One Day Exploring the Vast Mojave National Preserve

Visiting Mojave National Preserve is a bit different than its neighboring National Parks, Death Valley and Joshua Tree. While all of these parks preserve vast desert landscapes, Mojave provides a much less crowded and less developed experience. 

The park is located between Interstate 15 and Interstate 40 in Southern California and is not far from Las Vegas, making it a pretty easy park to visit. What you will find is the wide open spaces of the Mojave Desert along with transitional elements of the Great Basin Desert of Death Valley and the Sonoran Desert of Joshua Tree. 

The park is joined on the eastern side by Castle Mountains National Monument, which appears to be managed jointly with Mojave National Preserve. Alas, while the parks are adjacent, it is difficult to visit them on the same day based on their access points and damaged connecting roads.

The landscapes you will find in these remote parks include rugged mountains, abundant stretches of Joshua Trees, fragrant Pinyon and Juniper forests, sprawling lava beds, and towering sand dunes. Along the way, you will find small pockets of humanity… places where human beings have carved a life out of the desert.

In short, it was amazing.

(Disclaimer: When we link to places where you can buy our stuff or places we stayed, we are using special codes that earn us commissions on the sales at no additional cost to you. Please see our Review Policy  for more information.)

Planning Your Visit to Mojave National Preserve

We visited Mojave on our way from Joshua Tree National Park to Las Vegas and made a point to spend a day hiking and driving around Mojave National Preserve. We did not have our travel trailer with us. Otherwise, we would have camped in the park.

Read more about our visit to Joshua Tree National Park here.

Mojave National Preserve is not too remote, as it is only about two hours from both Las Vegas, NV and Barstow, CA. That said, once you get inside the park, you will find far fewer services than many other national parks. There are two campgrounds, plus a group equestrian campground. One of the campgrounds has water available. The others do not.

Unlike many National Parks, there are undeveloped campsites throughout the backcountry. Folks can use previously used campsites IF you can get to them. Most of these sites are located on unmaintained dirt roads that crisscross the park. 

There’s no food available in the park and limited water, so you really need to bring everything you need while visiting the park. 

There’s no lodging other than dry camping in the park. You will find hotels out on the interstates outside the park.

When to Visit Mojave National Preserve and Castle Mountains National Monument

If you are planning on doing anything outside, it is best to avoid the extreme heat of the summer months of June, July, August and September. You will find cooler temperatures the rest of the year. 

We visited in the winter, driving through Mojave on New Year’s Eve, and the weather was quite comfortable, though it can get cool at night.

How to Spend One Day in Mojave National Preserve

There are a bunch of cool activities to do in this park that can easily keep you busy for just a day trip or several days, depending on your interests. We only had a few hours inside the park, but still felt that we had a good experience. Keep reading to find out how we spent our time at Mojave National Preserve.

We entered from the south on Essex Road and then headed towards Hole-in-the-Wall, the information center (and de facto visitor center while the Kelso Depot is being renovated). It was relatively early in the morning, so we grabbed our packs and headed out on the Rings Loop Trail. 

Rings Loop Trail

The Rings Loop Trail is a 1.5-mile loop trail that leads out of the south end of the parking lot at Hole-in-the-Wall. It loops through the desert back around to Banshee Canyon. From there, you follow the road a short distance back to the parking lot.

The trail up to the canyon was pretty flat… just keep an eye on the trail markers. Indeed, we lost the trail a couple of times. 

Once you get to Banshee Canyon, it becomes a bit more rigorous, moving through some larger rocks and tight spaces until you get to the titular rings. 

What makes this trail a bit more adventurous is the fact that you have to scale a couple of nearly vertical sections with the assistance of metal rings. Honestly, the rings were just enough of a challenge to keep our hearts beating and make this hike a must-do on any visit to this park. 

The views of this canyon are pretty spectacular but if the idea of the rings scares you, you can do the trail in the opposite direction to see the canyon without scaling the rings. 

Pro Tip: Carry a backpack to secure any loose things in it while scaling the rings so they don’t dangle and smack into either the rings or the canyon wall.

