Mojave Road 11/22

[smritte]

Another great camping trip to the desert.
This trip was to the Mojave Road. We started with six vehicles and the trip was planned for four days Starting in Laughlin and ending in Afton Canyon. Due to people needing to go to work on Tuesday, we cut the last night out and exited about the 3/4 mark. This actually worked out well because a huge wind storm came in Monday afternoon. I was going to spend a few more nights out there but that killed it.


I had opted for a hotel on Friday night. This is mostly out of habit. Normally when I lead this trip I get people coming in from up north and this gives them a place to freshen up before the trip. This time, everyone else camped at Balancing Rock. I drove out to meet them early Saturday morning.
I didn't get a picture of the Friday night camp but someone sent me a picture of an intruder they had trying to steal food.


Desert Fox's are fairly common and don't seem to be too scared of us.

We headed out about 10am with the first stop being lunch at Fort Piute. The road there dead ends at the fort so you dive up then back out. There's two areas on the Mojave Road where the road beats you up and the route in and out of the fort is one. The road is covered with rocks ranging from four to six inch diameter making it a slow drive. Again, I failed to get a couple of pictures.
Leaving Fort Piute around 1pm, we would normally drive through Piute Canyon. The last big rain storm managed to wash out the road and we had to go around the outside of the mountain. The route took us about 30 mins out of the way but the drive was smooth in a narrow sand wash. Our next stop is Indian Well. Its a bit off the route but is well worth the detour

.
This first Pic is the well. I met someone here years ago and he told me when he was young, the water flowed freely from the spring. Right now the hole is about 10 foot down. The area around the spring is also covered with petroglyphs.

Leaving Indian well, we made our way to the Penny Can Tree. Not sure of its history but I have heard everything from toll road to someone just hung a can and named it. In the pic, the can is in the far background. Kind of hard to see,



The daytime temperature was running in the mid 60's with a few high cloud's. I did get a few windshield pictures on the drive to camp. The picture doesn't show what I see properly. The sun makes the cactus thorns glow bright white.


Weather was 65 degrees and no wind. Interesting how the windshield gave the picture on the right a green tint.

Pulled into camp around 3:30 pm. This is one of my favorite spots. Its called Caruthers Corral. It can easily hold 20 rigs and is flat. Its less than a mile off the route.

Camp.



Cant be desert camping without a sunset pic.

Night time brought a low of 28 degrees. I have another thread here on my DIY propane fire pit. I need to update the thread. The fire pit here is probably version 4.26. A challenge I'm working on is, propane doesn't like cold. Once it really cools off, the bottle ices and the flame goes way down. This version has a warming blanket. The flame didn't get much lower than in the following pic but I need another heating element and I think it will be good. We couldn't have a wood fire here. There's a fire restriction in the preserve. This is one of the reasons for the project.



Next day had us heading out to the artist cabin, government hole and Hole in the Wall for lunch. Here one of the vehicles will be heading home.
Its hard to get good pictures at hole in the wall. Its a couple of narrow slot canyons formed by lava. The gas bubbles made holes in it like swiss cheese. There's a very narrow drop off with two ring ladders to climb down. Again I cant seem to do this place justice with a camara.


Leaving there about 2pm, our next stop would be Kelso trail station. The station is a museum and closed during Covid. Still waiting for it to reopen.
Hmm. Need to make part two. Reached my file limit.

 

[smritte]

Ok part two
Left Hole in the wall about 2pm and arrived into camp around 3pm. Here we were allowed a wood fire. I still prefer a good wood fire to a propane one any day. Night was low 40's. The sudden warming trend normally means "here comes the wind". Fortunately, there was only a slight breeze.




Another desert sunset.
We broke camp about 10 am and headed out. Our next stop was the Mojave mailbox. Weather still nice, temp was upper 60's. Somehow I didn't get a pic of the mail box. I'll have to see if someone can send me one and I'll add it in. I did get pictures of the Frog Shrine and the Gnome Shrine. Something I noticed when we were walking to the shrines. The area was a bit more trampled than normal. The frog shrine was a bit smaller than normal and the Gnome shrine was almost completely gone. That sucks. Normally each has over 50 frogs or gnomes.



The Frog Shrine is small and I guess people don't understand what this is. There were ducks, dinosaur, lizards and an alligator. Oh and money? Sigh
There's actually four Gnomes here, the other two are in the tree. I have pictures of this going back easy ten years. Everyone knew where the mail box was but you had to find the shrines. A couple of years ago, people started one for jeeps, misc junk and barbie's. Then someone turned the barbie one into a brothel. That angered someone in park service and they came out and removed everything but the Frogs and Gnomes. The removal of the Gnomes makes me believe someone did something stupid again. Sometimes people just suck.

Leaving here we headed out wo the Lava Tube. The drive was still nice and we should get there about lunch time.
Another windshield pic.


Lava tube is a tunnel in the lava rock with a metal stair going down and three holes in the roof. If you go there at the right time of year, you can throw dust and make a light beam. Here's a pic from a previous trip. I haven't figured out what time of year is best but this is close.

If this is done at the correct time of year, the beam hits the floor and looks real cool. Heres a pic from this trip.



We had lunch here and headed out to the main road. After airing up we were headed toward Baker to refuel about 2:30 ish. The closer we got the more the wind blew. This was my deciding factor to head home with everyone else. I fought a strong wind all the way home and arrived about 5pm.
Over all a great trip and cant wait until my next one.

 

[smritte]

Hmm
Seems I forgot some pic's

In order of travel. Rock spring, Artist Cabin (rock cabin) and Government Hole. These were during Day two.

 

[Dirt Dude]

What an adventure!!! Thank you for sharing. I was just telling a friend who is getting into overlanding about how much fun it is going on trips like this with a group. So much fun.

 

[Todd C]

Lava tube looks like something torn out of the Indiana Jones movie! Great photos, and thanks for sharing!!

 

[smritte]

Lava tube looks like something torn out of the Indiana Jones movie! Great photos, and thanks for sharing!!

If you can figure out the right time of year. That's exactly what it looks like. The sun has to be at the right angle. The only time I haven't tried it is summer.

 

[Brad Clark]

Looks like a good time. Now most of those buildings you come across, are you able to go in them?

 

[smritte]

Some. There's a few people maintain off the beaten path you can stay in. The one in the picture is closed because its on a main road. Last spring someone kicked the doors in and vandalized it.

 

[Marion Carter]

I'm surprised that curious little fox allowed you so close to take the photo. Did he try to take your shoes?

 

[Foxtrot Whiskey]

Have you done the Mojave road and come across snow?

 

[Tom Scherb]

That cave is something. So are you heading out with generally the same group of friends? We have been trying to get a larger group heading out here. So tough to get everyone together. Thanks for sharing!

 

[smritte]

Have you done the Mojave road and come across snow?

Some parts have a bit of elevation. I had it snow on me one run I believe was around new year. Once in a while I get rain but mostly its pretty mild. I try to avoid the area if I see a temp change. Cold-warm, warm-cold normally means wind. This last trip, it started warming up and the wind picked up on the last day.

That cave is something. So are you heading out with generally the same group of friends? We have been trying to get a larger group heading out here. So tough to get everyone together.

There's about a dozen people in the group. Depending on when and where the trips will be any number of them. I think we may have had everyone on a couple of day trips but normally we end up with six rigs average.

 

[RoarinDave]

So much fun, that's living

 

[Pro Drywall]

I need to take more photos on my trips. Well that and your story telling, brings us right there. Thanks for sharing!

Whens your next trip?