Mojave Road Trail

I saw an old Subaru station wagon with a PVC snorkel at the local OHV park mud pit once, that place had a similar water crossing to the Mojave Rd one that you had to cross to get to the mud pit so he must have been submerged up to the windshield. Guess his PVC snorkel worked well lol

 

I bet the water crossing was very deep yesterday !!!

This is the Mojave river in Hesperia and at 2 min into the video you can hear someone say there's water in Baker Ca and that's over 100 miles from here

Also I was in Barstow yesterday and it was raining very hard !!! . The NWS Issued a weather alert for the Mojave river as it is 1' over flood stage

https://youtu.be/yDmMTHQSdfg

 

Hope no one is out there on that trail this week lol. Crossing Soda Lake (the dry lake bed) is probably impossible right now with all the rain we've had.

 

Its a nice road, nothing really technical. A few spots but most stock vehicles can do it no problem. If you fill up at the Casino (going east to west) you should be good with one tank. Extra gas is a good idea but ended up not using any on the trail. We planned 4 days but finished in 3. A day or 2 you will cover some ground 50-70 miles of faster dessert trails. If/when we go again I may plan to use all 4 days so I can explore some of the areas a bit more. Watch out for areas that are open to wind. It can be warm in the day but drops big time at night. It was 70 in the daytime but dropped to 19 with high winds at night.

As folks mentioned the water crossing is the only way out if you get there unless you backtrack. Mild lift should be fine but I would assume right now with all the rain we have been getting its really high. We were at the breaking point without a snorkel on our trucks when we went. A buddies stock jeep did it no problem.

Enjoy, its a nice ride for sure.

 

Going to be very muddy there for a few days plus rain / snow for my location today , Sunday and next Thursday

 

I'm going to be in your neck of the woods tomorrow, going to go up into Big Bear starting from the high desert (Coxey Rd trail).

 

Expect a very muddy climb up Coxey rd , the Marianas foothills are soaked . Also up near the top alot of potential for mud slides from over saturated hills

 

Thanks for the heads up, seems like they've gotten quite a bit of snow up there too and more coming tonight through the weekend.

 

Snow is in the forecast in Big Bear tomorrow , expect 3" of snow in the evening and the snow level dropping down in elevation . Temps tomorrow in Big Bear 32° low of 19° and here 49° low of 33°

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zG87RgEjxA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fj7APbhmhA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUdk6i6mmcQ

 

Just did it recently. Easy peasy trail. Lots to see. There are several books that have detailed info on sight seeing , I suggest getting one or atleast doing alot of research and getting gps coordinates for stuff. When I went through Afton Canyon it was 35 inches deep , that was a few weeks ago but we have had more rain since then. You never know what its going to be like. Dont forget to checkout Fort Piute and I suggest camping in the New York mountains , they are about mid way through the trail ( easy to find on any map ) approx 6 miles north of the Mojave trail but I promise you will not be disappointed with the sights ! Its my fav place to camp , its up around 6k feet I believe so it can get a lil chilly.

 

You talking about camp phallus?

 

I didn't see anyone reference this book, so I'll do that now:

$45 Mojave Road Guide - An Adventure Through Time and Map

https://www.amazon.com/Mojave-Road-Guide-Adventure-Through/dp/1938072111

It's full of tons of history and more importantly, GPS coordinates for everything.

Also, I was driving my stock barely-3-months-old truck when I got to the water crossing. The water looked really effing high (I walked it for a ways and it came up to my hips) so I chickened out

Also, the Trail is intersected by any number of different highways, so you're never really that far from gas if you misjudge your fuel consumption.

 

Thanks all for info. march 17th heading out there

 

I've got a tentative plan April 23-28.

 

Crossing the Mojave river last October with my stock suspension.

 

looks scary there for second though you were gona get stuck

 

Key is to keep moving and maintain momentum.

 

I'm heading there tomorrow for a solo trip (West --> East) and will let you know how it goes. I created a route with my Gaia GPS app that is pretty much the exact same thing you'll find on the web already but I am planning to skip the water crossing from the get go. If there was another vehicle and I didn't have my daughter with me I'd be more adventurous but this is the start of a three week trip and I'd rather not start it in a tough situation. Now if could only get my Garmin InReach SE+ to work...

 

Have an awesome trip! Mojave Road is a great camping/offroad experience...here in LA we're supposed to be getting rain Tuesday - Thursday, hopefully the storm isn't headed out that way or it might be a much more difficult trail than it usually is. As long as you have 4wd you should be fine but being that you're solo I would be a bit more cautious if the weather is supposed to be bad.