Crossing the Mojave



I usually do trip writeups in my build thread but I thought this one deserved its very own place. Over Thanksgiving break I had the privilege to spend a few days crossing the Mojave Desert with @Cytronus and another friend. Spent a good amount of time doing research and planning this trip and it ended up being one for the books! Wanted to share my experiences with T4R so that future adventurers can do the same!

Route that we took (140 miles over 2.5 days): Download

The Beginning: Alabama Hills

We started the trip off in a staging area just about two hours from the Mojave. It’s one of my favorite camping spots in California and a great place to begin adventures into the great California deserts. The trails in this area are incredibly scenic being at the base of the Sierras and near Mt Whitney (Tallest mountain in the lower 48).





Most of the stuff is graded dirt roads but there are some fun little sections if you go looking for them. These sections also lead to the best camping spots which are only accessible by 4x4 keeping the masses out.





Staying here gives you the ability to wake up to views like this:



The Beginning of Mojave Rd

Our trip plans called for us to go from West to East on the Mojave Rd. This is the opposite way that most people cross the Mojave but it was the way we were going as our final destination was Sedona, AZ. Our starting point on the Mojave Rd would be the Afton campground right before the infamous Mojave River water crossing. This is where we met my other friend and after some intros and airing down we decided to immediately tackle the water crossing. Here is a short vid of my truck making the crossing.



The water wasn’t super deep but it still required you to keep momentum and a nice bow wave. Otherwise you were in for some wet carpets. After conquering the river we pressed on to rocky trails that paralleled the train tracks. We came up onto some really cool looking slot canyons and decided to take a break.



The sun started to set and we were on a mission to find the perfect camping spot. This was a fantastic opportunity to put my new lighting setup to the test. I was BLOWN away by the tremendous output of my Baja Designs 30” S8 + Squadron Sport lights in the front. It really made driving in the dark open desert a breeze. Thanks @baja+designs





We finally found a great camping spot and decided to settle down for the night. Nothing beats a nice campfire with good friends, food and beer.



Day 2
We woke up relatively early and had a nice breakfast before rolling out to cross the famous Soda Lake. We were very fortunate the lake was bone dry making it easy to drive across. I’ve seen plenty of videos/photos of people getting stuck in the lake bed when it’s wet. Not a fun experience I’m sure.

We even had some time to stop and enjoy Traveler’s Monument. A place where people can drop off a rock and add to the ever growing pile!



After completing the journey across the lake we were in search of some lava tubes. Trying to find this place proved to be a challenge as I got our convoy a bit lost on some side trails. I think we all added some desert pinstriping because of that ;) Here is @Cytronus coming up a rocky technical portion of the trail:



We finally located the site and climbed down the dark and cavernous tubes which once flowed with hot molten lava thousands of years ago!



After a quick lunch we ran into a group of retired tourists making their way up to visit the site. They decided to take their rental Ford Explorer up one of the rocky 4x4 roads and got about a couple hundred feet before they blew out a tire. My original plan was to plug their tire. However, after inspecting it and finding a huge gash in the sidewall we decided it was best to put their spare on. At this point they were only about 30 miles from the nearest asphalt and the return trip back was via graded dirt road.

Here is @Cytronus and myself changing their tire out:



After leaving the lava tubes we pressed on in search of the Mojave mailbox and frog display. As we made our way to that landmark we were presented one of the most beautiful sunsets that I’ve ever witnessed in my life. I don’t know what it is about the desert but I’ve never seen a sunset this colorful. Absolutely amazing!



We arrived just in time to check out the frog display before it got dark!



It was right after this stop that my 5 year old Panasonic OEM battery decided to quit on me. In middle of nowhere. Luckily I was with other trucks that could give me a jump but I thought it was a perfect opportunity to try my GB40 Li-Ion jump pack. Broke that bad boy out and the truck fired right up! I can’t say enough about this little device. It will now have a permanent home in my truck and I will never leave home without it again. We would use it three more times as we completed our journey.

The Final Day

After another great night camping it was time to say goodbye to @Cytronus and my friend. We ran out of time and they needed to get back to work the next day. There was about 30% of the road left to do so we packed up and left camp early to complete the rest of the journey solo. The remainder of the Mojave Rd was uneventful but it did get a little more fun towards the end. This was a nice steep hill climb I got to do:



After a few miles through a Joshua tree forest we found ourselves at the banks of the Colorado river. Just as quick as the trip started we were now at the official end of the Mojave rd. Wish I could say I completed the Mojave unscathed but during the last few miles of the trip I got complacent coming off a rock shelf and slammed my front RCI Aluminum skid on some rocks leaving a nice souvenir on my oil filter access panel.



Just goes to show you that you always need to pay attention!

BONUS: Sedona, AZ

After our Mojave adventure we spent a few days in beautiful Sedona Arizona. I came out there for some mountain biking and finally got to put my bike to use after dragging it across the Mojave desert





We also got in an amazing hike up Mt Wilson, it rose 2,700 feet in under 4 miles!



Couldn’t drive out to AZ without doing some good ole red rock wheelin. Here is a shot of the lady cutting her teeth on an intermediate trail up to Van Deren cabin. It’s a popular route for the Pink Jeep tours in the area.



On the way back we squeezed a short hike up to Devil’s Bridge and cracked open a cold beer while watching the sun set across the beautiful mesas.



