on the MNP Current Conditions page right now:

Updated: August 26, 2013

Call for updates: 760 252-6108 (every day) or 760 252-6100 (Monday through Friday)

A severe thunderstorm yesterday evening washed debris onto paved roadways and damaged dirt roads. Rangers are assessing roads this morning. Travel on dirt roads within Mojave National Preserve is not advised at this time.

Paved Roads 

Black Canyon Road - Closed. Pavement is washed out in many places.
Essex Road - Closed. Road is heavily impacted with mud and debris.
Ivanpah Road - Travel is not recommended.
Kelbaker Road - Open. San Bernardino County is performing emergency storm repairs through Friday, August 30.
Kelso-Cima Road - Open. San Bernardino County is performing emergency storm repairs through Friday, August 30.
Lanfair Road - Travel is not recommended.
Morning Star Mine Road - Open
Zzyzx Road - Open to all vehicles.

Dirt Roads 

Kelso Dunes Road - Open to all vehicles.
Black Canyon Road - Travel not recommended.
Cedar Canyon Road - Travel not recommended.
Lanfair Road - Travel not recommended.
Ivanpah Road - Travel not recommended.
Mojave Road - Travel not recommended.
Aiken Mine Road - Open. High clearance vehicle recommended.
Wildhorse Canyon Road - Travel not recommended.

When traveling to the preserve via I-15 or I-40 check Caltrans' Highway Information Service for up-to-the-minute road conditions 1-800-427-7623.

Campgrounds and Visitor Services 

Essex and Black Canyon Roads leading to the Hole-in-the-Wall Information Center and both campgrounds are severely damaged. Travel is not recommended. 

Mid Hills Campground is open. Please conserve water.
Hole-in-the-Wall Campground is open.

Information centers: Kelso Depot Visitor Center open Friday through Tuesday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; closed Wedensday and Thursday. Hole-in-the-Wall Information Center is open Saturdays, 9 am to 4 pm.

Kelso Depot closed two days per week

News Release from Mojave National Preserve Web Site
Date: April 29, 2013
Contact: Linda Slater, 760-252-6122

BARSTOW, CALIF. – Effective May 8, 2013, Kelso Depot Visitor Center in Mojave National Preserve will be closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays.The Visitor Center will remain open Fridays through Tuesdays from 9 am to 5 pm. Mojave National Preserve's Headquarters Information Center at 2701 Barstow Road, Barstow, California, is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 am to 4:30 pm. to provide information and assist with trip planning.

Kelso Depot Visitor Center will be closing two days per week due to the impacts of "sequestration" (a series of automatic, across-the-board permanent spending cuts). The park must absorb this funding cut between now and September 30, the end of the federal budget cycle. To reach the new FY13 budget target, the park will be hiring fewer seasonal staff and consequently, will have fewer staff to support visitor services.

Although the Visitor Center will be closed, Mojave National Preserve remains open every day and has no entrance fee. Campgrounds, trails, and other facilities remain open. Hole-in-the-Wall Information Center will be open on weekends when staff or volunteers are available. For more information call 760 252-6100.

A peaceful interlude at the Mojave National Preserve

Situated between Interstates 15 and 40, the preserve boasts solitude, Joshua tree forests, snow-dusted peaks and desert horizons, and it may be our best-kept secret. 

A Union Pacific freight train is an hourly sight — and sound — in the Mojave National Preserve. The wind-carved singing Kelso Dunes are in the background. (Mark Vanhoenacker)

Click here for a slideshow of additional photos accompanying this story.

By Mark Vanhoenacker, Special to the Los Angeles Times 
January 8, 2012

Reporting from Mojave National Preserve, Calif.—

For a nation in perpetual motion, to cross the lands that make up the Mojave National Preserve has long meant only one thing: You are very nearly somewhere else.

For westward-bound travelers, whether they came through open wilderness, along the now-overgrown Mojave Road or later by the legendary lanes of Route 66, this most American of deserts was little more than an obstacle to more promising lands. Long before them, Native Americans traded regularly across these harsh miles, as enamored as everyone else with speed. Tribal legend has it that top runners needed only a few days to reach the coast.

Today, the Mojave is ringed by the circuitry of a restless nation. Interstate 15, the preserve's northern border, is more parking lot than road, a blinking artery of brake lights shimmering late into the desert evenings. To the south, great fleets of trucks sail day and night along Interstate 40 in the shadow of Route 66, the mythic furrow through American consciousness once known as the Mother Road.

Enormous freight trains also rumble at all hours across the Mojave's vastness. And above, the skies are grooved by the high-desert contrails that Joni Mitchell sang about, descending through the blue toward Los Angeles.

Amid all this is the Mojave National Preserve: beautiful, empty and — unless you're within earshot of the railroad — as quiet as the ages. To feel so far off the path while so close to some of the country's best-beaten ones is both a miracle of conservation and an accident of politics. In 1994, after years of wrangling, three new desert designations were formalized: Joshua Tree and Death Valley became national parks, but Mojave was granted only preserve status.

It's an inferior category of protection; hunting, for example, is permitted. But a happy irony of Mojave's lesser designation is that the preserve, unlike its A-list siblings, barely registers on tourists' radar. Even seasoned Southwest travelers may not realize what they're missing: 1.5 million acres of solitude draped across vast forests of Joshua trees, snow-dusted peaks and measureless desert horizons. If the national park was America's best idea, the national preserve — and this one in particular — may be our best-kept secret.

Despite those many acres — Mojave is the third-largest National Park Service parcel in the lower 48 — it's easy to make or break a journey here. Heading east from Los Angeles, a good first port of call is Barstow, home to the preserve's visitors center and the inaugural miles of I-40. There's a regularly stolen sign at the interstate's start, pointing out the 2,554 miles between here and the North Carolina coast. The next Starbucks isn't quite that far, but consider some preventive caffeination in Barstow.

As soon as you get on 40, jump off it again at Exit 7 for a quick look at Daggett. Visit the Desert Market (35596 Santa Fe Ave., Daggett, Calif.; [760] 254-2774) for drinks, a chat and the chance to marvel at the remnants of the next-door Stone Hotel, where John Muir once stayed. Just east on Route 66, take the turnoff for the Daggett Pioneer Cemetery, where you and some central casting-caliber tumbleweed can wander among wind-swept graves.

From here head east — quickly on the interstate or slowly on what's left of the Mother Road, which bumpily parallels its multilaned successor. You'll pass Newberry Springs, where cult classic "Bagdad Cafe" was filmed.

Next is Ludlow, where the American roadside diner finds perhaps its purest, most deeply fried incarnation at the Ludlow Cafe (25635 Crucero Road, Ludlow, Calif.; [760] 733-4501). For those with heavy eyelids, there's also the Ludlow Motel (make reservations and check in at the Chevron station across from the motel and cafe, [760] 733-4338). It won't win any thread-count awards, but it's inexpensive, clean and, in road-trip terms, as pitch-perfect as the diner next door.

About half an hour east on 40, Kelbaker Road brings you into the preserve itself. Sixteen miles in is the turnoff for Kelso Dunes, 50 square miles of sand and little else. Some dunes are more than 600 feet high — worth singing about, and so they do, rather spookily, when the mood strikes them or a hiker kick-starts a cascade of sand. Wind-carved and yellow, these are the dunes of movies. It's easy to imagine C-3PO staggering over a crest, and several European hikers I met here half-joked that this was the only corner of the Southwest that looked like "real" desert.

