Oh my dear God, with all the rains we’ve been having here in Southern California during the early month of 2005, the entire Mojave Desert has been transformed into a world I have never seen before in my lifetime. All the dry lakes were completely full, everything was green and there were flowers everywhere! Need I say, my family and I decided to take make every opportunity to head out to the Mojave Desert every single weekend we could this year to enjoy this once in a life time experience and on this particular trip, we explored the Cronese and Soda Mountains.

Our expedition began at the Afton Canyon exit just off the I-15 but unlike many trips we’ve taken in the past, we headed north away from Afton Canyon. This was in fact the very first time we taken this route and let me just say it was amazingly beautiful right from the get go. Right off the freeway, there were yellow flowers blanketing either side of the short paved road leading up to our trail and beyond that, we would find tons more and of all types.

The first real stop we made along the way was at a small mine about 3 or 4 miles into the trail. What caught our attention was a small lake that didn’t show up on any of my maps. We easily spent about an hour or more here photographing all the wonderful flowers and lake.

Continuing up the trail, we encountered several sections of the road that were completely submerged in moderately deep water (man I love owning a Jeep) as well as the valley around it. With islands of Creosote bushes everywhere, this truly was a beautiful sight to see. Again, my family and I couldn’t resist spending a good deal of time taking pictures, skipping rocks and just taking in the scenery here.

Once we got to the main power line road, we were surprised to see what looked like a huge scar across the desert floor extending as far as the eye could see. At first, I thought this was the boundary of the Fort Irwin National Training Center but upon closer examination, I found this to be where a trench had been dug and a pipeline buried in it. This was a very sad sight to see.

Heading north-east, we passed through a huge valley with a view of the West Cronese Dry Lake (full of water) and Cronese Mountains in the background and then climbed up the western edge of the Soda Mountains. From the top of the pass, we were treated to a breath taking view of Red Pass Dry Lake, which was of course, completely full of water.

Driving up to the edge of Red Pass Dry Lake, all I could think of was how completely out of place, foreign and stunning it looked out in the middle of the Mojave Desert. My family and I decided to have lunch and spend the better part of the day here. Looking north across the lake, you could see a whole host of buildings I can only guess are used for military training. I really wish I could have taken a closer look but the smarter half of me convinced me we were close enough.

As final stop, we decided to make one last stop and check out a couple of mines on the north side of the Soda Mountains. Due to all the rain and flash flooding this year, the road leading up to the mines had be severely washed out in many places requiring 4WD and a lot of clearance at times but even where the road was intact, the ride up was quite rough and very slow going. Having said that, the view from the mines was beautiful as well as were the rock formations in the deeply carved canyons they resided in. I have made note to myself to return someday and camp here.

Heading back to pavement, the road we were on was supposed to cross through Silver Dry Lake. However, when we got there… you guess it, the lake was very full with knee deep water, sticky mud and really quite impassable. Fortunately, there was a bypass road that skirted the northern side of the lake on higher ground and ended at Highway 127 too.

This really was a trip to remember and if you’ve got the time and the means, I would highly recommend you seeing this once in a lifetime experience.

Well, I went in for my smog re-test today at 7am. Worried about being late, i left early in the morning and i unfortunatly showed up about 10 min too early. Worse still, the nazis ended up being 10 mins late. It was in the upper 40’s this morning and my engine got a whole 20 mins to cool off anyway, the chief nazi remembers my CJ, pisses and moans about badly my exhaust smelled at an idle the last time around and that it was a surprise how well my engine cleaned up under load. Anyway, he has his new student fire up the engine and then goes for a walk to who knows where. No joke, about 10 mins later he comes back talking on the phone to God know who and for what reason but in the mean time, my engine is chugging along. 15 mins now have gone by and unconvinced that my TBI is really doing it’s job, he decided to plug his DLP reader up to the ECM and do some checking. Low and behold, my engine all of a sudden throws a check engine light… imagine that?! Well, right there and then, the jackoff cuts the engine and tells me that i failed my inspection. When I asked him what the error code was, he tells me that my engine is running too rich. So the student fires her back up, pulls it out of the garage and goes to park it when I noticed that the check engine light is now off. Seeing this, I ask if I could be tested again now that the light is off and he tells me that it’s no good and that the computer already has me down with a check engine light and the best he could do is void my test allowing me another chance.By this time, I’m really pissed off but don’t have a clue as to what to do…..

Anyway, so I head back home which is over an hour away in bumper to bumper traffic when it hits me…. try to get my Jeep smogged at a regular check station. Show the paper work from the time before and say that you missed your re-test appointment and can I just get it done here. Need I say, that’s exactly what I did and after a little persuading….. I passed smog with flying colors…. again!

Although I have visited the Kelso Sand Dunes several times before, I had never climbed to the top of them and had always wanted to. Needless to say, this was our destination for the day.

The Kelso Sand Dunes are located in the Mojave National Preserve near the I-40 and is about four hours away from the Los Angeles area. Pretty much any vehicle can access these dunes as virtually all but 4 miles of the trip can be done on pavement. To make thing a little more interesting for us, my family and I decided to leave the pavement early, do some exploring along the way and reach the dunes by cutting through the Bristol Mountain and Kelso Dunes Wilderness Areas.

After hours of driving, our adventure really began at the small town of Ludlow. Once, a welcome stop for exhausted travelers along the famous Route 66 (aka National Trails Highway), some evidence still remains that this place was once a growing and thriving town. However, with the addition of I-40, Ludlow has been reduced to nothing more than a couple of gas stations and a host of crumbling homes and buildings. Still, it has a lot of charm and I was left with a wonder what life would have been like in the early days of highway travel.

Heading north, the pavement ended abruptly just past the 76 gas station and we hooked up with our pipeline road just a couple of miles further up the road. From here, we headed east where we would be flanked by the the Kelso Dune and Bristol Mountain Wilderness Areas for the next 15 miles or so. Even with all the rains we’ve had this winter, you can see that this part (east side of the Bristol Mountains) of the Mojave Desert receives very little precipitation. The Creosotes here were sparse, very short and with the exception of some grasses, very little else was growing. However, as we approached the summit, more and a diverse amount of vegetation could be found. In fact, from the summit to the Kelso Dunes, we came across some beautiful Dune Evening Primroses, a ton of Sand Verbenas and a few Bladder Pods in bloom.

Unfortunately, the road we were on never actually reaches the Kelso Sand Dunes. So, once we got to a point where we felt close enough to them, we just parked our Jeep on the side of the road and hiked the rest of the way. From the road, I’d say it was only about .5 miles to the base of the dunes and then maybe another 1.5-2 miles more to the very top which is about 600 feet up. For the most part, this is a very easy hike but the last 100 yards or so was very steep and exhausting. We literally had to get down on all fours at one point and for every three steps you took only one would move you forward…. but let me tell you, it was totally worth it!! The view from the summit was simply unbelievable.

Unlike other sand dunes we have visited, the Kelso Dunes are oddly pinkish in color. Apparently, this is because they are made of many golden rose quartz particles. Also, these dunes are heavily vegetated and while we were there, we came across some beautiful Canaigre (aka Wild Rhubarb) not yet in bloom. In my opinion, the best time to visit these dunes is at sun up or close to sunset where the low angle of light allows you to really see the delicately sculpted sands and the unique tracks left by animals and insects.

If this is just a day trip for you, Kelbaker Road is just a couple of miles to the east and it will take you back to I-40 to the south or I-15 to the north.