Mojave Road

January 15-19, 2021

This year’s annual GTFO of Utah trip took Chris and I back to Mojave National Preserve, which is where we went for our inaugural trip in 2016. That outing took us south and back north again through the preserve, but this time we traversed it east to west along Mojave Road. We were quite late rolling into our first night’s camp, partially due to the gas station in Palm Gardens being closed and having to backtrack to Searchlight for fuel. We arrived at camp on the north end of the Dead Mountains after midnight and still stayed up for a couple of hours around the camp fire.

Southbound I-15 near Cedar City
Southbound I-15 near Cedar City

Friday’s camp
Friday's camp


With a late start on Saturday morning we hit the Mojave Road and entered the preserve, headed to Fort Piute. We spent almost two hours there, walking around looking for petroglyphs and at the remains of the fort. It was breezy but warm and sunny relative to what we’d left behind at home.

Camp at the north end of the Dead Mountains
Camp at the north end of the Dead Mountains

Hitting Mojave Road
Hitting Mojave Road

Fort Piute petroglyphs
Fort Piute petroglyphs

Fort Piute petroglyphs
Fort Piute petroglyphs

Fort Piute petroglyphs
Fort Piute petroglyphs

Building near Fort Piute
Building near Fort Piute

Fort Piute
Fort Piute

Distant dirt road dust clouds
Distant dirt road dust clouds


We drove for a while and then left Mojave Road briefly to check out the petroglyphs at Eagle Mountain, which I enjoyed more than those at Fort Piute, particularly because several of them appeared to represent Joshua trees. We ate a late lunch there (nutritious as ever!) and then returned to our driving route.

Eagle Mountain petroglyphs
Eagle Mountain petroglyphs

Eagle Mountain petroglyphs
Eagle Mountain petroglyphs

Eagle Mountain petroglyphs
Eagle Mountain petroglyphs

Eagle Mountain petroglyphs
Eagle Mountain petroglyphs

1912 inscription
1912 inscription

Indian Well
Indian Well

Eagle Mountain petroglyphs
Eagle Mountain petroglyphs

New York Mountains
New York Mountains

Eagle Mountain petroglyphs
Eagle Mountain petroglyphs

Like 130% RDA of sodium
Like 130% RDA of sodium


Back on Mojave Road we continued west while making several quick stops. We visited the Penny Can Tree, hiked around Rock Spring for a bit, and saw a couple of old buildings, including Bert Smith’s cabin where we met a guy from Sandy, Utah, where Chris is also from.

The Penny Can Tree
The Penny Can Tree

Old railroad tracks
Old railroad tracks

Cabin south of Caruthers Corrals
Cabin south of Caruthers Corrals

Rock Spring
Rock Spring

Stua?, 4th Infantry, May 16, ????
Stua?, 4th Infantry, May 16, ????

Rock Spring dam
Rock Spring dam

Bert Smith Cabin
Bert Smith Cabin

Bike belonging to a dude from Sandy, Utah
Bike belonging to a dude from Sandy, Utah


Next we took a detour off the main route that turned out to be way longer than I’d expected. We drove south quite a bit to Woods Wash and hiked down the wash looking for some petroglyphs. I didn’t know exactly where they were but figured we’d run into them eventually. We did find a few glyphs that were just okay, but not the ones I was hoping to find, so the detour wasn’t worth the time. We returned to the Jeep after sundown and ended up driving in the dark for another 30 miles before finding a decent place to camp for the night near Marl Spring.

Holliman Well
Holliman Well

Woods Wash petroglyphs
Woods Wash petroglyphs

Woods Wash petroglyphs
Woods Wash petroglyphs

Woods Wash petroglyphs
Woods Wash petroglyphs

Woods Wash petroglyphs
Woods Wash petroglyphs

Woods Wash sunset
Woods Wash sunset


Despite another late start on Sunday we crammed a lot of activity into the day. After a quick stop at the Mojave Road mailbox, we departed Mojave Road and went into a lava tube we’d visited on our last trip here. Then it was farther north to poke around Aiken Mine for a while.

Waking up at Marl Spring
Waking up at Marl Spring

Benchmark 31
Benchmark 31

Mojave Road Mailbox
Mojave Road Mailbox

Lava tube
Lava tube

Inside the lava tube
Inside the lava tube

Jeep on the Aiken Mine scale
Jeep on the Aiken Mine scale

Dump truck
Dump truck

Welcome home troops
Welcome home troops

Tipply
Tipply

Chris on the conveyor
Chris on the conveyor

Aiken Mine Arch
Aiken Mine Arch


Our next stop was for a short hike in Black Tank Wash to see some petroglyphs and pictographs. The pictos weren’t great but they were the only ones we’d see on this trip, so I was glad we made the stop.