Hiking on dunes is tiring, even — or perhaps especially — when they're singing to you. So it's time for lunch. Seven miles past the dune turnoff is Kelso Depot, a 1924 outpost where trains stopped for water and passengers to dine. After the frenetic World War ll years — iron for Liberty ships passed through here — the depot entered a long decline. Reopened in 2005, after a meticulous restoration, this Spanish Revival structure is now a charming and genteel counterpoint to the endless surrounding miles of Mojave wilderness.

After a root beer float ($3.50) at the vintage lunch counter, take time to explore the well-curated exhibits that fill the depot's sepia-tinged rooms. Then wander along the colonnade that fronts the railway, where signs forlornly announce long-forgotten passenger services even as ponderously laden freight trains roll past. The freight trains are noisy reminders of the fact that Kelso was built only to make other journeys possible. Now, in retirement, this palm-shaded intersection of history, geography and railway is at last a destination itself. 

Heading north from Kelso, it's time to work off that third root beer float. My favorite Mojave hike is the Teutonia Peak Trail. Author J. Smeaton Chase, despite earning a decent living chronicling California's natural splendor, couldn't manage a kind word about the Joshua tree: a "weird, menacing object, more like some conception of Poe's." Those who disagree will be at home climbing through the world's largest and densest Joshua tree forest (eat your heart out, a certain nearby national park). The last rocky scramble on this four-mile round trip pays off, I promise, with a stunning view over Cima Dome, the vast volcanic uplift that now lies beneath you.

For a selection of other easy-to-moderate hikes, head to the Hole-in-the-Wall Information Center by way of the unpaved Mojave Road, or directly from I-40 and Essex Road. Start with the aptly named Rings Loop Trail, which involves climbing out of a canyon with the help of some judiciously placed metal rings. There's also the Barber Peak Loop Trail, a well-marked mile-mile walk that includes the canyon scramble and much more. The visitor center staffers are smiling and helpful, happy to chat about the recent snow, and why they came here, and — if it's getting late — where to rest your head.

They and most anyone else will tell you that there's no better place to spend a Mojave night than in Nipton, Calif. Hollywood native Gerald Freeman bought this entire ghost town — "population, one hobo" — for less than the cost of a Manhattan parking space. Slowly, it's being renovated and restored. The town's adobe centerpiece is the Hotel Nipton, with front-row views on a desert garden, the railway and the impossibly vast Ivanpah Valley stretching out under the red glow of distant peaks.

Everyone loves the sound of a train in the distance — the operative word being "distance." In Nipton, the bedrooms and the rail line are separated by about 20 yards. But somehow, I've rarely slept as well, a common report from guests. Maybe it's the warm welcome, the cold beer or the thought of bighorn sheep dozing on the starlit mountainsides. Or perhaps even an earth-shakingly close train, like the planes above and the pinprick automobile lights on the interstate, crystal clear through 20 miles of bone-dry desert night, makes you appreciate what you've just found: in a restless country, a place to rest.

travel@latimes.com

Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times

Off-Road Travel: Mojave National Preserve Part I

You might enjoy this Off-Road.com article posted in December about a trip on the Mojave Road, with photos. They took a few short side trips to see additional sights often visited by those traveling the Road.

Snow in the East Mojave

We were in the East Mojave over the weekend and made a quick detour through the Mojave National Preserve. There was still snow on the ground left from the storms the week before. This is a quick "out the window" shot taken Saturday from Cedar Canyon Road, just east of Black Canyon Road. It was a beautiful day, temps in the high 50s and no wind.

Zzyzx: A nice place to visit ...

... but you can’t stay at this scientific outpost in the Mojave Desert

The Desert Studies Center, located between Barstow and Las Vegas about five miles south of Interstate 15 on the asphalt and dirt Zzyzx Road, is surrounded by rocky hills, desert mountains and (left) Soda Dry Lake. Ron Ham

By Ron Ham
12:01 a.m., May 29, 2011
Sign On San Diego, The San Diego Union-Tribune

Zzyzx — “Zzyzx”

The sign along Interstate 15 on the way to Las Vegas is full of questions.

Is it a town, or what?

Would it be OK to take the off-ramp and check it out?

Where did the name come from?

Well, first off, there is no town. The sole resident of the place between Barstow and the Nevada state line is the Desert Studies Center, a field station operated by a handful of California state universities to teach about and research the local environment.

Yes, casual visitors are welcome to drop by, and there’s even a self-guided tour.

Zzyzx was named by Curtis Howe Springer, who opened a health spa on the property in the mid-1940s featuring its mineral spring.

“The self-proclaimed Methodist minister and physician (he was neither) broadcast daily a folksy, fundamentalist religious program from the radio station he built there asking listeners to send donations for miraculous cures, which were a mix of vegetable juices, shipped throughout the United States and abroad,” the research center’s website says.

He wanted to give it a name that sounded like sleep, one that had no vowels, and came up with Zzyzx — “pronounced Zee–zix or Zie–zix, whichever source you read,” the website says.

Springer was arrested in 1974 for unauthorized use of federal land and for violation of food and drug laws. The spa was shut down, and two years later the California State University system decided to operate a field station there.

The oasis is now managed by the California Desert Studies Consortium, an organization of seven CSU campuses: Dominguez Hills, Fullerton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Northridge, Pomona and San Bernardino.

Drive about five miles south of I-15 on Zzyzx Road and you come to a dozen dull-colored buildings that look more like a desert motel complex than a college campus. Then you see a giant panel of photovoltaic cells, electronic monitors atop a rocky hill, and the big pond with birds, palm trees, and – it turns out – an endangered fish, the Mojave tui chub.

The center – on the edge of Soda Dry Lake at the western entrance to the Mojave National Preserve — has a laboratory with microscopes and other equipment, a computer lab and wireless network, a small library, two classrooms, a kitchen, a bathhouse, and dorms that can sleep 75.

About 7,000 people a year visit the site in San Bernardino County, according to William Presch, the administrator who is headquartered at Cal State Fullerton.

“Students and researchers come in from colleges around the world,” and professionals with the federal Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Geological Survey, National Park Service, state Department of Fish and Game, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service also visit regularly, he said.

“Then we have the casual visitor who drops by off the freeway.” Presch estimated their number at 400 to 500 a year.

No camping is allowed on the campus, but there is a way for the general public to stay overnight and get a closer look at what goes on there. They can take one of the extension classes offered by UC Riverside that use the facility.

Classes for April and May covered such topics as desert lizards and snakes, spring migration of local birds, the Central Mojave, and earthquakes, volcanoes and ice age lakes.

At the Desert Symposium last year at Zzyzx, geared for college students and scientists, the topics were a little more esoteric: “Radiocarbon and Optically Stimulated Luminescence Ages of Pluvial Harper Lake, Mojave Desert,” for example. Also offered were “Expanding the late Oligocene/early Miocene tectonic, magmatic and sedimentary history in the South Bristol Mountains,” and “Coalescent analysis of fifteen nuclear loci reveals low genetic diversity and Pleistocene speciation in the Mojave Fringe-toed lizard, Uma scoparia.”

