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The Mojave Road REF: San Berdoo County Auto Club map. Milepost locations (MP) are approximate distance from the Rio Colorado. WHAT IT IS The Mojave Road was the white man's first route between Arizona and the Pacific coast, following an old Indian trail. In 1776, the Spanish Missionary Francisco Garces became the first non-Indian to follow the trail. In 1826, Jedediah Smith was the first white man to reach the California coast from mid-America. Forts were built along the trail at one-day-travel intervals to protect travelers at night from the Indians, beginning with Fort Mojave on the east side of the Colorado River, then Fort Piute, Rock Springs, Marl Springs, Seventeen Mile Point, Soda Springs, The Caves (in Afton Canyon), and Camp Cady. The miliary wagon road was in service between 1859 and 1883 until the Southern Pacific completed the railroad between Barstow and Needles (now the BNSF). HOW TO GET THERE Go to Barstow and head east on I-40 toward Needles. Exit on the River Road just west of Needles and head north. The Mojave Road intersects the River Road about 12 miles north of I-40. GAS AND SUPPLIES Gas up before you drive the Mojave Road - it's 125 miles long, and the sandy roads suck up gas. Once you hit the Interstate on the west end of the Mojave Road, you have maybe 30 miles to go to find gas. You can get gas/supplies in Needles and Laughlin. Your cell phone works on the Mojave Road, but sometimes spotty. Take a shovel, tow cable, fusees for lighting campfires, and a half-gallon of Baccardi. THE MOJAVE ROAD OK, pull out your Auto Club map. Locate Laughlin and Bullhead City on the Colorado River on the right side of the map. Look downstream, south of the S in the river - on the Nevada (west/left) side of the river, locate the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation - that 2.9-mile road heading west from the Colorado River is the Mojave Road. You can pick it up where it crosses the River Road. OFF ON A TANGENT - CAIRNS First, a word about cairns (pronounced like the name Karen, but with less "e" sound). Cairns are usually a pile of rocks, 1-3 feet high, placed at intersections/decision points. Where the Mojave Road crosses sand dunes and there's no rocks available, cairns are made of sticks, boards, telephone poles. Normally, you won't go too far without seeing a cairn. Even if you're driving third in the pack, watch for the cairns - they're easy to miss (they can be hidden in overgrown weeds or bushes). The Mojave Road usually follows the intuitive route, but not always. CONTINUING ON THE MOJAVE ROAD Using your Auto Club map, locate where the Mojave Road crosses the River Road (MP 3) (on your Auto Club map, the Mojave Road crosses on a straight section of the River Road). Turn left and head west up the sandy wash with bushes and small trees - watch for cairns to confirm you're actually on the Mojave Road. You'll be driving thru some stands of Smoke Trees - they have blue/gray tops and almost look like wisps of smoke from a distance (the Indians enjoyed their peyote). While winding up the wash, there's a handful of decision points - watch for them damned cairns. Somewhere up that first wash, watch for the Mojave Road bailing out of the wash to the right. If you miss the turn, you'll drive into a dead end. You'll crest at the top of the ridge and have a killer view of wide, long Piute Valley in front of you, and the Colorado River Valley to the rear. You'll head down into wide Piute Valley, cross Highway 95 (MP 14.3) - watch for sometimes busy highway traffic - and continue west. The Mojave Road crosses Piute Wash (MP 16.5) at the bottom of the valley, then heads slowly uphill into the Piute Range. Up in a canon, at the end of the road, are the ruins of Fort Piute (MP 23.5) and Piute Sping. There's half-walls of the fort and some good reading. And yep, the springs will have water with water cress growing in the water. To continue, you have to backtrack on the Mojave Road - head east a couple miles until you get to a hi-power powerline road which crosses the Mojave Road - turn right/south and follow the powerline road about 1.5 miles. Watch for a long, straight AT&T right-of-way road - you're going