Solo on the Mojave Road

[volhoo]

Solo on the Mojave Road 2/17&18/08

It was a 3 day week end, and we wanted to go back and run the Mojave Road from East to West and follow the book “Mojave Road Guide” by Dennis Casebier.

The plan was to travel with our good friend Michael and his awesome full size Bronco, but he was not able to make it, so we decided to be adventurous and head out solo.

It was 528 miles round trip from our house in Fullerton California.

My GPS measured the Mojave Road trip at 134 miles from the Colorado River to I-15 near Baker California (Afton Canyon off ramp).

We packed up the rig, loaded up the dogs (Nicky the red pit bull, and Harley the American bulldog) and took off about 2pm on Saturday afternoon.

We spent the first night at a Best Western off the first off ramp in Needles (don’t tell them about the dogs in the room), and we got up early and hit the road about 7:30 am.

It was a beautiful day…

The Start of the Mojave Road – Mile 0 on the Colorado River near Needles California. Right across the River on the Arizona side is the old Fort Mojave site.



The Road stretches out ahead out toward Fort Piute


Look out mountain


Remains of an old Turkey Ranch near Fort Piute


Lots of Petroglyphs along the creek ridge


Looks like the sheep have been here for a long long time


The dogs had a great time (Nicky the red Pitbull and Harley the American Bulldog


Little Nicky


Fort Piute wall (look close)


Back on the trail


An old corral


The old school bus (not sunfusion any more)


Rock Springs iced over


Government Wells (all dry)


Government Wells gate


The place is beautiful


Nearing the camp site at Beal Mountain


We camped at the same place we did when we went two week ends ago with Uphill and the gang


Nice Barrel Cactus


Turtle Petroglyph


What do they mean?


Moon rise at the camp site


Harley on point


Harley watches me pack up in the morning (notice that my ass has been frozen off)


Claudia and the dogs at Marl Springs

[volhoo]

At the summit near the lava flows


Claudia looking very fashionable as always


The views are awesome over the entire trip (these photos hardly capture the grandeur). You can catch a glimpse of the Soda Lake from here (way in the distance).


Signing the logbook at the Mailbox (again)


At the edge of a lava flow


Lava rocks


Coming down into some deep sand, lava flow on right


The Soda Lake in the distance


Treasure


The entire place is just about to erupt in bloom


Very near the Soda Lake


Lava stones


On the Soda Lake


Good fun on the Soda Lake


The Soda Lake surface



Represent’n the SoCal crew


The Lake was very different from 3 weeks ago


Marker at the west end of the lake


Coming into Afton Canyon and the end of the journey


Afton Canyon creek. Check out the old school white side walls (Soda Lake dust).


Looking the other way


All tuckered out


We had a great time and only saw a few people along the entire route.

The first time we went with Uphill and the big group, I traveled in 4 wheel high most of the time. I used ¾ of a tank of gas just to get to the camp site (Beal Mountain) at the half way point.

This time I drove the entire trip in 2 wheel drive (with the exception of 3 brief times when we got into some very deep sand), and used ¾ of a tank for the entire trip.

Until next time…

[Fjamming]

Thank you for the pictures Vince. You have an artistic eye. How did it feel going solo? Much more time to contemplate?

[MIKESCRUISER]

WOW, nice trip vince. too bad we didnt see any of that? you have nice looking dogs, I too have an AMSTAFF and a AMBULLDOG both boys.

[jeshua]

Nice trip! I was just thinking how pretty it would be out there after all this rain.

[pokerDawg]

Bravo!

The weather was nice over the weekend. Glad you had a fun safe trip.

Thanks for sharing the adventure.

[fatbrat40]

Vince, thanks for sharing..looks to be a great trip..I always complain that we don't have anywhere to off road here in west texas..but you got me thinkin a little different now..time to head down to big bend natl park

[Teotwaki]

A big group is fun but conversely, going solo lets you readily absorb what Nature is offering us.

[DominicG]

looked like fun!

was it as cold this time as it was before?

[volhoo]

Fjamming previously said:

Thank you for the pictures Vince. You have an artistic eye. How did it feel going solo? Much more time to contemplate?

Thanks Tony.

It was a little scary going solo, but it was such a great experience.

People knew where we were going, and would have come after us if we hadn't come back by Tuesday morning.

It was so peaceful out there.

MIKESCRUISER previously said:

WOW, nice trip vince. too bad we didnt see any of that? you have nice looking dogs, I too have an AMSTAFF and a AMBULLDOG both boys.

Hey Mike.

It was so awesome out there by ourselves.

Yeah, the dogs are great.

You should bring your boys along next time

jeshua previously said:

Nice trip! I was just thinking how pretty it would be out there after all this rain.

Hey Jeshua,

Yeah, the whole desert is going to be blooming very soon.

We will probably go back out there, or maybe to Anza Boreggo over the next few weeks.

I'll be watching this web site that tracks the wild flowers:

DesertUSA - Desert Wildflower reports

pokerDawg previously said:

Bravo!

The weather was nice over the weekend. Glad you had a fun safe trip.

Thanks for sharing the adventure.

Yeah, the temperature was perfect.

High 50's to low 60's during the day.

Really nice.

I'd much rather be cold than hot.

This is the best time to be out there.

fatbrat40 previously said:

Vince, thanks for sharing..looks to be a great trip..I always complain that we don't have anywhere to off road here in west texas..but you got me thinkin a little different now..time to head down to big bend natl park

Thanks fatbrat.

We are lucky here in SoCal to have so many different kinds of terrain to explore.

Big Bend sounds great.

Take plenty of pictures if you go.

Teotwaki previously said:

A big group is fun but conversely, going solo lets you readily absorb what Nature is offering us.

Hi Jim.

Yeah, the solo experience was nice for a change.

We really enjoyed it.

We did see a couple of Jeeps at the very start of the trail and knew they would come by and help us out if we got in trouble.

They were following the same book as well.

DominicG previously said:

looked like fun!

was it as cold this time as it was before?

Hi Dominic.

No, it was not even close to being as cold as it was a couple weeks ago.

That was THE coldest night I have EVER spent camping.

I don't know what temperature my sleeping bag is rated too, but it must have been colder than that when we where there on the 2nd.

It was chilly, but very nice, especially with my wife and two dogs pressed up on me.