California, Mojave Desert: Quick Drive Through Deserted Preserve

The Mojave Desert was very desolate and quiet
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Mojave National Preserve was located in southeastern California between Interstate 15 and Interstate 40 with the nearest large city being Las Vegas. The preserve was to be our last experience in the desert whilst in the United States and our last time to explore that type of landscape until we head to the outback of Australia later this year, in December. Since that part of our trip was not to happen for a few months, we wanted to make the most of our time around that type of landscape in the Mojave Desert.

This mound of earth was held together with fine threads of spider web; we didn't see the large spider who made the hole and bound his home together, which was probably a good thing
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The national preserve was established in 1994 as part of the California Desert Protection Act. Three of North America's four desert systems - the Great Basin, the Sonoran and the Mojave - met at the national preserve, and even traces of the Chihuahuan Desert can be found there. The 1.6 million acre park encompassed much of the Mojave Desert and summer temperatures often exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit, around 38 degrees Celsius. We weren't disappointed with the temperature on the afternoon we visited the preserve, since it only reached a bearable 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

We also passed the enormous Amboy Crater as we drove along historic Route 66 after exiting the nature preserve

Most of the time, the road we drove along inside Mojave Desert National Preserve was straight and long
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Before arriving there from our overnight stay in the small town of Baker, California, at The Royal Hawaiian motel, on the edge of the western section of the Mojave Preserve, we really didn't know what to expect or what there was to see; we had gotten very lazy with our trip planning by that point of our road trip. To start the day off, we headed straight to Taco Bell, thinking that it would probably be the last time we would eat from our favourite fast food Mexican chain restaurant during the trip, and we were right. From Taco Bell, we left Baker and drove into the Mojave Desert, heading towards the visitor centre in the southeastern part of the preserve. It was there that we learned about the different sights in the preserve, as well as the history of the area.

There were some tall joshua trees inside Mojave Desert, as you can see from this photo of Dan
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Many years ago, the Mojave Road, which ran right through the preserve, east to west, served as a travel and trade route for American Indians including the Paiute, Mojave, and Chemehuevi tribes. Skirting mountains and other natural barriers, the Mojave Road followed the most natural travel corridor through the desert. Indians had guided Spanish explorers along the trail in the 1770s, and with increasing westward exploration and settlement in the 19th century, the US army improved the road in the 1860s, establishing outposts for the safety of supply wagons, mail, and travellers. The coming of the railroad in the 1890s made mining and ranching profitable at the time, and trains immediately replaced driving carriages along the Mojave Road as the preferred method of travel through the desert.

Some of the yucca plants grew to be enormous, as you can see from this photo of Kyle
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The Kelso Depot, now home of the visitor centre for the preserve, was used as the main railroad station and quarters for its crew. Built in 1921, the beautiful building stood alone gracefully in the desert. Inside, on the first floor, we were able to learn more about the history of this building and the railroad in which it served. At the visitor centre, we also chatted to one of the park rangers about the different sights we could see whilst visiting for the day en route to Los Angeles.

From the town of Baker, we had already driven past the cinder cone lava bed area with many cones dotted around the barren desert landscape that was sporadically dotted with cacti, yuccas and joshua trees. We had also taken a side road to see the Kelso Sand Dunes, a large expanse of dunes inside the preserve. They were located in the western part of the preserve, a famous Mojave Desert landmark and one that we had wanted to check out, due to the sheer size of the 600 foot high sand ridges. The dunes were something not to be missed as they were visible from many miles away.

Amboy Crater was a National Natural Landmark that we passed after leaving Mojave Desert, heading towards Los Angeles; the lava in the area seemed quite "fresh"
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During our drive down the side road where we could get a closer look at the dunes, we came across a truck that was completely blocking our way. Some men were working on the telephone lines in the area and their truck was stuck in the sandy desert floor. The truck blocking our way was trying to pull the other one out and no one seemed bothered that it was blocking tourists from getting closer to Kelso Dunes. We were upset that the men didn't offer to move their vehicle when Dan got out of ours, kindly asking them if we could pass, so we told on them at the visitor centre and hoped that they would get in trouble.

The expansive Kelso Sand Dunes were located a little bit southwest of the middle of Mojave Desert National Preserve
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When we left the visitor centre, we wanted to drive around the preserve, but we found out we would then have to drive several miles back along a road that we had already taken and we wanted to avoid backtracking upon ourselves. The time had also come where we were tired of desert scenery and ready to move on to Los Angeles. So, we left the park and skipped seeing other sights inside the Mojave Desert. The direction we drove out of the park took us past the beautiful Granite Mountains and we also passed the enormous Amboy Crater as we drove along historic Route 66 after exiting the nature preserve.

Just before we arrived at Amboy Crater, we passed this large tree, full of shoes that people had tied to its branches
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Fatigue was setting in after we passed Amboy Crater and we wanted to drink some coffee at the next cafe or rest stop we spotted. In Ludlow, we saw a really unique building that had a large sign reading "Coffee Shop" outside and we made that our stop. For anyone visiting Ludlow and its only cafe, one of three buildings in town, bear in mind that the coffee was just normal, American filtered coffee, aka dark nasty slop. With the coffee tasty so bad, we were surprised that we ended up drinking three cups each. Tiredness had won out and we didn't want to finish our drive in Los Angeles feeling weary, so kept drinking. Plus, we played cards for quite a while whilst "enjoying" the coffee, so the break was enjoyable for us despite having to shave our tongues afterwards to get the muck off of them.

We weren't surprised when we came upon an old portion of route 66 in California, but it was an unplanned sighting
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It was funny that the drive from Mojave Desert towards Los Angeles presented us with some of the most barren landscape that we had seen during our road trip across the southwest United States. It was also some of the ugliest scenery that we had come across, surprisingly to us, since we thought California would be more lush and green, or with more vegetation than the states we drove across prior to entering the last state on our journey. Once we started to see trees and grass, as we neared Los Angeles and the coast, we were happy with the new landscape around us. Even better, we knew that we would be seeing our good friend Shelley not long after the greenery increased!