Mojave Preserve to Death Valley

Driving from Mojave National Preserve to Death Valley National Park | Hiking in the Salt Creek Hills | Visiting the China Ranch Date Farm | Tecopa, CA | December 2024

This morning, we packed up our campsite in Mojave National Preserve to continue our drive North to Death Valley. We knew we had hardly scratched the surface for the Mojave, but there really wasn’t much more for us to do off of the road we were driving (Lanfair Road) and it was not the most fun road to drive either. Next time we visit, we’ll definitely focus more on the West side where there seem to be more highlights of the park, like dunes, caverns, and trails. At this point, we knew we’d be heading back South in a couple weeks, so it was even an option to possibly return here on this trip — time would tell.

We drove North to I-15, and took that to Baker, CA. We filled up on some of that pricey California gas, and attempted to get some ‘alien jerky’ from the weird spaceship looking building next door, but couldn’t justify a tiny bag for $15. We saw other signs advertising date shakes and decided to hold out for those.

Finally, we began our drive up CA-127. We were now further North in California than we’d ever been together, everything was entirely new and thrilling to us. We marveled at the views of peaks we didn’t know the names of and admired the wide open desert valleys in between.

After we had driven for an hour, I saw a roadside trail and suggested we pull over and stretch our legs. This area is marked as the Salt Creek Hills on Google maps, and has a short trail with information boards about the area. This was one of the first places where gold was discovered which led to the gold rush, and if you manage to make it further than we did in the trail, you can see the remains of the oldest building in the county. We just wandered as far as the wash, then decided it was too steep and rocky for Charlotte so we turned around.

Next, we thought we would start checking out different areas where we could camp tonight, since our main goal for today was to get close to Death Valley so we could start our visit to the park tomorrow. The first place we checked wasn’t too far from our first stop, and the online listing made it sound like there was some cool hiking and wandering to be done in this area, but we were not at all comfortable with how sandy the road was so we immediately turned around to find somewhere else (unfortunately we still have not learned our lesson from our experiences getting stuck/almost stuck and still do not own recovery boards). I consulted iOverlander and Google Maps and quickly came up with an alternative plan. We would continue driving North to Tecopa where we would make good on our idea of getting date shakes and do some hiking there, then drive a little further East to another campsite that sounded more promising.

We made our way to Tecopa, then followed signs to China Ranch Farms. The road to get here wasn’t at all what we had expected — it turned to gravel, then steeply descended into a canyon. But it proved to be worth it, because not only was there a date farm and bakery, but it was also the starting point for several trails! Curtis went inside and got us some goodies – date shakes, a date brownie, and a package of dates – then we enjoyed our treats (as well as our lunch) at a picnic table.

It was getting rather warm on this sunny afternoon, so we knew it was unlikely that Char would want to walk very far, but we still set out on the trail in an attempt to reach a slot canyon. That plan was a little too ambitious but at least the views were beautiful the entire way. We started by walking through palms following a stream, where quail were darting back and forth across the trail, then left the shade and continued on into the gorgeous desert scenery. We did our best to encourage Char to keep walking, but she would not be fooled into a long hike. We finally gave in and returned to the van, and Curtis found a letterbox before we continued on our way.

Tonight’s campsite was a few miles East of the turn off for the date farm, off of the Old Spanish Trail highway. Here we found a dispersed site that was right on the edge of a canyon, with mountains in the distance in every direction, and only one other van that was parked off in the distance. We spent most of our time here sitting outside, soaking up the sun and the views, and enjoyed another beautiful sunset before turning in for the night.