Presch said education is the center’s No. 1 goal and students represent a variety of undergraduate and graduate majors, from biology, geology, geography and space science to anthropology, archaeology and landscape architecture.

Visitors to the center are studying the desert all year long – “even when it’s 120 degrees.”

“Cal Tech brought the Mars Rovers out here before they went to Mars,” and a new species of snail was discovered at the center, Presch said, but a lot of the research is long-term – say 30 years.

Casual visitors are free to stop for a picnic lunch, walk around campus, or hike and photograph the scenery around Soda Dry Lake, which actually has water in it during wet weather. The arid environment is home to a rich array of animal and plant life, and nearly 200 species of birds have been sighted over the years.

Visitors also can see dilapidated buildings that once were part of Curtis Howe Springer’s Mineral Springs and Health Spa.

In the winter, the weather can be cold and windy. If you hike when it’s hot, be sure to wear boots and a hat, carry plenty of water, and never hike alone.

Water, food, gasoline and lodging are available in the town of Baker a few minutes drive north on I-15, and campsites are nearby.

If you go

The Desert Studies Center

Where: Zzyzx – about 56 miles northeast of Barstow, and 4 to 5 miles south of Interstate 15.

Hours: Open daily except Thanksgiving and Christmas from sunup to sundown.

Cost: Free for day use.

Phone: (657) 278-2428

Online: biology.fullerton.edu/dsc


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/may/29/zzyzx-a-nice-place-to-visit/

Wildflowers expected to put on a show at Mojave National Preserve

Joshua tree bloom in the Cinder Cone National Natural Landmark area 

of the Mojave National Preserve on 20 March 2010

April 4, 2010
Margo Bartlett Pesek
Las Vegas Review-Journal

April annually produces the widest variety of wildflowers in the Mojave National Preserve. In a good year of plentiful rainfall, most of the 250 flowering plants of the region produce blossoms in profusion to the delight of visitors to the vast preserve located south of the Nevada-California border. Even in years of scant rainfall, a few dependable varieties still show up. Head for the Mojave National Preserve soon to enjoy the best of whatever show nature provides.

To reach the preserve, head south from Las Vegas on Interstate 15. Drive through Primm and over the state line to the Nipton-Searchlight Cutoff, Highway 164. Watch for the Ivanpah Road exit and turn there. Go a short distance to the Morningstar Mine Road, which leads to a crossroads at Cima. Follow the signs south to Kelso, once a major watering stop on the railroad. Visitors from Southern Nevada can also reach the preserve from I-15 by taking Cima Road or Kelbaker Road, which cover different parts of the preserve. Cedar Canyon Road between Cima and Kelso connects with other major routes through the interior of the preserve.

The handsome Mission-style Kelso Depot built in 1924 served railroad travelers and employees for decades before falling into disrepair. An ambitious restoration gave the depot new purpose. It serves now as the main visitor center for the Mojave National Preserve and headquarters for National Park Service personnel. Open daily except Christmas Day, the building houses informational exhibits and displays, a bookstore and a basement art gallery. On the main floor, a cafe called The Beanery serves meals Fridays through Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Inquire at the depot about where to look for current wildflower displays.

Predicting a sensational wildflower season would challenge a Vegas odds-maker. The goal of the players is to produce plenty of flowers and seeds for future seasons. Many variables change the game. A perfect season begins with an inch of rain in late autumn, followed by scattered rains and no desiccating winds in winter and early spring.

This year, the rains came late, promising greenery, but delaying the flowers. Occasional heavy winds did not help. Late bloomers risk all against the oncoming summer heat. If summer comes early, they lose. If it holds off even a few days, they could play a winning game.

In the Mojave National Preserve, flowers show up first in the lowest elevations along roadsides and on south-facing slopes. Varieties change with the terrain. For instance, look for the showy pale blossoms of dune primrose only around sand as at Kelso Dunes or in sandy spots along roadsides. Often you'll find a sand-loving pink verbena in the same area. Join a ranger for a walk among the dunes any Saturday at 11 a.m. The dunes lie seven miles south of the depot, then three miles west on a graded road.

Soon after the earliest blossoms fade, different flowers take over and the show sweeps into higher elevations. By May, many early annuals are done, but several kinds of cactuses are then at their showiest. Nearly everything takes a summer hiatus, but a few kinds of flowers put on a nice autumn show if the monsoon rains deliver late summer moisture.

Springtime in the Mojave National Preserve invites visitors to explore this largely undiscovered recreational treasure. In addition to paved routes, the preserve contains about 1,000 miles of primitive roads ideal for four-wheeling or horseback exploration. For a small overnight fee, campers use two nice campgrounds at different elevations along Cedar Canyon Road and Black Canyon Road. Self-contained RV users or primitive campers may also camp where others have traditionally done so, free of charge. Several trails and hiking routes probe interesting canyons, historical routes and geological points of interest.

Visitors do well to remember that springtime draws reptilian residents out of winter dens.

The Mojave is home to several species of rattlesnakes, the most dangerous being the Mojave green, whose strong toxin attacks the respiratory system. Watch where you step or put your hands and listen for that warning buzz.

Mojave National Preserve - Beyond The Mojave Road

There are many easy and interesting side trips just off the Mojave Road.  Here's an article from 4 Wheel Drive & Sport Utility Magazine about a trip up Carruthers Canyon.  (Note that the correct spelling is with two r's, after homesteader George Carruthers. Map makers continually label it incorrectly.)

Mojave National Preserve - Beyond The Mojave Road
Less-Beaten Paths In The Mojave National Preserve

May 2010
By Kevin Blumer
Photography by Kevin Blumer

The Mojave Road bisects the Mojave National Preserve on its way from Afton Canyon to the Colorado River. Perusing a map of the Mojave National Preserve, it's easy to come up with a one-word description of what's beyond the Mojave Road: plenty.

Maps and guidebooks in hand, we packed up the 4Runner to see the preserve firsthand. It's impossible to talk about the Mojave National Preserve without some background information about how the preserve came to be.

The Mojave National Preserve was created in 1994 after many years of controversy and legal wrangling. The political ball was set in motion during the 1980s by the late Senator Alan Cranston, who proposed making the area into Mojave National Park, along with re-designating Death Valley National Monument and Joshua Tree National Monument as National Parks. When first penned by Cranston, giant swaths of what was then called the East Mojave National Scenic Area were slated to become federal wilderness areas, which we'll refer to as "Wilderness" for the balance of this story. This legislation was called the California Desert Protection Act.

Cranston's legislation outlived his political career. Cranston was caught accepting $1 million in campaign contributions from a savings and loan that wanted a "problem solved." Cranston left office in 1991. His successor, Dianne Feinstein, chose to carry the bill through Congress. When the California Desert Protection Act passed, mining, ranching, and off-roading became even more restricted in the Mojave. It pains this author's hands to even type the names of those who ramrodded this legislation down our collective throats. If there's a silver lining, it's that the intended Mojave National Park was instead designated the Mojave National Preserve, a designation that allows certain economic and recreational activities that would be banned within a National Park.

Another silver lining is the vehicular corridors that pass among the newly created Wilderness Areas. These corridors are previously established routes that were left open and intact. In the desert, the sheer distances combined with a general lack of water make it impractical to explore very far on foot. Vast Wilderness designations in the desert without vehicular access amount to nothing more than a land grab. The vehicular corridors are the key to discovering what's out there. For those who like to hike (of which the author is one), the vehicular corridors are the key to getting close enough to the trailheads to have the time and energy to see what’s inside the Wilderness.

