Please drive slowly and exercise due caution when driving in Mojave National Preserve. Rough and damaged roads exist on both paved and unpaved roads. Watch for potholes. More
Kelso Depot Visitor Center is closed for rehabilitation of the heating and cooling system. We expect to reopen the depot in 2026. The restrooms beside the depot are open.
Take a day hike on the Kelso Dunes! Enjoy an approximately three mile round-trip trail to the top of cream-colored dunes, formed over millennia by wind and sand. If you're lucky, you might even hear the dunes sing. This hike can be strenuous and hot. Bring water and sunscreen.
The Lava Tube at Mojave National Preserve basaltic lava tube feature in the Cima Dome Volcanic Field. A short, rocky hiking trail leads from a primitive parking area, to a skylight in the tube, where a ladder leads hikers into the lava tube. Access requires a high clearance from Aiken Mine and Kelbaker Roads. Be sure to check road conditions at go.nps.gov/MojaveRoads before you go.
Come explore underground in a lava tube! Around 27,000 years ago, lava flowed across the surface here. As the red-hot liquid lava stream flowed, its top cooled in the air, blackening and solidifying like a freezing creek in wintertime. The liquid lava beneath continued to flow under the solid surface, which left behind this hollow tube: frozen in time.
Discover how Hole-in-the-Wall got its name as you ascend narrow Banshee Canyon with the help of metal rings mounted in the rock. The 1.5-mile round-trip hike connects to the Mid Hills to Hole-in-the-Wall Trail and the Barber Peak Trail.
The Rings Loop Trail is a popular 1.5 mile hike that takes you past beautiful scenery and ancient petroglyphs, and up a series of metal rings. This is a moderately difficult hike, and generally flat until the rings climb.
The Teutonia Peak Hike is a great way to examine the aftermath of the Dome Fire up close. The hike is three miles round-trip and takes between 2 and 3 hours for most people.
The densest concentration of Joshua trees lies along Cima Road. Although about 1/3 of the Preserve's Joshua Trees were burned during the August 2020 Dome Fire, many healthy individuals remain on Cima Road. This makes it a a wonderful spot to observe Joshua trees, icons of the Mojave Desert! Explore by car or foot. We recommend walking the Teutonia Peak trail if you want to get close to Joshua trees impacted by that fire. This area is hot during the summer, so plan ahead.
Visitors can enjoy the Granite Mountains at the Boulders Viewpoint Parking Area located 7 miles north of Interstate 40. Boulders Viewpoint Parking Area is also 50 miles south of Baker and Interstate 15. There are no services at this viewpoint.
