Questor drives the Mojave Road and Joshua Tree NP - March 2016

[Questor]

Howdy All.

A couple of weeks ago I took my Tacoma out for a romp.
For over two years since moving to California, I've wanted to drive the Mojave Road, and eventually I did.

We also added the Old Dale Road which got up into Joshua Tree National Park from the North, just for the added challenge.

My Drive Reports tend to be a picture intensive, but the images have been compressed for easy uploading, so I hope you will sit back and enjoy.

Q~

 

[Questor]

Day 1 - L.A. to somewhere in the middle of the Mojave Desert

So we were all packed up and on the road by 10:00am.
We took I-15 out to baker.

We stopped in Baker CA to top off on gas and get a Gyro at the Mad Greek.

Then headed East towards the Mojave National Preserve.

And drove East.
No pictures of the water crossings or the Saline Lake because we did that section last fall.

But on this trip, we did stop at the lava tubes.

We took the stairs down, and crawled inside.

and the timing of the angle of the sun was perfect!

Even my girlfriend, who hates caves and snakes and stuff like that went inside and enjoyed it.

Once I got all the pictures I wanted, we went back to the truck and continued East.

More to come.
Q~

 

[Questor]

Day 1 - Continued.

We were taking our time and averaging about 15 MPH.

Eventually we got to the Mojave Mailbox.

The Register was brand new, replaced the day before.

We signed in and continued on.
Some of the contours of the road made for dramatic Tacoma Pictures.
Strike a pose Tacoma!

It was getting to be late afternoon, and the sun was beginning to get low on the horizon.

as we dropped into the valley beyond.

We found a bare spot on the side of the road, and pulled off to set up camp.

Luxury camping!

We set up our camp chairs, grabbed some cold beverages from the fridge and settled in to watch the sunset, and the desert colors change.

I love sunsets in the desert!

Then we set up the portable firepit, and watched the fire till it was time to go to bed.

All and all, great day.
Q~

 

[forty2]

Cool, I'm getting ready to make this same trip in a couple of weeks. What were the conditions of the water crossing and at Soda Lake?

 

[EMrider]

Great pics and thanks for the report. Mojave road is one of my favorites. Love the desert.

R

 

[1leglance]

Thanks for the excellent lava tube pics....I did this route with my younger son but we missed those and looks like we really need to get back.

I like your go slow style vs banzai bash get it done
looking forward to more
thanks

 

[Questor]

Day - Evening Camp

If you're interested, click this link for a spherical picture of the first nights camp.

https://theta360.com/s/nrvhnFTEEo81wCFVIddMq4Gm0

Q~

 

[Questor]

Day 2 - Mojave to Gold Crown Rd - Part 1

After a good nights sleep, we woke to another perfect day.
The view from bed wasn't bad either.

One of the best parts of luxury camping is that you can bring everything you want, including all the fixings for breakfast.

We had a casual morning, and watched the sun slowly come up and warm the desert.

There was activity on the Mojave Road ahead of us so there was no hurry to catch up and eat dust all day.

Eventually, we packed up camp, and got back on the road headed East.

We got to the Joshua Tree section of the road.

There were thousands of them! Even more than in Joshua Tree National Park. So cool to see them all.

And of course, when we get to the narrowest part of the trail, with no place to turn off, we meet vehicles coming the other way.

Fortunately, they backed up to a crossing about 1/8th of a mile behind them, and we continued on our lonely way.

The road has some sections with some nice rises and off camber areas, so I took advantage to shoot more Tacoma prOn.
(I love my truck!)

And the Joshua Trees became even denser.

And eventually we got to the railroad marker.

To be continued...
Q~

 

[Questor]

Day 2 - Part 2

Traveling further, we got to the old school bus.

and we continued on...

Now I've traveled all over the world, and see a lot of shot up signs, but I think this one takes the prize.

and we began the decent down the long grade.

Not really tricky, just take your time and pick your line.

There is a narrow spot near the bottom that is getting a bit washed out. Another good rain or two and this could become a problem.

But the recent rains have allowed many of the cactus to bloom.

The Tacoma seems happy.

Towards the end of the road, there are some really neat grades and off camber sections. It was satisfying to see that a double cab long bed Tacoma can handle stuff like this.

We cross the state line.

and the final sand wash section to the highway.

We didn't drive all the way to the Colorado river, because we wanted to get to the next camp area before sunset.

So we drove I-40 towards Amboy.

About three hours later we arrived at a suitable place to camp off Gold Crown Road.

And again, we settled in to watch the sunset.

After the sunset, we had another campfire and went to bed.

End of day 2.
Q~

 

[Questor]

Day 3 - Old Dale Rd and back home

We awoke just as the sun was casting a morning glow on the mountains to the West.

Some of us were still cozy in bed...

I had my two cups of coffee and went off to find a bush to dig a hole and do my morning business,
I dug a hole and was about to squat and I see this guy about two feet away from where my butt was about to be!

Fortunately, he was still cold and sleepy, or that could have really sucked!

But we packed up camp and were soon headed south on a rough dirt road towards Joshua National Park.

We got to the "tricky" part and slowly began our decent.

It was a bit narrow in places, and a few boulders were in the way, but we picked our line carefully and eased down the grade.

Eventually we got to the National Park boundary.

A couple more steep drop offs...

and then were were on smooth graded roads.

We stopped at the road head and took pictures of the signs.

We came in on Old Dale Road.

We then drove out the south end of the park and took I-10 back home, stopping once for IN N OUT burgers! :drool:

The rest of the drive was uneventful...

All and all a great trip and I highly recommend it.
Thanks for viewing.
Q~

 

[franklantern]

Nice write up...enjoyed following along. Now I need to check out those lava tubes! Might be hard to get out of bed on those cold desert mornings but at least the snakes are slow to rise

 

[gunrunner99]

Nice looking trip. We will have to do that. It is nice to see what we would have encountered had we continued up Old Dale Rd. we were coming in from the park side.

 

[deadly99]

I've enjoyed your bike reports over the years on adv. Nice to see you on four wheels and doing reports here. I've been doing more four wheel stuff lately and it almost feels like cheating after years of minimalist camping off of a bike.

Cheers

 

[mkitchen]

Very Nice Post

Great pictures. We have done this route a couple of times and will do it again soon. Something neat about the history and geography throughout.
Mikey

 

[dsm02c]

Excellent photos! Thanks for the report! I really want to off road Joshua tree and picking up the Mojave Road along the way is a great bonus!