Treasures of the Mojave

The Mojave Desert doesn’t easily reveal its treasures. You could spend decades here and never see a desert tortoise. If the rains don’t come, there will be no bloom, much less a super one.

But you can always count on the desert’s spectacular geology, because after millions of years of folding, faulting, erosion and eruptions, the Mojave’s epic landforms aren’t going anywhere soon. On a 445-mile road trip out of Los Angeles that visits the Mojave’s national parks — Death Valley, the Mojave preserve and Joshua Tree — you’ll experience the best of the desert’s diverse geology as you hike among giant tufa formations, scramble up towering dunes and challenge gravity on world-renowned climbing boulders.

About 30 minutes past the jumbo jets stored at the Mojave Air and Space Port in the town of Mojave, Highway 14 leads to Red Rock Canyon State Park (on Highway 14 about 25 miles north of Mojave, 661-946-6092, parks.ca.gov). Like a chunk of Utah’s Bryce Canyon plunked down a couple of hours north of L.A., the park’s wind- and water-carved sandstone hoodoos and fluted cliffs add a splash of Southwest color to the otherwise tawny terrain of the Mojave. Just off the highway at the main entrance, the signed 1.2-mile round trip Hagen Canyon Nature Trail (and its side routes) quickly lead to some of the park’s most impressive landmarks, including Turk’s Turban, a rounded formation set against a Dalí-esque wall of orange-and-white cliffs that looks like it’s dissolving, and Camel Rock, whose name should be of little mystery.

Highway 14 continues north along the base of the southern Sierra and narrows to two lanes before you take Highway 178 east toward Ridgecrest, about 40 minutes from the park. There you’ll find the usual fast-food options, as well as French cuisine at Mon Reve (126 Balsam St., Ridgecrest, 760-375-3212).

Seventeen miles beyond the town, follow the signs for Trona Pinnacles onto a sandy track that heads 5 miles onto the flats of Searles Valley and to this cluster of 500 tufa towers (road begins on the right side of Highway 178 about 17 miles east of Ridgecrest, 760-384-5400, blm.gov/visit/trona-pinnacles). These calcium carbonate deposits that formed underwater between 10,000 and 100,000 years ago look like stone wizard hats and goblins popping up from the desert floor; some of the towers stand only about 10 feet, but the tallest tops out at 140 feet.

Hollywood loves the pinnacles: They’ve been featured in television shows and movies, from the original “Lost in Space” and HBO’s “Westworld” to the 2001 remake of “Planet of the Apes.” Walk the primitive paths that wind around this natural Stonehenge and grab photographs of the surreal towers (best in the early morning and late afternoon when the shadows are longest and colors most saturated).

Back on eastbound Highway 178, you’ll continue past the mineral processing plants in the dusty town of Trona before a run through the empty expanses of the Panamint Valley. At Highway 190, go right and climb into the Panamint Range, topping out at 4,956-foot Towne Pass. Highway 190 then begins its winding descent into the heart of Death Valley National Park (760-786-3200, nps.gov/deva) at Furnace Creek, where the historic and recently renovated Inn at Death Valley is the most luxurious lodging in the park (760-786-2345, oasisatdeathvalley.com/lodging/the-inn-at-death-valley).

If you’re of a certain age, Zabriskie Point will forever be associated with the trippy 1970 Michelangelo Antonioni film that took its name from this badlands overlook (parking off Highway 190 about 3½ miles south of the Inn at Death Valley). It’s hard to imagine the National Park Service signing off on it now, but the barren mud-and-clay hills (the eroded sediments of an ancient lake bed) below the point served as the location for the movie’s notorious orgy in the desert. These days, Zabriskie Point has a far tamer reputation — as the place for sunrise when the badlands and the Panamint Range across the valley first light up. For a closer look at the geology, hike the 2.7-mile Badlands Loop, which begins from the point and connects to longer routes that explore Golden Canyon and the ruddy palisade of the Red Cathedral formation.

From the inn, head 29 miles south to Death Valley Junction, then continue on Highway 127 another 83 miles until you reach the town of Baker and Kelbaker Road. Follow it into Mojave National Preserve (760-252-6100, nps.gov/moja), where in 35 miles you can pick up information and refreshments at the preserve’s Kelso Depot Visitor Center, housed in a former Union Pacific building that dates to the 1920s. Kelbaker Road also leads to the Kelso Dunes (on Kelso Dunes Road, 4 miles west of Kelbaker Road; nps.gov/moja).

You’ll never look at a Stairmaster with any respect after the 3-mile round-trip trudge to the top of these impressive dunes, one of the preserve’s highlights. Grains of quartz and feldspar, blown over from Soda Dry Lake, have piled up to a height of almost 700 feet, making the Kelso Dunes the third highest in North America. The trail quickly fades out, so just ramble over the hummocks and aim for the ridgeline, while trying to find the most packed footing. Your reward is a vast panorama of the Mojave that takes in several mountain ranges and the sand-covered plain of the Devil’s Playground. And listen: The Kelso Dunes are rare “acoustic dunes”; under the right moisture conditions, the grains produce a moaning sound as they slide down the steep slopes.

Back on Kelbaker Road, you’ll continue through rocky Granite Pass, cross Interstate 40, and at Route 66 (signed here as National Trails Highway), go west for Amboy, about 45 minutes away. For the selfie crowd, Amboy’s big draw is the retro sign at Roy’s Café, one of the few surviving vintage landmarks on Route 66 in the California desert. Solitude seekers, however, continue to Amboy Crater, a prominent cinder cone nearby (2 miles west of Amboy off National Trails Highway, 760-326-7000, blm.gov/visit/amboy-crater). A 4-mile round-trip hike leads across rocky, open desert (absolutely no shade) to the rim of the 250-foot-tall, 1,500-foot-wide crater. The volcano last erupted about 10,000 years ago and from atop the rim, you can clearly see the breach where lava poured out and covered a 24-square-mile expanse.

Head east on Route 66 toward Amboy, then turn south on Amboy Road and in just under an hour, you’ll reach the Marine base town of Twentynine Palms. For mere mortals still a few skills shy of free-soloing El Capitan, Joshua Tree National Park’s stacks of fractured monzogranite boulders, formed as magma cooled underground around 100 million years ago, offer virtually endless climbing choices (760-367-5500, nps.gov/jotr). The park’s list of permitted hiking guides is available at nps.gov/jotr/planyourvisit/climbing.htm.

With 8,000 routes along the park’s grippy rock formations, there’s something for climbers of all levels, especially because of the many local outfitters that guide trips. Close to numerous outstanding routes, Hidden Valley Campground is a hot spot for the climbing community and where the Park Service hosts Climber’s Coffee orientations from 8 to 10 a.m. on weekends from mid-October through April.

When you’ve had your fill of scaling ancient rock, it’s time to bid the desert goodbye, returning from its timeless landscapes to our comparatively ephemeral civilization. —Matt Jaffe

Read more: The Mojave is home to one of California's off-roading meccas.