With the ugly political stuff dispensed with, let's talk trails.

The Mojave National Preserve is big at 1.6 million acres. It's crisscrossed by dirt routes, some of which are more challenging than others. If you're after hardcore rock-crawling trails, this isn't the place. If you're after discovery and solitude it's a great place to be. Don't get complacent: deep sand, jagged rocks, errant tree stumps, and cholla cactus are in healthy supply, and they aren't forgiving. The big distances in the preserve mean that it's essential to show up with a well-prepared vehicle that carries the same spare parts and tools you'd carry anywhere else. Carry all the water you'll need, and then some. Vehicles must be street-registered to drive on the dirt routes in the preserve.

We had two guidelines during our visit: avoid the pavement, and avoid the Mojave Road.

Our first jaunt took us to the defunct railroad stop at Ivanpah, where we saw the weathered ruins of a loading dock, a cottage, and some holding pens. Shortly after, Ivanpah Road's pavement disappeared and we shifted into 4-Hi for better traction and stability as the dirt surface changed moods. Our goal was Caruthers Canyon and the Giant Ledge Mine. The canyon lies in the New York Mountains.

Caruthers Canyon was first prospected in the 1860s, and mining continued well after the turn of the 20th century. Beyond mining relics, the plant life and geology of the New York Mountains also draws you in. Tall peaks dot the range, the highest of which is New York Peak at 7,529 feet above sea level. Instead of creosote bushes, you'll see pinyon pines and juniper here. There's also manzanita and other plants seen more often in a coastal sage plant community. Scientists say these floras developed during a wetter period of the earth's natural history, and then was left isolated high in the mountains when the surrounding terrain became more arid. The New York Mountains are a sort of island unto themselves. The climate is cooler up there, too, and snow isn't uncommon during the winter.

These days, the road into Caruthers Canyon is still legally open because it's not in a designated Wilderness Area. On the way to the Giant Ledge mine you'll drive until you can't drive any further, park your rig, and hike the rest of the way to the mine. There are several pullouts along the Caruthers Canyon trail. You are allowed to have fires in already established fire rings, and camping is allowed in already established campsites.

What's beyond the Mojave Road? Plenty. Follow along and we'll show you what we mean.

Click here to see the rest of the story with accompanying photos.


Here's the link to the entire story on the 4 Wheel Drive & Sport Utility Magazine Web site:  http://www.4wdandsportutility.com/adventures/west/1005_4wd_mojave_national_preserve/index.html

On trek, "No one comes back the same"

Area teens make 138-mile journey














Geared up for the start of their weeklong Mojave Road adventure are, from left, Lino Cantos, John Slagboom, Jubal Marlatt, Michael Wellesley and Andrew Vasiloff. Photo courtesy of John Slagboom.

By Alicia Doyle
Ventura County Star
Sunday, May 17, 2009

Considered a favorite among four-wheel-drive enthusiasts, the Mojave Road is generally covered on wheels, from its start near the Colorado River in Nevada through the full length of the Mojave National Preserve in the deep desert of southeastern California.

But when a handful of Oxnard teens made the 138-mile journey last month as a backpacking trip on foot, it was more than simply a physical feat. It truly was a religious experience.

“Every hike I go on brings me closer to God and shows me what I’m capable of,” said 15-year-old Andrew Vasiloff.

As a member of Venture Crew 9228, based out of Oxnard First Presbyterian Church, Vasiloff was one of three teens and two advisers who completed the trip over seven days in mid-April, covering the 138 miles from the Colorado River in Nevada to within 25 miles of Barstow, traveling along the historic military wagon route through the Mojave Desert.

Others who finished the trek were Michael Wellesley and Lino Cantos, both 18.

John C. Slagboom, president of Crew 9228, did not hike because of a physical condition but drove his members 1,000 miles to and from their destinations.

Averaging 20 miles on foot a day, the crew is quite possibly the first to ever achieve such an accomplishment, said John Slagboom of Oxnard, crew adviser along with Jubal Marlatt of San Diego.

“There is no evidence that I know of that this has ever been done before,” he said. “It is not contrived to say that the Mojave Road trip had a spiritual development to it as well, which made it all the more worth it.”

The newest Scouts

The Venture Crew is the newest type of Scouting unit for youths ages 14 to 21, said Slagboom, 47, who is certified with Boy Scouts of America for desert and high adventure backpacking.

“Venture crews are designed to teach advanced leadership, organizational skills and character development by providing a venue where young people can collaborate to determine their crew’s mission code of conduct, meeting times, uniforms and, most important of all, their adventures — termed Super Activities like the Mojave Road trip,” Slagboom said.

The young crew members have been preparing for their latest feat for the past five years, since completing a 55-mile trip around the Providence Mountains in the central core of the Mojave National Preserve in the spring of 2004.

Additionally, “Their completion of the entire world-famous John Muir Trail this past summer in 14 hiking days was featured in March 2009 edition of Boy’s Life magazine,” Slagboom said.

On the most recent trip, Vasiloff said, Mother Nature posed the biggest challenge.

“Some are going to say their feet, others might say the mileage each day, but for me, besides not bringing pants, the weather was one of the biggest challenges I faced,” said Vasiloff, an Eagle Scout. “When I think of the desert, I think of sand and gnarly heat, which it basically has been in past trips. The difference between this trip and other trips was that we experienced almost every type of weather condition: extreme heat, extreme cold, rain, snow, extreme wind and sandstorms.”

‘Wizard of Oz’ moment

One of the wildest, most insane moments on the trip was when their tent flew at least 200 feet in the air, he said.

“Usually if a tent flies away, it gets stuck in a bush or rolls into a riverbed, but it never flies 200 feet in the air,” Vasiloff said. “Image ‘The Wizard of Oz’ when the house is spinning in the tornado; that is how it was. I have never seen anything like it before in my life.

“It was so funny to watch, but when we went to fetch it, there were tears in the material and our tent polls were broken. Yet, we still made the tent work like a champ, and slept in it.”

Overall, members of the Venture Crew love the intense physical challenge, Slagboom said. “Even their athletic competitions at school cannot compare to high-adventure backpacking at this level, and they love doing it together. No one comes back the same.”

For Cantos, the experience changed his life in ways he never expected.

“Out there on the road and sometimes too tired to talk, you get into deep thought and you really get to know yourself as a person,” said Cantos, who is now planning to climb Mount Everest with Vasiloff. “I don’t know how or when but expect us to do crazy things in the future. But at the moment we need to recuperate from this monster of a hike we were crazy enough to do.”

The Mojave Road - The Government Road: Mules, Springs, And Regulations

Jeeping The Mojave Road (In A 4Runner)

By Kevin Blumer
Photography by Kevin Blumer
4 Wheel Drive & Sport Utility Magazine

No matter how many times you may have read about an adventure, there's nothing like firsthand experience to truly understand what it's all about. Even though I've enjoyed trips to the desert since the mid '80s and consider myself somewhat of a desert rat, I had yet to travel the Mojave Road until recently.

