The Mojave Road is the dotted line. We intend to drive it from Fort Mojave to a point just off the left side of the map. A good guess is that the map is somewhere between 80 and 90 miles across.

[1] (by the purple arrow) the exit that you get off for the meet point
[2] (purple x) approximate point of where Gerry and I will be camping the nigt before.
[3] Photo (By Soda Springs) on the Soda Lake Bed
[4] Photo In Afton Canyon
 

These 4 pictures were taken between US 95 and Marl Springs (I think--I wish I had kept the photos in order...). And yes, I was on the only Rover on the trip.

Photo Pickup and desert Valley
Photo Road through vegitation
Photo Samari in washy area
Photo Samari navigates "tough" spot (not really, but I couldn't think of a better description)

 

The Plan

• Meet at campsite [2] in the evening of 29 December (Friday) (For those who want to camp.
• Meet in Needles (near the western most exit of the 3 Needles exits--possibly named River Road) before 10am on the 30th. (We leave at 10am. If Gerry or I don't know that you are coming, I can't know to leave a message or wait).
• Drive up to Fort Mojave and start
• Have fun, camp when we want to and take any interesting sidetrips.
• Get to the end by noon or so on 1 January.
• We will be monitering CB channel 7.

Neccessary Supplies

• Gas for the trip. I heavily suggest bringing an extra 5 gallons. The road is 120 miles long and will be stop and go driving.
• Water. Bring a few gallons. There will be nowhere to get fresh water
• Food. Bring your own and a means to cook it.
• Appropriate clothing/shelter/sleeping arrangements. This is the desert in the winter. It gets below freezing at night. In Ridgecrest we're getting down to 20 degrees F at night. It might rain/snow.
• Bathrooms. There are none. Bring whatever supplies you need.
• Good attitude.
• Beer/Champaign/other. Bring it if you want it. (how else will we toast the new year).
• Firewood. If you want a fire, bring wood. There is none to scavange in the desert.

The Road

For the most part we will be on unimproved dirt roads. When I drove the Mojave Road last Spring we had 5 vehicles, I was the only Land Rover and one was Ford Ranger 4x2. I did not find any of the road challenging (dry conditions--this could change as December/January is the "rainy" part of the year), and the only time 4WD was needed was in some soft sand near the end. If you weren't careful, you could scratch your Rover on the local flora. The Mojave Road is about 121 miles long on the part that we will drive. And when I did it, it took 48 hours (noon to noon) at a *very* slow pace (with a sidetrip).

 

 

Maps can be obtained from the BLM and the Mojave Road is clearly marked on them. I can supply names for USGS maps if anyone asks. (BLM maps are: Needles, New York Mountains, Irwin and maybe Johnson. They sell for $4 each.) There is a BLM office in Needles. The Ridgecrest office is open from 7:30am to 4 or so pm, I would expect similar hours for the Needles office

 

Little (legal type) details

• This is in the traditional form of the Mendo Recce Not-A-Rally. No one is planning this. Noone is taking resposibility. This is a travel at your own risk trip. All this information is in the form of Ben is taking a neat trip an posting his itinerary ahead of time. If anyone chooses to take the same route at the same time, then that's ok, but I'm not responsibly for anyone other than myself.
• I can be contacted by email at bens@vislab.navy.mil, but I will be away from email from 22 Dec until 28 Dec.
• Gerry Elam can be contacted at GElam30092@aol.com
• As of now, I know of 5 Land Rovers that are planning on coming (2 D90s, a Stage I, a SIII 88" and a Disco. I have 3 maybees. This should be a fun trip

Gory Details

• Meet in Needles, California--10am Saturday

  (On the I-40 by the Arizona/California boarder). Needles has 3 exits, get off at the northern most one. (the first one if you are coming from the east.) (34d 51.6'N, 114d 37.5'W) as you come off the ramp from east bound there are gas stations to your left. We'll meet there. (Needles is a small town anyway). Get there before 10am on Saturday the 30th. (This exit might be named River Road)

