Mojave Lava Tube
Mojave National Preserve · near Baker · California Desert
Hiking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- easy
- Route type
- out-and-back
- Distance
- 0.6 miles
- Elevation gain
- 150 ft
- Time needed
- day
- Best season
- Oct–Apr (late morning for the light beams)
Permits and booking
- Permit required
- No
- How the permit works
- Free NPS; access via Aiken Mine Road (dirt). Leashed dogs allowed.
- How hard the permit is to get
- 0 of 5
What is here
- Features
- Collapsed lava tube · Skylight 'god-ray' light beams · Metal-ladder entry · Cinder-cone lava field
Worth knowing
- Dogs
- Allowed
- Good for a first timer
- No
Hiking detail
- Intl tip
- Bring a headlamp and time your visit for late morning on a sunny day when the light beams are strongest. Watch your head on the entry ladder.
The guide
A tiny hike to a big payoff: a short ladder drops you into a collapsed lava tube where midday sun spears through ceiling skylig…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Mojave Lava Tube — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 35.21378, -115.7532