Epic 200 Miles in Mojave Desert - March 2015

[boyfester]

Sorry for the late post but I'm new to this forum. I met up with a Toyota group last March after trying to find someone doing the Mojave Road back in December 2014. There was quite a bit of planning on the organizer's part as he laid out a route for us from Friday to Sunday. There were some mishaps as one party was late and there were a few breakdowns too but all in all, it was a sweet trip. We hit a number of mines along with the Desert Megaphone and Hole in the Wall and Afton Canyon at the end.

We started from Valley Wells off of Interstate 15 and Cima Road.



Greene's Cabin along Yates Well Road


Colosseum Open Pit Mine



View of Ivanpah Solar Farm from Colosseum Mine Road


Benson Mine



Pretty rugged trail (no name) just west of Mineral Hills




Some oddities at Kokoweef (hippie junkyard?)


We were behind schedule since it took a while to meet up with the person who was late from the morning so we had to camp here on Friday night. We had intended to camp further south. This place was great as you can see by the lush surroundings of Joshua trees and open vertical mines.





These vehicles were all adjacent to Standard Mine #1.

 

[boyfester]

More pictures at Standard Mine #1







Evening Star Mine and surroundings





We took off-road all the way to Mojave Memorial Cross at Sunrise Rock.


To make up some time that we lost on Friday, we hit the pavement south along Cima Road, passed through Cima, and proceeded south along Kelso Cima Road until we reached Macedonia Road. This is a beautiful off-road trail that goes the back way into Hole in the Wall. We had to do some digging for the trucks with roof racks. As we were removing my fuel and water tanks and having guys on the back bumper to lower it further, a train came flying over. We didn't see a train all day so it was pretty spectacular to be where we were at the time.





The visitor center at Hole in the Wall. This is a cool place! We had lunch here and went on the 2 mile Ring Loop hiking trail.





Next, we headed southwest to our second campsite.

 

[boyfester]

Before reaching our next campsite, we headed over to Bonanza King Mine. This was large enough to drive into, like the Reward Mine, but we opted to walk it instead. It wasn't very long after all.










We reached our campsite for the night at Vulcan Open Pit Mine. This was closed off but there was no way foreseeable to drive into it anyway.


I actually took this picture right around 3/14/15 9:26:53PM so my kids' kids will know where their grandparents were when they celebrate Pi Day 100 years from now.


The next day we headed west towards Kelbaker Road and would go around the northeast side of the Kelso Dunes before taking a left at Kelso Depot and follow the railroad tracks west. As you can see from the second picture, I suffered a flat on my truck and had to break out the steel rimmed fullsize. I noticed it the night of Pi Day but was too hammered on some homemade apple pie moonshine to do anything about it. Unfortunately it was on the inner sidewall and couldn't be plugged.



This is the Kelso Depot. We didn't stop to see the inside unfortunately.



The next mishap involved Sean's A-arm nut coming off along with his cam washer. The bolt was half way out but his aftermarket front bumper prevented it from coming out all the way. Unbelievably someone found a nut in their spare parts that was an exact fit. We cut some spacers from extra metal we had and he was on his way again. It also sure was nice to have a former Toyota technician of 9 years on the trip too!



The Desert Megaphone - What is it? Why is it there? How did it get there? I believe it's a gift from Mr. Edward Leedskalnin. Don't know who this gentleman is? Look him up.



While driving along the railroad tracks we were passed by a train. We decided to get ahead of it and magically turn a nickle into a 50 cent piece.


Magic!!!

 

[boyfester]

As we exited the Mojave Preserve, we entered Afton Canyon where the Mojave River is above ground.












This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip!



As with all wheeling trips, I met some new people and had a great time. I'm really looking forward to the next one!


My adventure didn't end there though as traffic in the Cajon Pass from the Hwy 138 to the 15/215 split encouraged me to exit on the 138 and take Santa Fe Road south along the railroad tracks. There are no "do not enter" signs or "private property" signs anywhere and so I took it. This is a great short-cut as the off-road reenters pavement at the end of Cajon Road. You then take pavement all the way to the 15/215 junction, thereby avoiding at least 7 miles of traffic.


The route in blue is the route I took. The area circled in red at the end is a wooded section complete with an unnamed stream running along it.

 

[1leglance]

amazingly cool trip and huge thanks for giving me ANOTHER place to go in the Mojave...
As much as I try to stay out of California I keep finding these reasons to come by from Arizona

 

[4runner168]

This makes me doubt myself whether I rode the Mohave trail or not on my dirt bike. I did not see 95% of what you saw. Epic and cool ride for sure! Did you happen to have the tracks for this? I'd like to try and follow it really cool waypoints you found.

 

[1leglance]

Me too me too
gps tracks, waypoints, notes anything to help me find all this cool stuff

 

[PetitFrereArmada]

Wow, nice trip.

 

[Ace Brown]

I did the Mojave Road in April '14 and missed much of what you described and photographed. Hope to do it again soon and spend more time exploring stuff along the trail. Thanks for a great report and leads to some cool stuff to find.

 

[r_vdb]

Cool trip pictures...

 

[toyotech]

Nice write up. I was there for this trip and it was awesome. This is what my GPS tracker tracked. Tracker must have turned off at times due to gaps.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Crom]

Nice pics and trip report!

 

[DVD]

Great trip and great report. As others have said, this makes me realize once isn't enough for this trip. Look forward to getting back there.

 

[pmatusov]

Fantastic report and photos, thanks!

 

[boyfester]

This makes me doubt myself whether I rode the Mohave trail or not on my dirt bike. I did not see 95% of what you saw. Epic and cool ride for sure! Did you happen to have the tracks for this? I'd like to try and follow it really cool waypoints you found.

How do I attach GPS tracks to this forum? I have them but don't know how to upload.