• Camp Site for Friday night

  In this vein it would be a good idea to actually get out there Friday night. So I'm planning on camping in the desert north of Needles Friday night. A lot of the area north of Needles is a wilderness, except one wash. That's where I'll be. To get to the wash take River Road north from the exit we are meeting near. 8.0 miles north of I-40 (34d 58.5', 114d 40.5') take a left at a rock cairn (that's what the BLM map says). This road is only 3 miles long and I'll be somewhere obvious. I'll try to leave "Mendo Recce Land Rover" signs at the start of River Road and at the turn off. (This has the potential to be a disaster for meeting up, hence the defined meet on Saturday).

• To start of the Mojave Road

  The road actually starts a bit north of the turn off to the camping wash. 6.4 miles from the wash turnoff River Road crosses into Nevada. 1.0 miles later the Mojave Road crosses River Road. We go right 3 miles to the colorado River to where the Mojave Road river crossing. And our adventure begins.

• Mojave Road (All lat/long was measured from a map so may have erros)

  Colorado River to
  River Road: 3.0 miles (35d 3.0'N, 114d 40.5'W)
  Cross US 95: 11.0 miles (35d 6.7'N, 114d 50.0'W)
  Piute creek: 8.8 miles (32d 11.6'N, 114d 59.1'W)

  (trail ends here for 4x4 use we look around and then backtrack 1.8 miles to MH 121 (35d 11.6N, 114d 57.2'W), a graded dirt road, take that south 1.8 miles until we meet the powerline road (35d 5.3'N, 114d 57.2'W), MH238, (which is a straight as an arrow dirt road across the desert). We continue west on MH238 for about 4.0 miles, turn right and rejoin the Mojave Road as it exits the top of Piute Creek drainage.

  Cross Ivanpah Rd: 10.4 miles (35d 8.3'N, 115d 11.2'W)
  To Rock Spring: 8.2 miles (35d 9.2'N, 115d 19.7'W)

  At rock spring we get on the Ceder Canyon Road (graded dirt except the last 2.2 mile is Macadam)

  Cross Kelso-Cima Road: 11.3 miles (35d 10.5'N, 115d 31.0'W)
  To Marl Spring: 8.2 miles
  Cross Atkins Way: 9.0 miles
  To meet Kelbaker Road: 6.3 miles
  On Kelbaker Road (paved): 0.5 miles
  To edge of Soda Lake (dry): 11.0 miles
  Cross Rasor Road (dirt): 7.4 miles
  Cross Basin Road (dirt): 9.4 miles
  To Afton Canyon Road: 7.0 miles
  On Afton Canyon Road to I-15 (paved): 3.0 miles
  
  We can continue down the wash, but that might not be passible.
   

  Help, I missed the starting meeting at 10am or have to leave early

  • So if you want to join the trip, but come hell or high water have to be back on 2 Jan (Tue) and have a long drive on 1 Jan, there are lots of places for you to bail out and head home.
    
     
  • If you are running late an miss us:
    1. the Mojave Road crossing of US95 is 12 miles up from the Arrowhead junction exit off of 1-40.
    2. To get to the Ivanpah Rd crossing: take Goff Rd exit from I-40 and go Northeast. 11.0 miles there is a left turn (Lanfaird Rd)--Goff road turns eastish near here. Take Lanfaird 17 miles to Mojave Road. 6.1 miles before you cross Cedar Canyon Road, the pavement ends. 1.0 miles after crossing Ceder Canyon Road, you will cross the Mohjave Road.
    3. Kelso-Cimo Rd crossing. Get off I-40 at Kelbacker road. GO northish on this road for 23.2 miles to Kelso. Take Kelso-Cima road 14.0 miles to the Mojave Road crossing.
  • I'd I know that people are planning on coming, and haven't arrived when we leave, I can leave messages in the sand at major road crossings in the form of "MRLR 1234h" for 1234am. That way someone can know if we crosseda certain road or not.

  
  
  Last updatad 20 December 1995