Mojave National Preserve

Visited: Nov 2016

Nearby town: Las Vegas, NV; Baker, CA

On our drive down to Joshua Tree National Park, we exited the Interstate south of Las Vegas to take the back roads and take the scenic route through Mojave National Preserve.

I hesitated to do a post on the Preserve, because we merely drove through the Park and did not stay long at all. However, Mojave National Preserve is a unit managed and administered by the National Park Service. And this blog not only records our visits to National Parks, but also visits to other NPS units. Therefore, a post dedicated to this visit is appropriate. Just keep in mind, this won't be a long one. 😊

So, what is a National Preserve? The NPS manages National Parks, Monuments, Memorials, Historical Sites, etc. but I believe this will be the first post chronicling a visit to a Preserve. A Preserve is similar to a National Park in that it is set aside and protected for conservation purposes, however, unlike a National Park, a Preserve usually does permit certain natural resource-extractive activities such as fishing, hunting, mining, and oil/gas exploration and extraction. The legislation creating a Preserve can place certain limitations on those activities, but it is generally permitted.

There are 19 National Preserves in the US. 10 are stand-alone official units of the NPS, and the rest are distinct areas within a larger National Park or Monument.

Mojave National Preserve was created in 1994 and covers a large area of San Bernardino County, California. At over 1.5 million acres, it is the third largest NPS unit in the Lower 48.

We took the road that goes through the center of the Preserve. Talk about lonely roads, if you want to go out into the desert and feel like the last man on earth, Mojave National Preserve is the place to be!

Eventually you'll reach the settlement designated as Cima. Here you will find the largest Joshua Tree forest in the world. I really regret that we didn't stop to take some pictures. It was amazing and impressive to drive through the Joshua Trees in this location. The forest in Cima was bigger and thicker than any of the Joshua Tree forests you find in the National Park.

Your next stop is the ghost town of Kelso. I love ghost towns. Kelso has an old train depot that now serves as the Preserve Visitor Center.

the Kelso Jail

this beautifully maintained train depot is now the Visitor Center

Kelso was built in 1905 specifically to be a train stop on the route between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City, Utah. When some borax and iron mines opened nearby, the town's population grew to over 2,000 in the 1940s. The mines folded after about 10 years, and the town quietly faded away. The depot remained in operation until 1986. The NPS renovated the depot in 2005 and it has served as the Visitor Center since that time. 

Further down the road, we saw the Kelso Dunes.

Another section of the Preserve contains the volcanic formations of Hole-in-the-Wall and the Cinder Cone Lava Beds. However, we did not visit that part of the Preserve.

Just south of the Preserve is another cool ghost town of Amboy. It might not technically be a ghost town, but it's pretty close. As of the 2000 census, the town's population is 4. Like Kelso, Amboy was founded as a railway stop. And the town boomed when Route 66 opened in 1926. It was the only town for miles and miles as people trekked through the remote desert heading for a better life in the West. Amboy quickly became a popular stop along Route 66.

However in 1973, Interstate-40 opened and bypassed Amboy. Not too many folks ventured off the freeway and the town slowly died. However, 10 buildings are still preserved. Including the famous Roy's Motel and Cafe. I love retro buildings like this, especially the glorious sign. It's pure Americana.

Roy's opened in 1938. The sign was built in 1959.

The Amboy Crater, an extinct cinder cone volcano

The Amboy School remained in operation until 1999, when the last students moved away

If you find yourself driving through this lonely corner of California along Interstate 15 or Interstate 40, it's worth your time to get off the beaten path and explore the harsh beauty of the Mojave Desert. More info here: https://www.nps.gov/moja/index.htm