2008 East Mojave Spring

My son Zak (age 11) and I had a great trip out to East Mojave the first couple of days of Easter Week. Zak's sister Maya had gone on to Braun Springs with her cousins so Zak and I were free to put in some heavy duty hiking and we were ready to go. The East Mojave is characterized by that breathtaking stark desert beauty that really sets apart the desert Southwest from so much of the rest of the country.Our first stop brought us to the Kelso Dunes. These are the second highest sand dunes in California behind the Eureka Dunes. The dunes cover an area of over 50 square miles but there is a fairly direct approach to the highes dune ridge. While they are impressive from afar (see the picture above), we weren't content to just look; so we set off to climb to the top of the highest dune. The high point is a little over 700 feet and the final approach to the summit ridge required a little four-point digging in but the view along the top was worth it. We topped out on a knife edge of shifting sand with the wind sculpting an undulating washboard along the windward slope abruptly dropping off on the dune's leading edge; perfect for huge running jumps down the face! The views from the top were spectacular as well. We were surrounded by large desert peaks, the most significant of which was the Providence Range just to the East. I had climbed the high point of that range some years before with great group from Grossmont College including Michael Golden, Brian Nath, and Peter White as well as Jesse Hartz, John Wilkerson, Al White and others non-Grossmonters. Those are limestone peaks richly embedded with marine fossils; quite a sight out in the middle of the desert.

One of the neat things about these dunes is that they are "barking" dunes. When you step down the face or otherwise move the sand down the slope, the sand particles moving over each other create a fairly loud low resonant booming tone; kind of like a bassoon or a didgeridoo.





We camped that night at the end of the access road to the Dunes and, in the morning headed up the Kelbaker road to the Kelso Depot. When I first stated coming to the East Mohave, some eight years back, the Depot had been abandoned and boarded up for what looked like decades. However, after the Preserve fell under the auspices of the National Park system, they completely revitalized the Depot and it now serves as the park headquarters.

We cruised North along the Kelbaker road turning off to the South/Southwest along the Aiken Mine Road. The road followed a sandy wash which added a certain level of adventure as we were travelling in the Honday Odyssey jeep and our ability to retrace our tracks up the wash through the soft sand was by no ways assured.


While we didn't have the wildflower display we had hoped for (we were a little early in the season for this elevation), we did find some beautiful flowers, especially in the washes.



We finally found the trailhead to Old Dad Peak; an ancient outcropping of limestone which was formed on the bottom of some long-gone sea. The rock was pretty sharp which, on the plus side, provided for some pretty firm foot and hand holds when needed. The harder you would hold on, the more it hurt, and the more secure you felt; sweet pain. Our intention was to climb to the summit but we were immediately led off-route by a huge rock marker or "duck" that someone had placed in some unfathomable desire to lead someone somewhere. Note to all of you Sierra Club Desert Peak Section people out there: if you don't know if you are on the correct route, don't mark it! We climbed up to the ridge, over terrain it is possible no one has ever trod upon, and made it up to the ridge only to spy the actual summit one-half mile to the North. We traversed along the ridge - beautiful views and exposure with no real danger to either of us - but our way was blocked by a signficant canyon essentially dividing the mountain into two. Unfortunately, we were not on the same side as the summit. Nevertheless, incredible sense of accomplishment. I was blown away at how strong and capable Zak was on the climb. We had a weird experience on the descent. We stopped on the descent for a sandwich and were soon greeted by a couple of curious bees, and then a couple more, and then more and before long we were surrounded by a horde of buzzing bees. It sounded like there was a cessna idling on the slope next to us. We must have sat down near their hive so we quickly wrapped up the sandwiches and continued our descent without incident.

From Old Dad, we drove NE on the Aiken Mine Road through a surreal landscape of cinder cones to a lava tube formed with the surface areas of a lava flow cooled and hardened while the inner core continued to flow. Part of the ceiling of the lava tube had collapsed, letting in shafts of light.




We continued NE along the lava flow forming the boundary of the Aiken Wash through a cinder "mine" to the unmarked Heritage Road turnoff into the wash. Parking at the end of the road, we crossed the wash to a Lava Arch which Native-Americans had left pictographs. All along the sides of the was, petroglyphs were carved into the lava. We even found a couple of morteros which had been used to grind some kind of food.





We spent the night, all by ourselves, at the edge of the wash. The next morning we drove North to Cow Cove. It took a bit to find it but after a 30 minute walk from the car we came upon a couple of large sloping fields of dark lava covered in petroglyphs. Spectacular.



On our way South we passed the Cima Dome, one of the largest and most symmetrical natural features in the world. It's summit would have to wait for another day.