Our Jeep Gladiator and two Toyota Tacomas traveled from Roosevelt Dam onto Deer Hill, then west along the Apache Trail through Apache Lake, Fish Creek, and Tortilla Flat. The trip connected rocky trail driving and canyon road engineering with the history of the Salt River dams, finishing at Canyon Lake's exposed shoreline during the 2026 maintenance drawdown.

Follow Four Peaks Road from State Route 87 across Tonto National Forest and down toward Tonto Basin. We stop near the saddle for a few miles on Arizona Trail Passage 20, then visit the Lower Cliff Dwelling at Tonto National Monument, where Salado architecture and surviving household features connect the landscape to its human history.

Part 2 of our Los Angeles to Las Vegas dirt crossing follows the Mojave Road into Afton Canyon before continuing through Liberty Sculpture Park, Nipton, dry lake country, and the historic mining town of Goodsprings. From there, we leave the backcountry behind and finish several days of Mojave Desert travel on the Las Vegas Strip.

The Mojave Road follows a desert corridor shaped by water, terrain, and generations of travel. Explore its history, practical route considerations, and Hardline trips connecting the Colorado River, Afton Canyon, Nelson, and southern Nevada.

We begin a dirt-track crossing of the Mojave Desert toward Las Vegas, moving from the mining remains of Evening Star Mine through Cima's Joshua tree country, volcanic terrain near Black Tank Wash, and the open surface of Cuddeback Dry Lake. Part 1 ends at the Husky Memorial, where decades of desert-riding history turn the story from landscape back toward the people who travel through it.