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Mojave Preserve and the Amargosa Basin

California's Eastern Mojave Desert, including the Mojave National Preserve and the Proposed Amargosa Basin National Monument

40 posts

Riley's Camp

Riley's Camp

Possibly one of the most well-known backcountry cabins in the Mojave National Preserve is Riley's Camp. John Riley Bembry was born on February 5, 1899, in Arapaho, Oklahoma. He preferred to be called Riley instead of John because he found it more distinctive. After serving in World War

Geer Camp

Geer Camp

Geer Camp is one of my favorite places in the Mojave National Preserve. It is a small and cozy cabin with a great view and makes for an ideal place to camp if you are in the area. Robert R. Geer built the small, one-room cabin in 1940 as a

Roger's Camp

Roger's Camp

A restored mining cabin known as Roger's Camp sits a little ways inside the Mojave National Preserve, with minor abandoned mine workings located just uphill. Maurice Mulcahy of Dagget first stumbled upon traces of silver, lead, and tungsten deposits in the early 1900s. Later, three shafts were sunk

Sacramento Wash Petroglyphs

Sacramento Wash Petroglyphs

Nestled in the far eastern reaches of the Mojave National Preserve and near the Mojave Road lies a hidden gem: the Sacramento Wash Petroglyphs. This easy sandy hike leads to two large rocky outcrops where a hundred ancient rock carvings await. The petroglyphs are primarily abstract symbols and are likely

Bronze Mine (Live Oak)

Bronze Mine (Live Oak)

The Bronze Mine, also known as the Live Oak Mine, was a lead-silver mine that also contained some tungsten and fluorite. The vein is in a contact zone on the eastern side of the New York Mountains between the Goodsprings dolomite and a quartz monzonite intrusion. The mine was first

Aiken's Arch Pictographs

Aiken's Arch Pictographs

The pictographs inside of this arch, which formed from a collapsed lava tube, are some of the oldest, if not the oldest, in the East Mojave and have been dated to 9,300 BP. The symbols are mainly in red ochre and depict a variety of figures, primarily abstract, but

Lanfair Buttes Petroglyphs

Lanfair Buttes Petroglyphs

The Lanfair Buttes Petroglyphs (also known as Indian Wells Petroglyphs) are one of the more extensive sets of petroglyphs in the Mojave National Preserve. There are hundreds of petroglyphs here on desert-varnished rhyolite boulders. Almost one whole hillside is covered with them. Ancestral Mojave and Chemehuevi probably camped here for