Aiken Mine Road: other-worldly landscapes of basalt flows in CA
Aiken Mine Road is an old mining track located in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, USA. 4x4 vehicles recommended.
Located within the Mojave National Preserve, the road is totally unpaved and runs across desert flats and skirts the edge of lava flows. The road passes through other-worldly landscapes of basalt flows. The road leads to Aiken Cinder Mine, once a bustling, modern mining operation, the operators of this mine abruptly shut it down in 1990 and walked away - leaving all of their equipment behind.
This trail passes through remote areas, so you need to be prepared. Most of the road is wide and relatively well-graded (mostly two lanes wide), but it is sandy in places, rough in a few spots with some rocks, and it can be washboarded. The lower section of Aiken Mine, from the paved road to the lava tube, is brutally washboarded, like most park dirt roads that get a lot of 2WD traffic. Recommended that your vehicle have very good tires since much of the road involves sharp and irregular lava rocks.
The road is 32.50km (20.2 miles) long, running from the paved Cima Road to Kelbaker Road. It tops out at 1.538m (5,045ft) above the sea level. The trail snakes through the Mojave National Preserve’s famous cinder cone field.
Pic&video: BackRoadsWest1