Off to Vegas for a celebration of our good friend Kay Passa’s 30th, but of course my best possible route to Sin City involves an extra three days zig-zagging through Mojave National Preserve by dirt track. Monsoon season has come late to the Mojave Desert this year, and has so far been somewhat disappointing for folks like us that are actually seeking thunderstorms. Still, the trip was well worth it and the clouds were beautiful…
We also made a stop by Kelso Depot to visit The Beanery, and a short visit at the still-missing Mojave Cross. The Beanery, once the lunch room at the Kelso Depot, is once again serving food to hungry travelers. The smoothies alone are worth a detour. The food is ok… not great, but it beats a sack lunch.
After lunch, we headed up to-and-around Clark Mountain, the small island of the preserve located north of Interstate 15. I had never visited this area before, and had no idea just how high this mountain rises above the surrounding desert. After a long, steep climb we were rewarded with these views:
We then visited the Colosseum Mine, a large flooded pit mine just east of the mountain. It is the pictures of this mine I stumbled across a couple years ago that first tipped me off to this forgotten segment of the preserve. On arrival at the mine, we were pleasantly surprised to find the gate wide open, a welcome relief as I was not looking forward to the long hike to the bottom in the heat.
Here’s a picture of Dani I took from the bottom in a vain attempted to capture the scale of this giant hole in the ground…
The trek around the northern edge of the mountain was no less rewarding, treating us with a beautiful sunset and glowing rain showers. We were also able to note the locations of several campsites for future travels. We did come prepared to camp on this trip, but with temperatures at or above 100° at night I tend to avoid camping if I can help it.
Day Two
Two great things about hoteling it in Baker: you get to go on night runs without fear of losing your camp, you get to have iHop in the morning. 
It was already well over 100° by the time we finished breakfast, so we quickly fueled up and got underway. Just south of the border we picked up an eastward-bound dirt track and headed in the general direction of Las Vegas. This was another of those few small areas I’d not yet explored in the preserve, and before an hour had passed we stumbled upon the remains of a dugout, several corrals and a loading ramp.
As I was taking the picture of the dugout, several dozen very fat quail were startled out and flew off. I can’t wait until October.
We continued east, with the roads gradually growing fainter and fainter – no one had been out here in a very long time. If I had to guess, this area probably gets overlooked because of how close to the interstate it appears to be on the map. On the ground, however, this area is far enough out that you can’t even hear the highway. On it’s way to Cima Road, this route winds around a high plateau, up a canyon, and through one of the healthiest Joshua tree groves I’ve seen.
Eventually we reached Aiken Mine Road at the site of an old ranch – two windmills, several corrals and an assortment of buildings bake under the hot sun here. As with the earlier site, it appears no one has visited this area in a long time.
Off to Vegas
The city hasn’t changed much since the last time I was here. They’ve torn down some buildings, built some new ones, closed some shops and opened others… it is still a crowded, noisy, modern city with little or no culture or history. In spite of my admittedly biased view of the place, we had a great time celebrating the big 3-0 with Kay, visiting with my friend Drawk, and learning how the game of Blackjack is played with real live people. 
Day Three
For the ride home we cut south through the New York Mountains via Ivanpah Road and the small town of Goffs. The MDHCA has done a fine job of restoring the town and placing markers at the surrounding historical sites.
The rest of the pictures, as always, are on Flickr.
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