To read the rest of this trip report with photos, visit this link: http://www.4wdandsportutility.com/adventures/midwest/0905_4wd_the_mojave_road/index.html

Geocache

We ran across a posting about a geocache located along the Mojave Road.

Mojave offers plenty of trails

Illustration by Mike Miller / Review - Journal

TRIP OF THE WEEK

Margo Bartlett Pesek
Las Vegas Review-Journal
October 5, 2008

The return of cooler months to the desert invites exploration of the sprawling Mojave National Preserve just over the Nevada border in Southern California.

Although the preserve contains few established foot trails, hundreds of miles of old roads and historic trails lead hikers, mountain bikers, cyclists, four-wheelers and equestrians to probe washes, canyons and mountains. Always carry at least a gallon of water per person and extra for your vehicle. Let a responsible person know where you are headed and when you plan to return.

Administered by the National Park Service since 1994, the Mojave National Preserve sets aside a huge portion of the Mojave Desert, the smallest and driest North American desert. The preserve encompasses a rough triangle bordered by U.S. 95, Interstate 40 and Interstate 15, plus an area north of I-15 near Mountain Pass. Many areas of the preserve are less than a three-hour drive from Las Vegas.

These highways provide easy access to the network of 2,200 miles of roads and trails into the interior of the preserve. Visitors can use passenger vehicles safely on major routes through the preserve, but many graded roads and dirt tracks require high clearance vehicles or four-wheel drive.

Before venturing off main roads, consult a good map. Learn about current road conditions at the preserve's information stations in California at Baker, Barstow, Needles, Nipton, Goffs Schoolhouse Museum on Route 66 or the visitor center in the restored Kelso Depot. Built in 1927, the two-story Mission Revival building served train crews and passengers on the Union Pacific.

Access the depot from near Nipton using the Morningstar Mine Road toward Cima and Kelso, the Cima Road from I-15 between Mountain Pass and Halloran Summit or from Baker on Kelbaker Road. The beautiful Kelso Dunes lie a few miles south of the depot. Visitors drive to them and park near the base of the 700-foot mountains of sand. Only foot traffic is allowed on these protected dunes. The soft, shifting sand precludes any defined trail, so it is a slog to the crest.

The Cima Road passes the trailhead to Teutonia Peak, a developed trail. Watch for an informal campsite at Sunrise Rock 10.4 miles south of I-15 on the Cima Road. The four-mile trail begins nearby on the opposite side of the road, cutting through an extensive forest of Joshua Trees, a signature plant of the Mojave.

Between Cima and Kelso, watch for the Cedar Canyon Road turnoff, an access to developed facilities, accessible from I-40 as well. Pavement soon turns to gravel through five flood-prone miles to the junction with Black Canyon Road. Turn south and look for a narrow two-mile road to Mid-Hills Campground, one of two developed campgrounds in the preserve.

Continue south on Black Canyon Road to reach facilities at Hole-in-the-Wall, named for strangely eroded rock formations. Developments include a ranger station, housing for fire crews, an equestrian group campground, a 35-unit RV and tent campground, and two additional walk-in tent sites.

Both campgrounds have tables, fire rings, parking pads, drinking water and centrally located toilets. Fire restrictions may be in force. Plan to use a camp stove for cooking. Camping fees apply, but no entrance fee is charged. Reservations are not accepted, except for the equestrian facilities.

A popular eight-mile trail connects Mid Hills and Hole-in-the-Wall. Hikers, bikers and horseback trail riders often start from Mid-Hills, which sits 1,200 feet higher than Hole-in-the-Wall. They park transport vehicles at the visitor center/ranger station for the ride back, unless they want to do 16 miles roundtrip.

Something for everyone preserved in the Mojave

Trevor Summons, Correspondent
San Gabriel Valley Tribune

"The main difference between a national preserve and a national park is that on a preserve you can hunt, mine and graze," said Anne Maasberg, a visitors use assistant for the last 2 1/2 years. "Providing you have all the right permits, of course."

At the headquarters of the Mojave National Preserve in Barstow, Maasberg and some 30 other staffers help to oversee this huge area of natural beauty, which is toward the eastern end of San Bernardino County.

"The preserve came out of the Organic Act of 1916," she continued. "It was introduced by President Teddy Roosevelt to 'conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein.'"

The size of the preserve is impressive - some 1.6 million acres. But to put it more graphically it covers all the land between the 15 Freeway and the 40 Freeway, from Zzyzx to just about the Nevada State line - a large piece of real estate. In fact, it is the third largest national preserve in the lower 48 states.

"Five or six years ago we added another piece to the preserve, just to the west of Primm," Maasberg said. "It's Clarke Mountain, and it has some unique features like white fir trees. Birders also like it out there very much."

There are a few residents within the area, and visitors are asked to respect their privacy while passing through. But there are no motels inside or gas stations. Being such a wild, open place, you must keep an eye on your water intake and supply, and also be careful not to get lost.

Scenery can look very different with changes of the light and also the direction you may be hiking. Temperatures can go up to 110 degrees in mid-July, so it's hot, hot, hot.

Camping is permitted in designated areas, and there are good sites at Hole-in-the- Wall. Providence Mountains, where the famous Mitchell Caverns are located, is another good site with all the necessary facilities. Costs are $12 per site per night.

As for wild animals, there are plenty. From the American Kestrel flying above to the pretty Kit Fox running below, there are a wide variety of species. Try to spot a Desert Tortoise, or a Bighorn Sheep. There are rattlesnakes, too, and the Colorado Desert Sidewinder, if you look carefully.

There are plenty of wildflowers and plants, too, but don't try and remove any, as it's an offense. The Mojave Yucca is all around - it can reach a height of 20 feet. Also, you'll spot the round barrel cactus plants.

If you're out hiking, or you keep the windows of the car rolled down, you will be able to smell the strongly scented Creosote Bush Scrub. These are said to be among the world's oldest living things, with some colonies in the Mojave Desert being 11,500 years old.

Roughly cutting the preserve in half from east to west is the Mojave Road. It was originally used by American Indians as a trading route before the Europeans arrived. Paiute, Mojave and Chemehuevi Indians guided the Spanish along it in the 1770s, and in the 1860s the U.S. Army improved the road and established outposts for the safety of travelers and supply wagons. The coming of the railroad in the 1890s removed the road's importance and allowed it to settle back into its natural state.

Traffic hurtles along the busy 15 and 40 freeways, and motorists may not be aware that what they are passing is a huge area preserved for everyone's benefit. But if you can make the time, try and stop, get out of the car, and just look at the scenery and listen to the quietness of it all.

BLM people and mustangs join 140-mile Mojave Trail Ride

Outlined against the sky at the top of a ridge are Jason Williams and his mustang Stinger, Doug Gorman on Dot and ride coordinator Josie White

From Issue 328: BLM-California News.bytes Extra

More than 50 riders joined the Norco Mounted Posse for their 23rd Annual Mojave Trail Ride April 6-12th. Among them were Jason Williams, wild horse and burro program compliance officer for BLM-California's Folsom Field Office, and Jo Ann Schiffer-Burdett of BLM's California Desert District Office.

The equestrians started in Baker Camp, Mojave National Preserve, and rode 140 miles in six days along the Mojave Trail to Laughlin, NV. The ride traversed lands in the Mojave National Preserve, and the BLM Needles and Stateline Field Offices.