Drive the Black Canyon Road

North of the Hole-in-the-Wall Campground, the Black Canyon Road transitions to a dirt road, but it is maintained, so any vehicle can traverse as long as you take it easy. This drive will take you through the heart of the park, navigating between the Providence Mountains and the Woods Mountains, through Gold and Round valleys and by Mid Hill Campground.

We turned left at Mojave Road and were greeted with sweeping views as we headed west. The pavement picked back up shortly before we crossed the Union Pacific Railroad and then turned southwest on the Kelso Cima Road. 

This drive really does give you a taste of the terrain you can explore on the various four-wheel drive roads. We saw a few folks taking those trails and it looked like a great way to enjoy the backcountry of the park. That said, you need a well-equipped four-wheel drive vehicle. This is not a place where you can count on help coming for you, so you need to be able to self-rescue. The park recommends no one travel by themselves on any of those trails. 

Kelso Depot Museum and Visitor Center

I would love to be able to tell you more about visiting this historic train depot along the Union Pacific Railroad. Unfortunately, it was closed for renovations when we visited. Still, we checked out the cool architecture and the informational signs around the depot. 

As of publication (June 2025), the park expects the Kelso Depot Visitor Center to reopen in 2026. That said, the project has already had some delays so be sure to check the park’s website for current information.

One thing to note: the Union Pacific is still an active rail line so, if there is a train, it can delay your travels up to one hour.

Kelso Dunes and the Cinder Cone Lava Beds

We visited the Kelso Dunes but did not hike the trail through the dunes. The dunes are beautiful and known as the “singing sand” or “booming dunes.” This is because the dunes will emit a low-frequency rumble when folks slide down the sand. 

We were running out of time, since the sun sets early in the winter, so we headed back north towards Kelso Depot and then on to Baker, CA. Along the way, we saw really cool lava beds in the Cinder Cone Lava Beds area. The change in the terrain and vegetation was dramatic and we got to see a lot of spectacular volcanic rock. There is a Lava Tube cave you can explore here as well, but it does require a high-clearance vehicle to get there.

What Would We Do if We Had More Time?

If we had more time to visit Mojave National Preserve, we would definitely stay at the Hole-in-the-Wall Campground, which was quite nice. We could easily spend a couple of days driving the various roads and doing several more hikes. In particular, I would want to do the Barber Peak Loop and the Teutonia Peak Loop. I would also want to visit the Mitchell Caverns Natural Preserve in the Providence Mountains State Recreation Area, which is located in the park south of Hole-in-the-Wall.

In short, there’s enough to keep us busy for several days.     

Planning Your Visit to Castle Mountains National Monument

Castle Mountains National Monument is adjacent to Mojave National Preserve on the east side, but it is very difficult to access from Mojave. Hart Mine Road is a four-wheel drive-only road that has been damaged heavily by recent flooding.

So, to visit Castle Mountains National Monument, you will need to take Hwy 164 east 14 miles to Walking Box Ranch Road and then turn south. The road from that direction is a well-graded gravel road and the vast majority of cars can easily drive it.

What to Do in Castle Mountains National Monument

Honestly, other than driving in to check out the views (there are tons of Joshua Trees!), there’s not much to do here if you don’t have a well-equipped four-wheel drive vehicle. That’s not to say it’s not cool but there are no facilities or even hiking trails. 

Unless you are making a point to visit every unit of the National Park Service, you can safely skip this one. Honestly, it should just be merged with Mojave National Preserve. But the different designations allow for different activities and visitor usage.

Final Thoughts on Visiting Mojave National Preserve and Castle Mountains National Monument

We really enjoyed our one day in Mojave National Preserve. After spending time in Joshua Tree National Park and fighting the crowds, it was a welcome respite. 

We found a beautiful, rugged desert to explore with plenty of staggering views. Looking for Joshua Trees? We found plenty of them here. 

Castle Mountains National Monument? We only saw one other vehicle during our drive… and tons of Joshua Trees plus the beautiful titular mountains in the distance. 

These parks are the perfect places to get away from the crowds found in the more popular national parks nearby. 

---

Travel Resources