I am subscribed to Brent’s channel on YouTube called Ghost Town Living. Today, while watching his newest video, I saw this 4Runner. Just curious if anyone on the board owns it.

I drove mine up there about 1.5 months ago. I swear I will never go up there again, as that road scares the crap out of me

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Please do tell what your experience was like driving up there? I believe it is the same place my favorite ghost adventures have been to.
I'm always up for a good scare.

I am not afraid to admit that I don’t like single lane dirt roads high up in the sky with nothing on one side by steep drops. There are two areas that really got to me because one of them also included a turn, which meant I saw nothing but sky.

At the beginning of the road, you are roughly at 4K feet in elevation. You drive eight miles to the mine and climb to roughly 8K feet in elevation, so basically you climb 500ft in elevation per mile.

I was lucky that no one was driving down when I was going up because I would have really had a hard time backing down to an area where we could pass each other and there aren’t many of those areas.

On the way down, it was more intense because you pretty much ride the brakes the whole way. I learned on the drive down that my completely rebuilt front end that I did a few months before this trip was now going to be put to the test, either showing me I did everything right or not and if not, I am over the edge and will die lol. Thankfully, I did everything right (of course, thanks to Timmy and Sean). Putting an automatic in low didn’t really help because the road doesn’t stay straight long enough to let the gears be the brakes and you have lots of twists and turns. I eventually pulled off into an area I felt safe in, could smell the brakes a bit (thankfully my rotors are Tundra rotors) and let them cool.

The mine was totally cool and despite being scared of the road, I really enjoyed being up there. What I am curious about though is, how the traffic is going to be handled once Cerro Gordo “opens” as a tourist attraction? If that road doesn’t get widened, eight miles is going to seem more like fifty miles.

Wow, that sounds intense. Thank you for sharing. I see what you mean now. Scared more of the drive rather the haunted town. Haha. It makes sense. No wonder why Ghost Adventures crew had brand new suped up jeeps when they were up there.

Yep, I was scared of the drive lol. BUT, I will admit, because I was not up there at night, I am not sure how it would feel with regards to it being haunted. During the day while I was up there, I didn’t feel any of that. The mind can play funny tricks on you.

I absolutely will never go into a mine, especially that one since there are still some ~30 miners dead in the Cerro Gordo mine. So you might get those haunted feelings if you were in the mine and / or up there at night.

That road up wasn't that bad. My 2wd pickup made it there no issues. It got narrow once you went past the town towards the salt tram but my truck didn't have any problems until it just didn't have enough power to climb the hill anymore.

It’s not about 2WD / 4WD / power. For me, it is psychological. I am terribly afraid of heights and with that, sitting in a lifted 4Runner on a narrow road wasn’t ideal for my afraid of heights issue.

Below is a screenshot of the video I took while driving up there. Difficult to understand with just this picture, but when I was driving it, I HATED the feeling I got with this kind of view. The other picture is totally fine for me driving it because there is no steep drop off and with that kind of setting, I am totally fine.

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Adding this to the list

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Adding this to the list as well. The whole 395 corridor is full of adventure. I could spend weeks exploring there. A bit north of there, towards Manzanar is the mine you can drive a 3rd gen into nearly a mile with a turn-around deep inside. I don't recall the name but a member here did a write-up on it, I believe. Maybe it was YouTube...

I think I am going to start at the western Mojave and come back up to the Bay Area via 395 this fall (with a stop at Mammoth for some hill bombing on the MTB).

If you’re more nervous about going back down, (or either direction really) you can go up or down the back way. It’s true off-roading but not terribly technical. Maybe one or 2 small rock step sections. It eventually leads to Saline rd in Lee Flats and then to the 190 above Panamint Valley. Fun road!
As far as being haunted, I spent one night on the couch in the building that eventually burned down (I think) a few years before Brent bought it. No ghosts to report.


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There is a guy on YouTube with a channel called 395Junkie. Might check him out. The mine you are referring to where you can drive in is called the Reward Mine.

I knew there was some kind of road behind the mine, but I never checked it out. Thanks for the advice. Maybe that would be the way I could go in next time.

This is where I pulled off and let my brakes cool off a bit when I was going back down the road. This area looked a lot like it would be on Mars or some kind of alien movie. The picture doesn’t do the 4Runner justice in how dusty it really was, especially the rear hatch.

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if 4low 1st gear didn't control your speed, you have something wrong with your vehicle. in 4LOW 1st gear, i doubt you'd touch the brakes the whole way down.

Man where do I get these fancy new white tires?