Six hardy mustangs and their owners did a great job representing the BLM's Wild Horse and Burro program: Jason Williams with Stinger; Folsom Field Office Volunteer Compliance Officers David Miller and Doug Gorman with Dot; U.S. Forest Service packer Davey Eubanks, "Mustang Larry" and Sue Jackson.

Two of the mustang owners -- Doug and Jason -- were on the drag team who helped riders in trouble repair broken cinches and saddles, assisted riders who fell off, and retrieved all of the cell phones, knives, tack, hats, ipods and assorted gear that fell off along the way.

You can see more photos of the event in the original article.

Fort Piute in the Las Vegas Review-Journal

This article was published in the Las Vegas Review-Journal on January 27, 2008.

TRIP OF THE WEEK
Piute Canyon still draws dedicated explorers



by MARGO BARTLETT PESEK
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

The stone ruins of old Fort Piute overlook a spring and vegetation-filled canyon at the eastern edge of the Mojave National Preserve. One of the few sources of reliable water in the Mojave Desert, Piute Spring and its half-mile long stream drew overland travelers for many centuries. Today, the remote site draws only dedicated hikers and back road explorers seeking glimpses of the past.

Visitors approach the canyon and fort on foot, either from the west on roads within the Mojave National Preserve or from U.S. 95 to the east on obscure side roads. Use high-clearance vehicles or those with four-wheel drive.

To reach Piute Canyon from U.S. 95, drive a little more than six miles south of the junction with Highway 163, the road to Laughlin. Watch for a graded road heading west. Follow it about seven miles to a power line road, where you turn north for about a mile and a half. Watch for two rock cairns marking the turnoff onto the canyon road, a very rough track. You may have to park and walk the two miles to the ruins of the 1800s fort near the mouth of the canyon.

Visitors within the preserve follow a graded utility road from the junction of Cedar Canyon Road and Lanfair Road east nine and a half miles to a smaller road leading to a corral. North of the cattle guard, look for rock cairns marking two different foot paths to Piute Canyon, a trip totaling about six and a half miles round-trip. Young people from the California Conservation Corps spent time improving the rough canyon trail last year.

Natives of prehistory visited frequently. Hunters stalked the wildlife attracted to the water and vegetation. Farmers diverted the stream into irrigation channels for their tiny patches of corn, beans, squash and cotton. Seasonally, they gleaned a variety of natural foods and plant products. They left scattered petroglyphs on boulders to mark the importance of the oasis.

The site witnessed a parade led by native groups who established foot trails for long distance trading routes long before the arrival of white settlers. When a Spanish exploration party including Father Francisco Garces ventured into the area seeking a route to the coast in the 1700s, local Mojave and neighboring Chemehueve tribes assisted and accompanied them. The natives met the first exploring fur trappers cordially in the 1820s. Later relations with encroaching whites turned much less hospitable.

The ancient route past Piute Creek carried no stranger travelers than the experimental camel caravan led across the desert in 1857-58 by soldier-surveyor-explorer Edward F. Beale. Camels subsequently served as beasts of burden in arid parts of the West for several decades in the late 1800s, including Nevada.

Although Beale and his camels encountered no hostile natives, an emigrant train across the Colorado River in Arizona was massacred in the fall of 1858. The incident led to the 1859 construction of Camp Colorado, later Fort Mojave, on the river 22 miles east of Piute Canyon. That year, hostiles also attacked a military expedition passing through the canyon. In 1859-60, the army established a chain of redoubts across the Mojave Desert. The first one west of Fort Mojave at Painter [sic] Creek was first called Fort Beale, but later renamed Fort Piute. Outposts to the west about 20 miles apart included forts at Rock Spring and Soda Spring.

Fort Piute housed 18 soldiers and their officers. Ruins of rock-walled buildings, passageways and corrals remain. The thick stone walls contained defensive rifle ports and metal deflecting shields. The larger of two buildings contained three rooms and a fireplace within walls measuring 25 by 60 feet.

The army manned the fort until the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. California Volunteers re-manned it in 1863. Returning in 1866, the army used it through 1868. Later, the post became a relay station for the overland mail where stagecoaches changed horse teams. The steep, rough section of government road through Piute Canyon often put passengers afoot, even the sick or wounded. When steamboats began to ply the Colorado River and railroads finally crossed the Mojave, the centuries-old trail became a nearly forgotten path.

Status of Roads in National Parks

The following article was published in the Los Angeles Times on March 23, 2006.

U.S. Loosens Its Policy on Building Roads in Parkland

The action by the Interior Department, though not legally binding, makes it easier for counties to claim rights of way.

By Bettina Boxall and Julie Cart, Staff Writers
Los Angeles Times

Guidelines issued by Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton on Wednesday will make it easier for counties to lay claim to old trails and closed roads they would like to open across federal lands in the West, including national parks in Southern California.

In one of her final actions before leaving her post next week, Norton issued a policy dealing with right-of-way claims under a Civil War-era law that county officials in several Western states have tried to use to circumvent federal land-use restrictions on motorized access.

Norton's memo gives Interior officials nationwide latitude to grant rights of way to counties and other claimants and even approve road construction and improvements.

For a definitive legal ruling, claimants would still have to go to court. Though the policy does not bar claims in national parks and wilderness areas, Interior officials insisted that land managers would not allow destructive road building or improvements.

"Even if you have a right of way, that doesn't mean you can take a two-track and turn it into a two-lane road," said Dan Domenico, special assistant to Interior's solicitor.

"We still have the duty and obligation to protect federal lands surrounding and underlying the right of way."

But environmentalists said the secretary's guidelines amounted to an invitation to counties and other entities to claim everything from hiking trails to dry stream beds and start using them as roads.

"The barriers to [these] claims have been lowered to practically nothing," said Ted Zukoski, a Denver-based attorney with Earthjustice who was involved in a major court case on the matter. "The bar is so low that it has the effect of telling everyone: 'We're open for business. Make a claim.'

"The controversy is rooted in an 1866 law intended to give miners access to their stakes and cattlemen a way to move their herds by granting them rights of way over federal land. Congress repealed the law in 1976 but allowed claims for routes already in existence.

Claims in national parks and wilderness areas would have to be based on uses in existence before those areas were protected.

In 1997, then-Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt put all but the most pressing claims on hold. But that didn't quiet the controversy.

In Utah, three southern counties asserted their right to control roads and trails within national parks, monuments and other federal land. San Juan County claimed a 10-mile stretch of stream bed in Canyonlands National Park, contending that a rocky trail in Salt Creek Canyon — once open to four-wheel-drive traffic — was a "highway" the National Park Service had no right to close.

The route provides the only vehicular access to Angel Arch, one of the park's most famous geologic formations.

Another claim was made by officials in Kane County for rights of way in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management.

Ruling in a lawsuit that stemmed from the Utah actions, the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals last year said the BLM could recognize local rights-of-way claims but did not have the authority to make final legal determinations.

Citing that ruling, Norton said Wednesday that agencies under her purview — which include the BLM and U.S. Park Service — could recognize rights of way as long as they adhered to state laws.

In San Bernardino County, which has inventoried 5,000 miles of roads and tracks said to be in use on federal lands before 1976, officials said they hoped the new policy would settle at least some of the controversy.

