Got dragged out to Vegas, so I made it fun with a return to LA via the Mojave Reserve, including lava tubes, spooky canyons, and the dunes. Went with Lindsay and Monique.
January 6, 202235.0422°N 115.3920°W
Background
The Mojave National Preserve fills the empty quarter between I-15 and I-40 — 1.6 million acres of cinder cones, a Joshua tree forest, and the Kelso Dunes that boom when the sand slides, with almost nobody in it. The Lava Tube is the trick stop: a collapsed skylight drops a shaft of light into the cave around midday.
If you go
The Mojave National Preserve sits in the empty quarter between I-15 and I-40, and it’s the perfect ‘make the Vegas drive worth it’ detour. The Lava Tube throws a beam of light through its skylight around midday, the Kelso Dunes ‘boom’ when the sand slides, and Hole-in-the-Wall has the slot-canyon scramble. It’s free and gloriously empty, but services are almost nonexistent, so fuel and water up first.
