Old dale road

Checking out the trails around me I found old dale road. To hit this trail to the mines, do I need a Joshua tree pass?

 

Not exactly sure if you really need one or not but there’s a ranger station on the way in from the south off cottonwood springs road you can pick one up or at least inquire about one. I have a national parks pass so I didn’t need to stop for one.

 

Been around that area before. What I can say is that if you enter Joshua tree national park from berdoo canyon you have to leave the same way to not pay. Not sure about old dale thought.

 

how hard is this trail?
has anyone been up there recently?
I did Berdoo Cyn trail leaving Joshua Tree not too long ago, but I think Ive read Old Dale road is more technical?

 

Might have to check to see if it is open, last time I was there I heard Hilary did some damage and shut down a number of trails around Joshua tree.

 

It was open a few months ago when I went.

 

And as far as being “technical” I believe that’s relative to one’s rig+off-roading experience. The OnXoffroad app rates it as a “4” and I believe that’s pretty spot on, the first and last third of the trail are sand whoops and the middle third is steep rocks with switchbacks almost requiring a 3-point turn in places. The wife and I did the trail the entire way through on our own, she hopped out and spotted about 3-4 times just for “peace of mind”. I am only on stock suspension with front plate+sliders and some decent tires. If you take some of the offshoots to explorer the mines there’s lots of nails in those areas.

 

There’s a few different routes you can take. Different mines you can look at etc. I ended up going late and drove about half way through old dale road and came home

 

As mentioned before there is a rocky climb going up the last hill as you leave Pinto Basin headin north. I bent my stock skid plate (pie tin) on it.

Bring a compressor, pliers and a tire plug kit because nails are the worst hazard you will face driving on that road. I’ve gotten one the last two times I was there. You should carry one of those anyway, you can repair the tire without even needing to take it off the truck.

It’s nice up top on the northern end (where’s Waldo pic below) - you can avoid the worse part of the road if you take it heading south from 29 Palms Hwy, or make it easier by going all the way through it from the north. It’s easier heading down the bad section than going up it.

 

I was in Joshua Tree a few nights ago. Wife gave me a telescope for christmas and last week early evening I said let’s go to JT to see stars.

Well we get there around 9pm or so and beautiful night sky. I get off the 10 fwy on Cottonwood Spring Road and head north.
Found random dirt road on my google maps (no more signal) and jumped off on it to park and see stars. After an hour of chilling decided to follow this road named Old Dale Road to see where it took us. When I got to the rocky hill section I went up a half mile but decided to turn around. No idea where I was and what the terrain was ahead and I was unprepared. No GPS , no signal and no maglite on me. Damm it’s dark out there and never have driven on a trail in middle of night.
I want to go back during daylight hours to checkout the mines and all. It was solid fun.

 

The park boundary is ~1300' south of this structure.