"The county is asserting rights of way . . . to protect the access for county residents and agencies to be able to get where they need to go in the desert," said Brad Mitzelfelt, chief of staff for Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Postmus, whose district includes large federal holdings in the Mojave Desert.

Mitzelfelt said the county would press claims only on the most heavily used routes, not all 5,000 miles. The old roads and trails cross BLM land as well as the Mojave National Preserve, where he said locals have lost access since its creation in the 1990s.

Larry Whalon, the preserve's chief of resources, said expanding the road system and upgrading certain roads would expose remote cultural and historical sites to increased human traffic and potential vandalism. He cited Ft. Paiute, a crumbled adobe Army post, as among the places that would be vulnerable.

"If that road were to be improved, you'd have a lot more easy access, and that could be a problem," Whalon said. "Even though it's been vandalized, it's not been completely ruined."

Utah officials hailed Norton's policy as a way to settle the claims in a more consistent manner.

"We think this memorandum is absolutely appropriate. We think the guidelines make life easy for everybody," said Lynn Stevens, chair of the San Juan County Commission and Utah's public lands policy director. "It creates consistency. That's not to say we don't have issues with aspects of it. But insofar as it embraces the 10th Circuit's decision, we are not opposed to it."

But Mark Squillace, director of the Natural Resources Law Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said the policy created a situation of "legal limbo" because federal agencies would be making right-of-way decisions that weren't binding.

"No one really knows if they will be meaningful," he said.

Los Angeles Times writer travels the Mojave Road

The following article was published in the Los Angeles Times on January 11, 2004.

Mojave milestones

Braving the perils of the historic road -- and nearly succeeding.

By Susan Spano, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times

A bullet-riddled street sign on Old Mojave Road marks a turn near the Piute Range. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Baker, Calif. — Some people love the desert. They love it at 110 degrees with the AC off. They love rusted junk, abandoned mines, sand traps, rattlesnakes, old bones and dry washes. You're pretty sure they're touched until you go there with them, as I did in October with my brother, John.

He'd been wanting to drive the 130-mile Old Mojave Road, a dirt, rock and sand path across Mojave National Preserve that passes landscapes you don't get to see on paved roads. It was the historic route from the Colorado River to Barstow for Native Americans, explorers, stagecoach drivers and the Army.

When the railroad laid tracks to the south, the old road was all but forgotten until Dennis G. Casebier, a Navy physicist from Corona with a passion for desert history, decided it should be re-opened for recreation.

In the early 1980s, the Friends of the Mojave Road, founded by Casebier, mapped, repaired and erected stone cairns along the desert route. But with the creation of the 1.6-million-acre Mojave National Preserve in 1994, the group's custodial role diminished.

Now Casebier has moved on to tending a historic schoolhouse museum in the Mojave Desert hamlet of Goffs and collecting oral histories from people who once lived in the East Mojave Desert. But he still sometimes checks the mailbox his group installed near Kelbaker Road, where people record their passage over the old road. Casebier estimates that several thousand make the trip annually.

One tends to think all deserts are the same, places that get only a scant amount of rain. But in North America there are four kinds: the Great Basin, Sonoran, Chihuahuan and relatively small Mojave, all in Mexico and the U.S. Southwest.

Deer keep their distance at the Mid Hills Campground in the Mojave National Preserve. (Robert Gauthier / LAT)


Sailing the desert in an SUV

The Mojave National Preserve has some of the tallest sand dunes and thickest Joshua tree forests on the continent and, better still, a combination of elements — lava cones, dry lake beds, basin and range topography that make it a kind of desert primer.

If a desert has something to teach, I want to learn. Then too, I like tagging along with John on hiking and backcountry driving trips. He has the skills and gear, although when camping he would eat protein bars for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I didn't bring along some real food. For protection in the wilderness, he takes my grandfather's World War I saber, about as deadly as a papier-mâché prop in an operetta. He pores over maps before setting out and then basically ignores them in order, I think, to give expeditions a sense of discovery and adventure.

John told me this would be a very rough trip — two days of driving and one night of camping — and that I better not wimp out, the way I did a few years ago when I made him turn back on the appallingly rugged road that leads to the Maze District of Utah's Canyonlands National Park.

I rented a beige Ford Expedition with four-wheel drive and left a day ahead of John so I could see a few sights, including Kelso Depot. This desert oasis at Kelbaker and Kelso-Cima roads (two of the paved arteries that cross the preserve) was born with the completion of the railroad between Salt Lake City and L.A. in 1906, when there was considerable mining in the area.

But passenger trains began bypassing the little settlement after World War II. The handsome early '20s Spanish Revival train station, with its restaurant and regal stand of palm trees, was left to molder.

Now the National Park Service is in the final stages of renovating the building as an interpretive center and museum, scheduled to open this summer. It's a good rest stop between visits to the Cinder Cone Lava Beds about 15 miles north and Kelso Dunes to the south.

Then I headed up Kelso-Cima Road, which rounds the south side of gently sloping, astonishingly symmetrical Cima Dome, a 75-square-mile area of volcanic uplift in the wild heart of the preserve. The two-lane highway, often used as a shortcut between Palm Springs and Las Vegas, is straight and flat, paralleling railroad tracks before branching off across the Ivanpah Valley.

The sun was setting in a pink puddle by the time I reached Nipton, on the northeast side of the preserve, with its bushy tamarisks, pint-sized hotel and general store. I chatted with the clerk and drank a soda before heading for the Avi Resort & Casino, on the Colorado River about midway between Needles, Calif., and Laughlin, Nev.

I am not much of a gambler and had never been to the Needles-Laughlin area, where the tamed Colorado River is a bathtub favored by motor boaters and water skiers. But the eastern portal of the Old Mojave Road is near the Avi, which is owned by the Mojave Indians who settled the river's flood plain and helped blaze the trail that became the road.

They led Spanish explorer Father Francisco Garcés across the desert in 1776 and did the same for the American trapper Jedediah Strong Smith in 1826. But eventually, relations turned hostile between newly arriving white people and the Indians. As a result, in the 1860s the U.S. government built a chain of forts along the old desert trail, which by then had become a rump-blistering wagon road carrying supplies and mail.

I doubt the people at the Avi, propped at slot machines with plastic cups full of quarters, were thinking about history. Together with the casino's garish lights and the gorging at the Native Harvest Buffet, they vaguely depressed me, so I went to my room — big, clean, simply furnished, not bad for about $25 on a weeknight — and went to sleep, anticipating a rendezvous the next morning with John, who wasn't able to leave L.A. until after work.

I banged on his door at 9 a.m. and had a map spread out on a table in Avi's Feathers Café when he showed up for breakfast. Our plan was to drive half of the road that day, camp overnight and finish the next day, coming out at Afton Canyon just south of I-15 between Barstow and Baker. Then we would head back to the Avi, where we were leaving John's car, for a dip in the pool, another go at the buffet and beds with clean sheets.

But we were in no hurry, because two days of driving would easily get us over the road, with time to stop and explore such features as Soda Dry Lake on the west side of the preserve. After rainy weather, it becomes a vast, tire-swamping mud flat. When John saw the Expedition, he said it was probably too heavy to make it across the playa, but he cheered up when I told him it was insured for every conceivable mishap.

