Morning revealed our improvised camp in the brush.
It was a small clearing. Enough to fit our cars and tents (though I slept in my car), but not much more than that. Luckily, Mojave allows wild camping, as long as you treat the land with respect. We were about 400 feet from a jumble of rocks, which generally isn’t enough to defend against vicious high desert winds, but the night had been calm. Unusually calm. As such, most of us got decent sleep, despite our improvised campsite.
We beat a relatively quick exit from camp that morning, as it was right off the Mojave Rd. and we were not interested in getting showered by dust from passing vehicles. Only 1.8 miles down the road we... found a trail off to the right. A little exploration revealed a nice campsite next to some rocks and even a fire ring. 1.8 miles isn’t quite a quarter mile, but man did we feel like we missed out. I guess the lesson here is to keep looking a little longer than you think you need to. In our defense, it’s a little bit hard to keep pressing on looking for a campsite that may or may not exist, at 9 pm.
We took the Mojave Rd. going east, opposite that of the normal direction of traffic. The whoops section was quite fun, though after awhile it just feels like you’re a boat bobbing in the sea. After awhile, a railroad appears in the distance, which slowly gets closer. Right when the Mojave Rd. meets the railroad, you find an intersection and a plaque.
After the railroad, the road condition improved quite a bit. We continued east on Cedar Canyon Rd., then made a right on Black Canyon Rd followed by another quick right onto Wild Horse Canyon Rd.
The scenery had started to change. We were clearly higher in elevation, and the skyline started to show more mountains off in the distance.
The trail itself was very easy to drive. It was also lovely, and really gave off a high desert “Fievel Goes West” feeling. (Please don’t ask me why my first thought was an old Disney cartoon...) In fact, this section of road may have had the best scenery of the entire trip.
Mesas...
...make good ambush points?
Cactus flowers were in full bloom. The muted backdrop of the desert made the vibrant colors even more amazing.
We were having such a good time, the end of the trail came quite abruptly. Sadly the end of the trail meant it was time to head home after another weekend adventure.
In a rather spur of the moment decision, we decided to check out Calico Ghost Town on the way home. None of us had been there since our childhood, and our collective memory of the place was basically the bottle house. Imagine our shock when we realized this was basically a mini version of Knott’s Berry Farm. A complete tourist trap and totally different from any ghost towns found in the desert. This probably won’t be a crossoverlanding destination in the future.