The Mojave Road 2019
The Mojave Road, also known as Old Government Road (formerly the Mohave Trail), is a historic route across what is now the Mojave National Preserve in the Mojave Desert. It’s 147 miles of unmaintained dirt that requires a 4x4 vehicle to cross. Kirk took his two stroke Honda CRF450 which, at the end of trip we found out he road illegally - more on this later. Collin took his Ford F150 FX4, Christian in his Ford Raptor, both in a beautiful blue hue.
A few members of the group had explored parts of the road in past years but haven’t traversed through the entire road. This was my first official ‘overlanding’ trip and I’ve waited for the opportunity for many years. We carried everything we needed to survive for three nights in our vehicles - water, shelter fuel, food, and flares (aka Fireworks).
I rode in the backseat of Collin’s F150, with Becky riding shotgun most of the trip. Mile after mile as we encountered landmarks, Becky would read over the radio, history and interesting facts about the Mojave and the Native Americans who used to live and travel through here. I was taking it all in - Kirk zipping around on his motorcycle, Christian sliding his rear end out at every opportunity he had, the chirps of the walkie-talkies, the Joshua tree forest in this vast desert. I admit I was disappointed that I didn’t have my own vehicle that could cross this type of terrain, but being a passenger, I didn’t have to worry about anything. I wasn’t driving, I wasn’t counting mile markers to navigate, I didn’t have to worry about potentially harming my vehicle, or falling off my bike - I was soaking it all in, and because I wasn’t driving, I had the opportunity to snap photo after photo.
The last leg of the trip was through Soda Lake, right by the Zyzzyx Road. Unfortunately we were unable to cross because it was super bogged out because the storm a month before. We had lunch on the dry lake, took the opportunity to snap some action photos, and took the highway to Primm, Nevada to watch the start of the Mint 400.
