Driving the wild Chloride Cliff Road

Chloride Cliff Road is a very exciting drive on the border of Nevada and California, in USA. It’s one of the challenging Backcountry roads in the Death Valley National Park.

Chloride Cliff Road

Situated on the east side of Death Valley National Park, the road leads to Chloride City, a ghost town in Inyo County with great old mining relics from the past. Chloride was a small mining camp in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Today you can see the remains of old cabins, the mine shafts and the grave of miner, James McKay. The town also holds the remains of three stamp mills.

Starting from the paved US-95 (Veterans Memorial Highway), the road to the town is 23.49km (14.6 miles) long. There are a lot of sharp rocks all over the road. You want to avoid having to pull out that spare tire in the middle of the desert. Much of the trail is graded dirt, once you turn off to head up to the mine, the road get rocky and rutted and not to mention quite steep.

Located in the northern Funeral Mountains, the road is totally unpaved. High-clearance vehicle for the first 12 miles, high clearance 4WD required beyond. The road ends at 1.609m (5,278ft) above the sea level. The final part of the road is a narrow shelf road but the view is amazing. At the summit there are great views down into Death Valley and Nevada. Due to frequent flooding in the area, road conditions often vary throughout the park. For the most up-to-date information on road conditions, visit Death Valley’s website at nps.gov/deva.