Mojave Road
Mojave National Preserve (Needles to Barstow corridor) · near Needles (east end) · Barstow (west end) · Baker (nearest services) · California Desert
Off-Road
At a glance
- Skill level
- intermediate
- Size
- 138-mile point-to-point route · No services for the entire route
- Best season
- October–April · No shade on the route · No services — bring fuel for 200+ miles
Permits and booking
- Permit
- No permit for the Mojave Road itself. Mojave National Preserve has no entry fee. Dispersed camping free along most of the route. Developed campgrounds at Mid Hills and Hole-in-the-Wall require a fee (~$15/night, first-come). Military training area: portions near Fort Irwin may be closed — check with preserve headquarters.
What is here
- Terrain
- overland · desert-wash
Worth knowing
- Good for a first timer
- No
Off-Road detail
- Nickname
- The 138-Mile Historic Overland Route
- Vehicles
- 4x4-jeep · overland
- Signature routes
- Soda Lake Crossing · Kelso Dunes (side trip) · Fort Piute / Piute Spring
- Intl tip
- The Mojave National Preserve is one of the least-visited units in the National Park System despite being between Los Angeles and Las Vegas on I-15. Most travelers pass it at 80mph without knowing what's inside. The preserve has no entrance fee, and the combination of the Mojave Road, Kelso Dunes, and the Cima Dome Joshua tree forest makes for one of the finest desert experiences in the American Southwest.
The guide
The Mojave Road follows a route that Native Americans, Spanish missionaries, and American settlers used to cross the Mojave Des…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Mojave Road — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 34.7975, -115.6094