We packed the water, food and gear John had brought, spent a cool $50 filling the gas tank and set out. The unmarked turn-off west across the desert was about three miles north of the Avi; we found it with the help of Casebier's "Mojave Road Guide," annotated mile by mile. John made me manage the wheel at the beginning, to prove I could do it. Like most novice dirt-road drivers, I tended to take my foot off the gas when we came to sand. But my brother kept saying, "Follow the ruts. Keep going. Don't stop."

Then he cracked open a liter of Coke and yelled out the window, "No problem anyway! We're fully insured!"

That day was a pure desert joy from start to finish. The temperature was about 80 degrees when we left, and the sky was mounded with clouds. A lop-eared jackrabbit jumped out of a nest of creosote, birds tittered, the air smelled like a spice rack.

And, suddenly, everything sharpened up, as it will in the desert, from the yellow rabbitbrush to the brittle Piute Mountains, as if I'd just had Lasik surgery.

About 23 miles west of the Colorado River (using Casebier's distance calculations), we reached Ft. Piute, one of the military redoubts built on the road in the 1860s. It sits in the shadow of Jedediah Smith Butte, above dependable Piute Creek, and once harbored 18 enlisted men of Company D of the 9th U.S. Infantry.

John went looking for Native American petroglyphs in the creek bed while I ate a packaged cheese-and-cold-cut snack on the knee-high stone walls that are the remnants of the fort. Just before we relaunched our Old Mojave Road sortie, he did a saber dance in front of the Expedition with Grandpa's sword.

The setting sun colors the Marl Mountains in the central section of the Mojave National Preserve, about 200 miles northeast of Los Angeles.(Robert Gauthier / LAT)

Mysterious turnoffs

With John driving, we climbed 3,412-foot Piute Pass, infamously rough in the old wagon road days. The view west swoops over the Lanfair Valley, where homesteaders tried to make the Mojave bloom in the early 20th century, to range upon range of desert mountains, separated by basins, in a Western geography lesson.

From there, we tooled across the valley, so thick with Joshua trees you would think they had been propagated. Here and there we saw old stuff scattered over the desert, including a wrecked school bus that made me think of the Beatles' "Yellow Submarine."

There were also mysterious turnoffs that John said could lead to crystal methamphetamine labs. He likes to put me on edge. When I asked if we needed gasoline, he routinely said we were about to run out.

We crossed paved Ivanpah Road at Casebier mile mark 41.7 and caught graded Cedar Canyon Road west to avoid a more treacherous stretch of the Old Mojave Road along Watson Wash. Eventually, we reached Government Holes, where one of the last gunfights in the West took place in 1925. It's a pretty place in the Round Valley, with a windmill and abandoned corral, and we considered making camp. But it was starting to get chilly and there were no windbreaks, so we turned south on Black Canyon Road, heading for Mid Hills Campground in aromatic forests of pinyon pine and juniper.

There we claimed site No. 25, with the preserve's best view of Cima Dome. A fire pit was stocked with wood, left by some friendly earlier camper, and there was a nice flat place for my tent. John set up his cot outside so he could see the stars. We had steak and apples for dinner, talked for a while and then went to sleep.

I slept like a sunken ship and awakened in time for sunrise over Cima Dome.

Another day in the desert ensued, not quite as good as the last. We lost our way, making an unintended detour north toward Death Valley Mine on a track that kept getting fainter and fainter. Finally, we reached the paved Kelso-Cima Road, where there's a little convenience store and post office run by tiny, wizened Irene Ausmus, who came to the Mojave with her husband in the 1960s and refused to sell out when the National Park Service arrived.

It wasn't hard to find the Old Mojave Road again, with Casebier's help. In fact, the road's rutted route can be seen for miles as it pushes west across Kelso Wash and rounds the Beale Mountains, named for explorer Edward F. Beale, who tried to introduce camels to the Mojave in 1857 but had to abandon the experiment because they frightened the horses.

The views north to Cima Dome and south to Kelso Dunes only got better. But just east of Marl Springs, John realized we had a flat, necessitating an hour of hot, dirty work mounting the humongous spare. There was some cursing, after which we decided to get to Kelbaker Road, about 20 miles west, as soon as possible, so we could drive to the town of Baker on I-15.

With the rigors of Soda Dry Lake ahead, it seemed prudent to get the blown tire fixed so we'd have a spare.

In Baker, we stopped at the Park Service information office, where a ranger gave us more bad news. Autumn rains had made passage over the playa dicey. Several vehicles had gotten stuck there recently, languishing for days awaiting rescue as the salt crust of the dry lake corroded their undercarriages.

John wanted to risk it, but the day was more than half gone. Over a lunch of hummus, fried calamari and gyros at the Mad Greek restaurant, I persuaded him to abort and head back to the Avi. So we can't say we drove the whole road. Our names don't appear in the record book at the Old Mojave Road mailbox, which we bypassed in our rush to Baker.

But John plans to return and conquer the playa. Maybe I'll go with him. I'm starting to understand why he loves the desert. Besides, I'd like to see him brandishing Grandpa's saber again.

Rocking and rolling across the Mojave

GETTING THERE:

Mojave National Preserve is about 200 miles northeast of Los Angeles. From L.A., take Interstate 15 northeast to Baker and turn south on Kelbaker Road, or take Interstate 40 east from Barstow and turn north on Kelbaker Road, to reach Kelso Depot, a major historical site in the preserve. The eastern portal of the Old Mojave Road is on Needles Highway about halfway between Needles, Calif., and Laughlin, Nev.

Spring and fall are the best seasons to drive the Old Mojave Road. Consult the Mojave National Preserve or "Mojave Road Guide," by Dennis G. Casebier (Tales of the Mojave Road Publishing Co., Essex, Calif.), for information on how to prepare for the trip.

WHERE TO STAY:

Two campgrounds in Mojave National Preserve, Mid Hills and Hole-in-the-Wall, have drinking water and toilet facilities. Sites are $12 per night. Roadside car camping is also permitted, with restrictions.

Avi Resort & Casino, P.O. Box 77011, 10000 Aha Macav Parkway, Laughlin, NV 89029; (800) 284-2946, http://www.avicasino.com/. This complex on the west bank of the Colorado River has rooms in a new tower or an older poolside building. Doubles start at $19 Sundays to Thursdays, $49 on weekends.

Hotel Nipton B&B, 107355 Nipton Road, HCR-1, Box 357, Nipton, CA 92364; (760) 856-2335, http://www.nipton.com/. This homey desert enclave is on the northeast side of the preserve. It has a general store and five guest rooms with shared baths. Doubles are $69.50, including breakfast.

WHERE TO EAT:

Laughlin and Needles have a range of casino and fast-food restaurants. But if you're driving through Baker on I-15, don't miss the Mad Greek, (760) 733-4354, for serendipitous gyros, souvlaki and fried calamari in the desert. Lunch for two about $20.

TO LEARN MORE:

Mojave National Preserve Headquarters, 222 E. Main St., Barstow, CA 92311; (760) 255-8801, http://www.nps.gov/moja, or the NPS Baker Information Center, 72157 Baker Blvd., Baker, CA 92309; (760) 733-4040.

Mojave Desert Heritage & Cultural Assn., Goff's Schoolhouse, 37198 Lanfair Road G-15, Essex, CA 92332; (760) 733-4482, http://www.mdhca.org/.