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, 2022
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.