The final stop before leaving town was the famous Broken Arrow trail! It turned out to be a nice challenge and the scenery was drop dead gorgeous. I can totally see why it’s considered one of the best 4x4 trails in Arizona:



Here is a video of me coming down Devil’s Staircase:



Retrospective
After every trip I always like to sit down and think of things that could have made the trip better. Over the last two years it has always been a great way for me to map out future plans for upgrades:

Bumpers
The Pelfreybilt front bumper performed great! The improved approach angles proved to be handy on more technical trails like Broken Arrow. Bonus points on also having a winch just in case I get myself into trouble. The rear stock bumper however is a different story. Quite simply it needs to go! After slamming it into a tree in Tahoe over the summer and taking repeated hits on some of the trails on this trip. It has now become apparent that I need to upgrade to a higher clearance bumper with more protection.

The only challenge here is my requirement of having a hitch mounted bike rack (1up) mounted full time. This rules out any bumpers with tire carriers or swingouts. So I will most likely be going with a Heftyfabworks Aluminum bumper with a high clearance hitch or a steel Pelfreybilt rear. Trying to keep weight low as I’m approaching GVWR fully loaded already. So leaning towards the aluminum option. Would love to hear any thoughts on this though!

Suspension
The Icon CDCV suspension performed beautifully on this trip. Whether it was rocky technical shelf roads or open high speed desert whoops the suspension always felt composed. It was a night and day difference from my old Bilstein 6112/5160 setup. The only area of improvement here is potentially running heavier springs in the rear. With 300+ lbs of food, water, gear, rack and bike in the back I had a very slight negative rake fully loaded. I’ll look into moving onto the Icon Overland 3” springs once I get a new rear bumper.

Lighting
The Baja Designs front lighting setup was amazing! Being a person who has diagnosed night vision blindness means every lumen counts for me. The one area that was problematic was side and rear lighting. It was quite a challenge to find campsites at night. Also, during the day rear DRLs would be helpful when things get really dusty. Will be addressing these two areas very soon with BD S2s mounted on my Gobi Rack.

Campsite lighting was also a problem, my little portable LED worklight is starting to show its age with decreased battery life. I think I will be picking up one of those solar powered CVT Adventure Ready Camp lights for the next trip.

Navigation
Gaia performed amazing well on this trip and was critical in guiding us the right way. I do feel I need to improve the iPad mount a bit to add some more stability. As the current setup has a bit more flex than I would like. This is most likely due to the heavy nature of the large iPad I’m using. Will tweak it a bit for the next big trip!

Tools and Load Out
Lugging around my 70lb full toolset is getting tiring. So I’m starting to work on assembling a trip toolbag that has everything necessary to work on the truck but nothing more.

Truck Loadout:
•10 gallons of extra fuel
•Full Toolkit
•Air compressor / Tire Plug Kit
•Hi Lift Jack
•Traction boards
•Off-road recovery gear (Straps, shackles etc)
•GB40 Lithium Battery Pack
•First Aid
•12 Gallons of potable water
•Food for 5 days
•Drinking water
•Camp kit (Stove, lighting, kitchen etc)
•ARB Awning + Room for shelter
•iPad Pro 12.9” + Gaia for Nav
•Ram mounts for the iPad
•Ham radio for convoy comms
•Garmin InReach for Satellite SOS

That’s All Folks

Well I hope y’all found some of the information here useful. If you’re a dirt lover out west I highly recommend you make it out to the Mojave. It’s definitely bucket list worthy and gives you a great taste for what California Deserts are all about.

Up next: Moab, Colorado and British Columbia!

Very nice. Mojave Road is on my list so I read this with interest.

Very nice thank you for sharing and great photos.

I hope the rental Explorer guy/gal bought the Collision Damage Waiver.

Desert in the winter is awesome , anywhere in the southwest this time of yr ! Great photo journal

Nice write up, looks like this trip was loads of fun! Thanks for sharing.

Your download link (for GPS tracks or map) doesn't work. I'm interested in looking it over.

Also, for my planning purposes, would you say fall is the best time of year to go, or was that dictated by your schedules? I assume spring would have the River pretty deep and the soda lake area pretty soggy...?

You can pretty much stop and camp anywhere, yes?

Great post, report and pics!!
Looks to me that most of the roads were fairly easy to medium difficulty... How long round trip did it take you? End to finish?

Cool report!
Quick question though. Regarding the Mojave River crossing, it looks like a stock 5th 4R would have issues with the water depth. Agree? Is there a a bypass? IIRC, there's a nearby alternative exit/entrance. Or a time of year when it is lower? Other than the river the Mojave is doable stock? (assuming one sticks to the main route).

I actually did the White Rim Road back in October which was spectacular. Hope to get a trip report up on that soon.

Where are you plannign to go in BC (as that is my neck of the woods)?

Cheers!

Looks amazing! I'm thinking of doing a trip down to the southwest for a bit of desert scenery.

Nice write up, thanks for this, i loved the Mojave Road.

Awesome trip and write up.




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Nice write up and trip report.

Curious how much of the 10 gallons of fuel you actually needed, or was it all as a precaution?

Planning this trip in the spring—the Mojave is awesome.

Nice write up! It shows that some research can really pay off. I threw together a solo trip on a week's notice in October and missed the slot canyon, lava tubes and didn't even see the frogs!

Re Sedona, was that double black sign on Hangover? Props if you can ride that whole trail, that is some serious no fall territory. Hiline/Hogs was my favorite loop out there and a must do if you didn't hit it!

-slide

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Yeah it was a pricey mistake for sure. It could have been worse if they were totally immobilized. A tow truck call out there would probably cost a small fortune.