New Year’s Eve at Amboy Crater

Hiking to Amboy Crater on New Year’s Eve | Last Night in California | December 2025

On the last day of 2025, we were one day away from our intended departure of California, and we were looking for a way to spend our last day here, as well as our last day of 2025. It was predicted to rain a little in the afternoon, and throughout the night, so we needed to take that into consideration when looking for a dispersed camping spot. When browsing on iOverlander, I noticed that there was a paved lot on BLM land that allowed overnight camping, which was also the trailhead for Amboy Crater, a landmark that some of our friends had told us about. This was just what we were looking for, so we didn’t waste any time with packing up at our campsite in Mojave National Preserve and starting our drive South.

We drove South of I-40, the road being entirely downhill until we met up with Route 66. We headed West toward the town of Amboy and continued on to the crater. When gazing out on the horizon, I was looking for something much more prominent than the crater actually was, and was disappointed for just a second when I saw that it really didn’t stand out too much compared to the other hills in the surrounding area. But then I remembered that I had agreed to hike to the top with Curtis, and realized something that was incredibly prominent would also mean a more challenging hike.

When we arrived, we sat in the lot for a bit to get a feel for the area and whether we’d feel comfortable staying the night, then gathered some snacks and water and set out for our hike. The trail was 4 miles round trip, and gained over 400 feet of elevation. It began with a long, mostly flat approach to the crater, then switchbacked gradually up the West side. We enjoyed the walk on the volcanic rock, reminiscing on other times we’ve walked on this type of terrain, including: El Malpais in New Mexico, Four Mile Butte in Oregon, and of course, Mauna Loa in Hawaii.

The switchbacks weren’t anything too difficult, and soon enough we made it to the ground floor of the crater. From here, we started hiking up the crater rim trail, going in a clockwise direction. The rim trail was narrow at times, surrounded by jagged volcanic rock, but definitely worth the views from the top giving us a better perspective of the lava flow. We walked halfway around the crater together, then I took the center trail down to walk through the middle of the crater while Curtis continued the rest of the way around the rim. We met back up near the switchbacks, and stopped for a quick snack before making our descent.

The rest of our day was spent relaxing in the van and staying dry from the periodic rain. Later in the day, a few other vans and RVs joined us in the lot for the night, and we met a couple that was traveling from British Columbia. The rain picked up in the evening, and stayed pretty constant for the rest of the night. It ended up being a quiet night besides that, with no partiers or fireworks within earshot.

If you’re interested, check out the official AllTrails recording for the Amboy Crater Trail hike here.