to turn right/west on that road and head up the hill into a canyon. Once you get into the canyon, watch the right/north wall for some good rock formations/colors. Once you crest the hill (MP 31), you'll have killer views of Lanfair Valley ahead/west, and from where you came, to the east. An excellent place to crack another beer and take a squirt. Watch your speed while passing thru Lanfair Valley - there's a few gotchas, but nothing fatal (a few years ago, one of our guys put a truck on its roof while driving a little too fast). The Mojave Road crosses back and forth over the AT&T road - I'm going to take you on the higher-speed AT&T road. The Mojave Road is much slower and not too thrilling here. From where you crested the hill into Lanfair Valley, continue on the AT&T road west until you T at the Ivanpah Road (the Auto Club map doesn't show a T, but it's there). Turn left/south on Ivanpah, and watch for a quick right/west onto Cedar Canyon Road. Cedar Canyon is hard packed, graded and two lanes wide. This road has several unannounced gotcha curves - more gotchas the farther west you go. If you can find it, watch for a left-hand spur which leads to Rock Spring - the turn is located where the Mojave Road crosses a deeper/wider wash in Lanfair Valley (MP 50). If you find Rock Springs - walk up the canyon to the springs. On the south/left side of the canyon hear the springs, watch for some graffiti (10-15' above the sand) written by one of the soldiers stationed there 100+ years ago. Also, there's some Indian petroglyphs on a round rock near the canyon opening, on the left/south side. OFF ON A TANGENT - CAMPING In the winter, I wouldn't camp in Lanfair Valley - elevations there range from 4,000 to 5,300, and it can get butt cold at night. Where ever you camp, you'll see the light pollution of Vegas in the sky 70 miles to the northeast. There IS firewood out there, but it's hard to find and not legal to pick up (for the record). An unsexy solution for firewood are those Presto fireplace logs - get them by the 12-log case at most markets, Home Depot, etc. You'll want/need fire at night. Providing that it isn't storming in the distance, a wash provides a good place to camp. The soft sand has lots of clear areas, easy for digging your firepit, easy to sleep on, no rocks to trip over, etc. Also, wash camping is environmentally good - you can easily cover the firepit with sand the next morning and when the next flash flood comes along, it wipes everything clean. CONTINUING ON THE MOJAVE ROAD Still heading west on Cedar Canyon. Once you start down outta Lanfair Valley (MP 56), watch for a gotcha curve or two. Cedar Canyon will turn into crappy pavement (MP 61) and continue about 2 miles down to an unprotected UP Railroad crossing, then a stop sign at the Kelso-Cima Road (MP 62.5). OFF ON A TANGENT - VIEWAGE While coming down outta Lanfair Valley on Cedar Canyon (MP 56), look to the south/left for the 1,500-foot high Kelso Dunes (on the Kelso-Cima Road, Kelso is 20 miles to the left - you can see a silver water tower, Cima is 5 miles to the right, at the top of the hill). Also watch for a squiggly road heading west - that's the Mojave Road and a "fun" section is coming up. If you look to your right/north, you can see the Cima Dome - a dome-shaped feature covered with Joshua Trees. CONTINUING ON THE MOJAVE ROAD Stop and read the placque on the west side of the Kelso-Cima Road before continuing west on the Mojave Road. This next section will be slow and painful - there's a gazillion 1-2" deep water grooves across the Mojave Road for the next few miles. I had to do it, you have to do it. In about 8 miles, watch for a left-hand spur offa the Mojave Road (at the base of a hill, about 3/4 mile after you cross under a wooden power pole line) to Marl Springs (MP 70.6). There's a cattle tank full of clear water at Marl Springs (not visible from the Mojave Road). After Marl Springs, you'll have to back-track to get back on the Mojave Road, then follow it in a northwest direction, slowly climbing a hill. OFF ON A TANGENT - VIEWAGE You'll know when you hit the crest of the hill (MP 73) - there's a killer 360 view, and a great spot for another coldie and a piss. Excellent views of the Kelso Dunes, the