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Mojave
National Preserve
Most travelers enter the preserve from Interstate 40 via Kelbaker Road
and head straight north on the road to Kelso. Suitable for passenger cars
the wide graded road cuts through the Granite Mountains and descends into
a wide valley on the west side of the Providence scarp (in winter the
Irovidences are occasionally snowcapped). Virtually a secret 20 years
ago, the KELSO DUNES are now the Eastern Mo)-ave's main attraction (if
getting a few dozen visitors a day warrants being called "main")
A hikers paradise, the area has long been protected from motor-ized vehicles,Thetermlnu<i
ofthe MOJAVE SINK is a vast catch basin for swirling sand lifted by winds
and deposited here against the Providence wall These dunes "sing,"
but don't expect an aria. On a still day, sand dislodged by your footsteps
slips like a great tongue of molasses down the dune face, and a chantlike
hum can be heard. Nearby KELSO DEPOT was once a busy Union Pacific Railroad
way point, with a Spanish-revival station grand enough for any major city
(you could still get a lemonade and in .the early 1970S)- Now k should
sometime after 2001 at the park's main visitors center and museum. From
Kelso you have a decision to make: Kelbaker Road to the northwest passes
through incredible LAVA FLOWS and CINDER CONES. Kelso-Cima Road heads
northeast through the world's largest JOSHUA TREE FOREST
which covers Cima Dome, a gently rounded igneous formation called a batholith
The Cima region's 75-square-mile bubble of once-molten rock is so big
that humans seem more like ants exploring the top of the Houston Astrodome.
Don't expect to see anything like the granite domes of Yosemite. Mojave
travelers commonly drive through and say "Where is it?" for
about 20 miles—and never find it because they're actually on it.
Cima Dome has an overstory of Joshua trees in such abundance that if the
desert can be said to have a forest, this is it. From the Cima area, return
to Interstate 40 via Mid-Hills Campground, Hole-in-the-Wall, and Mitchell
Caverns. From the Kelso-Cima Road, take Cedar Canyon Road east to Black
Canyon Road, then go south on Black Canyon to Mid-Hills and Hole-in-the-Wall.
The two developed campgrounds
within the preserve are at MID-HILLS (30 miles northwest of Interstate
40 via Essex and Black Canyon Roads) and HOLE-IN-THE-WALL (20 miles northwest
of Interstate 40 via same roads). Neither has a street address or a phone.
Hole-in-the-Wall does have a visitor center (760/928-2572), which is staffed
on weekends only and not at all during summer. Mid Hills is a high area,
prone to occasional snowfalls as winter storms sweep over the Providence
Range. Always travel in this area with plenty of water, warm clothing
in winter, and a close eye on the weather. Travelers have been known to
spend the night in a blizzard (they happen once or
twice a year), only to hike the following day in a T-shirt at Kelso Dunes.
If time is short, save most of it for Hole-in-the-Wall, a good jumping-off
point for an overnight backpacking trip or a day hike into the open desert
of the WILD HORSE CANYON area and some scrambling amongst the cave-pocked
LAVA FLOWS and staunchly upright RHYOLITE MONOLITHS nearby. One memorable
experience is the short climb down a narrow slot
canyon via several iron rings bolted into the rock. Further south off
Essex Road, PROVI-DENCE MOUNTAINS STATE RECREATION AREA (760/928- 2586)
offers a mountainside campground and MITCHELL CAVERNS (760/928-2586),
a must-stop for anyone with an interest in underground mysteries (and
cool cave temperatures in summer). Ranger-led cavern tours focus not only
on the caves' geological origins, but also the site's long use by Chimehuevi
tribesmen—as well as a few Pleistocene epoch critters.
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