The Mojave Road is one of the longest contiguous off-road stretches in the US, and only a few hours from Los Angeles, so the long weekend over President’s day with mild weather, low wind, and still-dry terrain seemed like a great opportunity to give it a go.
The road started off near the town of Fort Mojave north of Needles, CA, along the Colorado River. We arrived to town relatively late, and so only drove about 11 miles of the route before stopping at a beautiful viewpoint for the night. In addition to the lights of the city and sunset over the Mojave (including watching a rocket launch from Santa Barbara), there were lots of little rose-like flowers. Since there was no firepit, we skipped the fire and used signal from the truck to watch a movie, definitely a perk of Tesla!
In the morning, the sky was gorgeous, and we enjoyed a quick breakfast before getting into the meat of the road: Mojave National Preserve. We quickly got to a rocky, tough uphill section that the truck handled well, then rolled through miles of gorgeous desert terrain packed with Joshua Trees, cholla, barrel cacti and more.
The gnarliest section we encountered was a downhill shortly after stretching our legs by the Rock Spring Cabin – for this one, there is video because it felt much better to walk down than ride passenger!
Continuing on, the route rejoined more developed roads for awhile, eventually crossing the paved Kelso Cima road we previously traveled on a prior visit to the area. Travel was slow, over a wavy road, and generally uneventful towards where the road turns off towards Baker.
Because the crossing over Soda Lake was closed, we detoured to Baker for a quick charging top-off, then continued through Rasor OHV area until we reached the famous Afton Canyon area.
In the canyon, the route crosses (or rather is on top of) the mostly but not completely dry Mojave River, leading to an interesting mix of minor water features within “The Grand Canyon of the Mojave.” Unknown to us, the area is also very popular for trainspotting/railfanning and there were a lot of people out to see a big train that came by. For us, it was more enjoyable driving next to the train as the route never cosses on the tracks directly, rather going over and under at various points. Ultimately, the train was faster than us, but as it was very lengthy we got to watch it for quite some time unlike the stationary spotters!
While we intended to camp a second night, we found no adequate spot, and nearing the end of the road anyways around sunset at 5:30pm decided to haul back to Los Angeles and sleep in our own bed, especially as then next day was due to rain which can be tricky in the desert.
The route was interesting at times, though beauty in the desert can be more subtle. There were not many options to get out and walk around sites, which was disappointing and so the trip involved a lot of sitting in the car for all of us, however it proved a unique experience worth doing at least once nonetheless.
Trip type: Car Camping
Distance: N/A
Altitude Gain: N/A
Length: 1 night
2/14-2/15/26