New York and Providence Mountains and Cima Dome (home of the world's largest stand of Joshua Trees, thank you very much). CONTINUING ON THE MOJAVE ROAD Continue west on the Mojave Road - watch for the volcanoes and lava flows on the right - also watch for the Mojave Road Mail Box (MP 74.5) - a place to stop and sign in and crack another beer. While proceeding west down the hill, watch for ultra-sharp, black volcanic rocks poking out of the sandy road - they can/will take out your tires. Follow the Mojave Road the best you can, but ultimately you're in a wash and you just have to pick your own way - follow the most tracks. Staying in the sand wash, you'll eventually intersect with the paved Kelbaker Road (MP 85.7). Turning right on the paved road will take you to Baker (gas, supplies); turning left will take you to Kelso (nada). To continue on the Mojave Road, cross the Kelbaker Road (MP 85.7) and proceed into the wash, slowly rounding the mountain counter-clockwise at Seventeen Mile Point (MP 88.2). Watch for cairns. Once you've rounded the mountain, the Mojave Road continues on a straight track (MP 89) down the hill toward Soda Lake (MP 97). Cross over a cattle guard getting onto the lakebed. MOTHERLY ADVICE ABOUT SODA DRY LAKE Soda Lake is not always dry: when the lake's dry, it's white-colored; when it's wet, it's dark brown colored. We tried crossing the lake once when it was wet, and ended up leaving a Toyota 4x4 out there for a week, buried to the frame. We know it's fun to play in the mud, but if you drive onto the lake and your tires start throwing mud, I'd strongly suggest that you turn around and abort the lake part of the Road (your bail-out road is on the immediate east side of the lake running north toward Baker). Also, there's temptation to drive a hundred miles an hour out there - watch out for a few, unannounced, couple-foot-deep ruts, mostly around the middle of the lake. CONTINUING ON THE MOJAVE ROAD It's about 10-12 miles across Soda Lake - the cairns out there are steel fence posts. About 3/4 of the way across the lake, there's a big-ass cairn (MP 101) - a good place to stop and enjoy a beer. When you arrive on the west side of the lake (MP 102.5), watch for the Mojave Road to make a sharp turn to the right/north. After maybe 100 yards, the Mojave Road makes a hard left/west into some soft sand. Proceeding west, you'll cross a graded dirt road after a coupla miles - this is Raser Road (MP 104.5) and it hooks up to I-15 where there's an overpriced gas station. Also, watch for dirt bike cross traffic - this is an open RV area. Ultimately, you'll drop down through Shaw Pass (MP 107), a short, steep, rocky section into a sand duney area (the Mojave River Flood Plain). The Mojave Road zig zags a little, so watch for rock cairns. As the dunes get bigger, the rock cairns are replaced with telephone poles and boards - watch for them. The largest mountain straight ahead is Cave Mountain - the Mojave Road runs to the left/south of Cave Mountain and under the first of three Union Pacific Railroad trestles (MP 115.5). Once you've passed under the first trestle, you're in Afton Canyon. Afton is about six miles long and sort of a mini Grand Canyon with lotsa colorful rock formations. You have the option of following the Mojave Road in the flat, sandy canyon bottom, or you can bail to the UPRR maintenance road which parallels the train tracks. Just above the first/lower trestle, watch for a partially-buried boxcar on the north/right side of the canyon at the base of the tracks. Look for a set of railroad wheels sticking out of the sand about 20 feet upstream from the boxcar. There could be some water in the canyon, but it generally poses little threat for swallowing vehicles. Watch for potentially heavy railroad traffic while in the canyon. You'll pass under three railroad trestles while in the canyon - once you hit the third (MP 122), you'll see the Afton Canyon campground on the north side of the berm. Go there, or don't. THE FUN IS OVER Take the graded dirt road up the hill/north out of the campground - this will take you to I-15, five miles away. Cross over the Interstate and turn left for a 40 mile drive to Barstow. Go home. Your life is once again pathetic. |