Back roads offer Travelers New Encounters
By Bobbie Green
Travelers getting off the inter-state, taking back roads to their familiar destinations can acquire a fresh look to their previously proverbial trip. Back-road travel offers new encounters for tourist.
On our way to Laughlin from Las Vegas, Nevada, we decided to take back road 164 from I-15, signage says searchlight. We then turned right to Cima, then right again on Morning Star Mine Road all the way to the Kelso Train Depot. The two lane paved road is good enough for a sedan all the way. I wouldn’t recommend taking desert back roads during the rainy season because of flash flooding. Along the way you will pass through a Joshua forest and enjoy the mountain views, you will be driving through the Mojave National Preserve.
The Kelso Train Depot is a treat from yesteryear. The attractive train station built in 1924 as a stop and quarters for the crew of the Union Pacific Railroad. It was a home for helper engines and a water stop. The Kelso Club House & Restaurant was designed to rival the Harvey Houses of the Santa Fe lines. The restaurant sometimes called “The Beanery” was open round the clock through the boom years, the depot function ended in 1962. In 2005 the Kelso Depot reopened as part of the Mojave National Preserve and is now operating as a fun little museum and information center. The restaurant has been restored to its 1920’s appearance, is open lunch for selling only cold sandwiches and drinks, as frying hamburgers in a historic building is unlawful. A little oasis in the desert, but travelers should be aware there are no gas stations on these back roads between I-15 and I-40.
Since the Kelso Depot was a major junction in its day nearby was another railroad phenomenon a “hobo jungle” formed while the hobo’s waited for the next train going their way. Many stories are told of the town’s children mischievous pranks with the hobo’s and selling desert tortoises to the passengers for candy money.
From the Kelso Depot about eight miles down Kelbaker Road on the way to I-40 one will find the Kelso Dunes. The trailhead is only four miles off the road and there are many hiking trails.
The road also passes by the picturesque Granite Mountains. If one took Kelbaker Road from Baker to Kelso Depot they would pass by the Cinder Cone Lava Beds.
Once you enter on to I-40 the Essex Road exit will take you back into the National Preserve where you may visit Hole-in the Wall visitors center and campgrounds, it is closed to camping in the summer months. Close by the campgrounds are hiking trails and slot canyons but you must be prepared with proper clothes and shoes. I am told the wildflowers bloom in April and are quite a spectacular sight to see. If you stay on Essex Road you will enter the Providence Mountains State Recreational area and home to Mitchell Caverns. For the nominal fee of $5.00 one may take a guided tour through the caverns complete with stalactites, stalagmites, shields and draperies, note that during the summer there is only one tour given per day at 1:30p. If you have been in many other caverns this one may disappoint you. The tour is advertised as 1.5 hours long and this tour was only 60 minuets for the slowest walker.
Getting to your destination by way of these desert back roads is like traveling in time and you are in a past era, enjoy it, but do it with a full tank of gas and a full bottle of water.
IF YOU GO
Mojave National Preserve
760-255-8801 Kelso
www.nps.gov/moja
Hole-in-the-Wall
760-252-6104
Mitchell Caverns
760-928-2586
