Los Angeles to Las Vegas on Dirt: Mojave Desert Crossing, Part 2

Jens Brown
2 days ago
5 min read

Mojave Desert Crossing, Part 2

There are faster ways to get from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. We chose the slower one, crossing the Mojave Desert on dirt tracks instead of following I-15.

In Part 1, we worked our way across mining country, Joshua tree woodland, volcanic terrain, Cuddeback Dry Lake, and eventually the Husky Memorial. Part 2 picks up with more desert still ahead. We continue along the Mojave Road, descend into Afton Canyon, visit Liberty Sculpture Park and Nipton, then turn north across dry lake country toward Goodsprings, Nevada. The final miles leave the backcountry behind and carry us into Las Vegas.

Route Overview

The second half of the crossing linked several very different parts of the Mojave. We moved through Afton Canyon and the Mojave River corridor, returned to open desert, passed through Nipton, then headed toward the Nevada line and Goodsprings before finishing in Las Vegas.

The Mojave Road itself is roughly 150 miles long and follows an old transportation corridor between the Colorado River and the Mojave River. Much of it remains unmaintained, and sand, washouts, mud, and seasonal water can change conditions quickly. That changing terrain was one of the things that defined the trip. Drainages, volcanic fields, dry lakes, uplands, old transportation corridors, and mining districts kept changing both the road and the history around us.

Dropping Into Afton Canyon

Afton Canyon changed the route almost immediately. Much of the Mojave River spends its course beneath sand and gravel, but Afton is one of the relatively few places where water regularly reaches the surface. That gave the canyon a different character from the broad dry basins around it, with denser vegetation and a more confined river corridor.

Entering Afton Canyon - Rapierian Area and Train Trestle

The canyon also reflected a much older geological process. The Mojave River once carried sediment into ancient Lake Manix, which occupied part of this basin during the late Pleistocene. Roughly 25,000 years ago, the lake drained through the area and helped cut the canyon we traveled through. The modern river now occupies a much smaller drainage within that older landscape.

For us, the practical challenge was more immediate. Sand, water, erosion, and changing channel depth made this section less predictable than a normal dirt road. A crossing that looked manageable under one set of conditions could be very different after storms or flooding.

Liberty Sculpture Park

From Afton Canyon, the trip shifted from geology and transportation history to something much more contemporary. Liberty Sculpture Park near Yermo was developed by sculptor Weiming Chen beginning in the late 2010s as a desert memorial centered on democracy, human rights, and opposition to Communist political repression.

The nonprofit foundation behind the park was established in 2018, and the site grew into a collection of large-scale works focused largely on modern Chinese history, including the Tiananmen Square protests, political imprisonment, and the suppression of dissent.

Memorials dedicated to victims of Communist governments

Among the most recognizable pieces was Chen's interpretation of the Tiananmen Square "Tank Man," the unidentified man photographed standing in front of a column of tanks in Beijing in June 1989. Other works included the June 4 Monument, a Tiananmen massacre relief, a recreation of the Goddess of Democracy, and memorials dedicated to victims of Communist governments. The setting made the stop more striking. These monuments stood in the open Mojave within sight of I-15, placing a collection devoted to political memory beside one of the busiest travel corridors between Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

Finishing Our Mojave Road Run at Nipton

From there, we continued toward Nipton. The settlement began at the crossing of older wagon routes, including routes linking the Colorado River, the Ivanpah mining district, and the Goodsprings area. Gold discoveries around 1900 brought more activity to the area, but the larger change came when the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad reached the crossroads in 1904. The first through train between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles followed the next year, and the small settlement developed into a rail stop serving mines, ranches, passengers, and freight moving through the eastern Mojave.

Public art and large-scale installations - Burning Man

By 1910, the settlement had taken the name Nipton, and for the next several decades it served as a connection point between the railroad and surrounding mining districts, including stage service toward Searchlight, Nevada. The historic hotel and other surviving buildings reflected that railroad period, while more recent owners added another layer through public art and large-scale installations, including pieces associated with Burning Man.

For our trip, Nipton marked the end of our Mojave Road run and the point where we turned north toward Nevada.

Goodsprings and Southern Nevada Mining Country

Crossing into Nevada brought us toward Goodsprings, where mining became the dominant historical thread again. The town grew near natural springs in the foothills of the Spring Mountains and became the center of one of southern Nevada's more productive mining districts. Lead, silver, copper, zinc, and gold were extracted from the surrounding mountains, and improved transportation helped the settlement expand during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Mining increased substantially during World War I as demand for zinc and copper rose, and the Yellow Pine Mine became one of the district's major operations. Goodsprings supported stores, hotels, a school, saloons, and the other services needed by a working mining community before declining as mineral prices and production fell.

Final parts of the trail towards Goodspring, Nevada

By the time we arrived, Goodsprings also carried a second identity through Fallout: New Vegas. The 2010 game begins in a fictionalized version of the town and borrows heavily from the real southern Nevada setting. That connection was easy to understand after crossing the Mojave ourselves. The real Goodsprings had developed because of water, ore, transportation, and the cycles of mining, while the game reused that same geography as the starting point for its version of the desert.

Approaching Pioneer Saloon in Goodspring, Nevada "Fallout New Vegas"

The Final Miles to Las Vegas

Beyond Goodsprings, the isolation started to disappear. Dirt gave way to more developed roads, traffic increased, and the Las Vegas Valley began taking over the horizon. After spending so much of the crossing measuring progress by washes, mines, dry lakes, trail junctions, and mountain ranges, the transition happened quickly.

The trip ended on the Las Vegas Strip. It was almost the opposite environment from the roads that brought us there, but the contrast made it a fitting finish. Over the course of the crossing, we had moved through mining districts, Joshua tree country, volcanic terrain, playas, the Mojave River corridor, railroad settlements, and old desert transportation routes before finally joining the city most people reached without ever leaving the interstate.

Watch Mojave Desert Crossing, Part 2

The full video follows this portion of the trip through Afton Canyon, Liberty Sculpture Park, Nipton, the dry lake country, Goodsprings, and the final run into Las Vegas.

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