Black Tank Wash petroglyphs
Black Tank Wash petroglyphs

Black Tank Wash petroglyphs
Black Tank Wash petroglyphs

Black Tank Wash petroglyphs
Black Tank Wash petroglyphs

Black Tank Wash petroglyphs
Black Tank Wash petroglyphs

Black Tank Wash pictographs
Black Tank Wash pictographs


Another abandoned mining area north of Aiken Mine had a lot more to see so we spent about 45 minutes there looking at all the stuff left behind.

Vehicles at another mine
Vehicles at another mine

Jeep at another mine
Jeep at another mine

I took this photo one day before Martin Luther King, Jr., Day
I took this photo one day before Martin Luther King, Jr., Day

Big Joshua tree
Big Joshua tree

YEAR
YEAR

INDECLINE
INDECLINE


The last point of interest before we started looking for camp was a dense area of petroglyphs near Cow Cove. The road there is closed so we ended up hiking almost four miles total, including a lot of climbing up and down the hillside covered in boulders with petroglyphs on them.

Closed Cow Cove road
Closed Cow Cove road

Cow Cove petroglyphs
Cow Cove petroglyphs

Cow Cove petroglyphs
Cow Cove petroglyphs

Cow Cove petroglyphs
Cow Cove petroglyphs

Cow Cove petroglyphs
Cow Cove petroglyphs

Cow Cove petroglyphs
Cow Cove petroglyphs

Cow Cove petroglyphs
Cow Cove petroglyphs


Before finding camp we decided to drive out to I-15 to fuel up, and on the way we passed an abandoned ranch at Rock Tank that looked like a great place to camp, so we returned around sunset after filling the Jeep’s tank. It was cold and breezy, so I slept in the Jeep but Chris set up his cot in the old house.

Clark Mountain Range seen from Shadow Valley
Clark Mountain Range seen from Shadow Valley

Rock Tank windmill
Rock Tank windmill

Rock Tank Cattle Co note
Rock Tank Cattle Co note

Adorable bat at camp
Adorable bat at camp

Murder house
Murder house


We returned to Mojave Road on Monday and spent the whole day on it without any major detours this time. There were a bunch of things to see along the way without much effort.

Former location of the Mojave phone booth
Former location of the Mojave phone booth

Bob Bendig was here
Bob Bendig was here

Willow Wash/Black Tank "petroglyphs"
Willow Wash/Black Tank "petroglyphs"

Willow Wash dam
Willow Wash dam

Green Rock Mill
Green Rock Mill

Crossing Soda Lake
Crossing Soda Lake

Travelers Monument on Soda Lake
Travelers Monument on Soda Lake

Leaving Mojave National Preserve
Leaving Mojave National Preserve


After passing out of Mojave National Preserve and before reaching Afton Canyon, we encountered an abandoned Nissan Altima. It appeared to be stuck in the sand, had a flat tire and a broken window, and had this note written on the side:
My name is Heather Marie Underwood, AZ Arizona. I went to get someone to pull me out (the car) and give me a jump.

I didn’t think much of it at the time, other than that it was a little eerie. It wasn’t until writing this (November 2022) that I looked up her name and found some social media posts saying that she’s been missing since December 2020 and that her car had been found without her in it. I haven’t found anything else in the news or from official sources. Creepy.

Abandoned car near the Mojave River
Abandoned car near the Mojave River

Note by Heather Marie Underwood, who went missing a month earlier
Note by Heather Marie Underwood, who went missing a month earlier


In Afton Canyon we stopped to inspect a borax mine, visited a couple of memorials, hiked up a deep dark slot canyon, and hiked to an alcove near some wetlands along the Mojave River. At the west end of the canyon we left Mojave Road to begin the first leg of the long drive home, but first had to cross a deep spot in the Mojave River that had me worried. I couldn’t see how deep it was so I just eased on it, and it turned out to be no big deal.

Borax mine near Basin
Borax mine near Basin

I Heart Beaver
I Heart Beaver

David M. Conahey memorial
David M. Conahey memorial

The mighty Mojave River
The mighty Mojave River

Slot canyon
Slot canyon

Up the rope
Up the rope

Mojave River trestle
Mojave River trestle

Wetlands and badlands along the Mojave River
Wetlands and badlands along the Mojave River

Mojave River crossing
Mojave River crossing


We got on I-15 around 5:30PM and it was only about an hour to Rock Tank where we’d camped the previous night, so we aimed for that. Again I slept in the Jeep and Chris stayed outside on his cot. After breakfast the next morning we hit the road for home. It had been a really good trip, with a lot of sights packed into a short time. This part of the drive is always the worst, and we broke it up with a quick stop at Seven Magic Mountains. Luckily it was cold and very windy and we had the place to ourselves for the, like, two minutes we were there.

Seven Magic Mountains
Seven Magic Mountains

My WJ and its younger brother
My WJ and its younger brother


Photo Gallery: Mojave Road

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