Driving east along California Highway 190 through Death Valley National Park toward Furnace Creek at sunrise.
Crossing the Mojave:
My first crossing of the Mojave Desert back in 2017 sparked a connection I never anticipated. The Mojave’s vast, rugged landscape, its resilient plants and shrubs, its extreme climate, and, above all, the profound solitude—each element drew me in. There’s a stark beauty here that can’t be fully captured in words, but through photography, I’ve found a way to explore the essence of this desert. Since that first journey, the Mojave has become more than just a destination for me—it’s a place of reflection, challenge, and inspiration.
In September 2024, I embarked on what may be my last journey across the Mojave Desert for some time. After flying into Las Vegas, Nevada, I drove south to the starting point at the southern tip of Joshua Tree National Park. From there, I began the trek northward, eventually ending at the northern edge of Death Valley and completing the journey in Bishop, California. For the past eight years, I’ve made annual trips to both the Sonoran and Mojave deserts, drawn back time and again by the harsh beauty and solitude these landscapes offer. But after countless crossings, it feels like the right moment to pause and leave the desert behind for a while. Now, I’m setting my sights on new horizons, looking to explore the sweeping plains of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana—places with their own vastness, solitude, and rich history.
Delta Airlines Flight 2027: An Airbus A319-114 parked at Gate D1 at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, preparing for departure to Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas.
Located on the border between Nevada and Arizona, at the northeastern edge of the Mojave Desert, the Hoover Dam sits in Black Canyon on the Colorado River. It is one of the most iconic landmarks in the region. While the dam is within the Mojave Desert, the Sonoran Desert begins primarily on the eastern (Arizona) side of the Colorado River. This image was captured using an iPhone 14 Pro Max on final approach into Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Stretching across southeastern California, southern Nevada, and a small portion of Arizona, the Mojave Desert is one of North America’s most iconic landscapes. Bounded by the San Bernardino Mountains to the west and the Colorado Plateau to the east, its vastness includes stunning locations like Joshua Tree and Death Valley National Parks, both showcasing the desert’s geological and ecological diversity.
Joshua Tree National Park, at the southern edge of the Mojave, is named for its distinctive Joshua trees, a species of yucca that thrives in this arid climate. The park lies at the convergence of two deserts: the Mojave and the Colorado. Historically, this region has been home to Native American tribes such as the Serrano, Chemehuevi, and Cahuilla, who relied on the land’s sparse resources. Today, Joshua Tree is renowned for its unique rock formations, desert flora, and clear night skies.
The starting point: the southern tip of Joshua Tree National Park, where Cottonwood Springs Road meets Interstate 10.
Further north lies the Mojave National Preserve, a sprawling area of over 1.6 million acres, where volcanic cinder cones, vast sand dunes, and rugged mountain ranges dominate the landscape. The preserve offers a glimpse of the Mojave at its most untouched, with iconic sights like the Kelso Dunes, the largest sand dunes in the region, and the Cima Dome, a gentle geologic formation that rises over a forest of Joshua trees. It’s a place where the solitude of the desert feels most profound, with fewer visitors than nearby parks. Wildlife such as bighorn sheep and desert tortoises roam the preserve, thriving in an environment that remains as untamed as it was centuries ago. For me, the Mojave National Preserve represents the heart of this desert, a vast wilderness where nature reigns supreme.
Further north, Death Valley National Park lies at the heart of the Mojave. As the driest, hottest, and lowest national park in the United States, Death Valley holds the record for the highest air temperature ever recorded on Earth: 134°F in 1913. Despite its name, Death Valley has a rich human history, from the early Native American Timbisha Shoshone to miners and settlers during the California Gold Rush. The harsh yet captivating landscape, filled with salt flats, sand dunes, and rugged mountains, exemplifies the extremes of this barren land.
Even with a built-in vehicle navigation system, a Garmin Tactix Pro watch, and a GPSMAP 66i on hand, I still lean on traditional navigation out here in the wilderness. Sometimes, a map and compass bring a sense of direction that technology just can’t match. Plus, there’s a certain nostalgia in unfolding a map and aligning a compass.
There is still something thrilling about driving the backcountry solo without any cell phone service on roads that are rarely traveled. However, with the recent introduction of Apple’s satellite texting to emergency services, there is now an added element of confidence.
Reflected Wilderness: A selfie crossing the Mojave Desert, with the reflection in my sunglasses showcasing the vast wilderness stretching out before me.
Mojave Road Trip: September 4–18, 2024
Here is a collection of images captured during this road trip across the Mojave, before I put the desert on hold for a few years to focus on other pursuits. None of the images in this collection have been altered beyond their natural appearance. No presets, exaggerated colors, HDR, heavy retouching, or other manipulations have been applied. These photographs reflect the scenes exactly as they were captured.
Heading north through Joshua Tree National Park at sunrise, I noticed the first light breaking the horizon in my rearview mirror. The sun crept over the mountains, casting a silhouette of an Ocotillo bush in front of me—capturing the moment just as day began.
Joshua Tree (Yucca brevifolia) is a unique agave family member native to the Mojave Desert. It can grow up to 40 feet tall and live over 150 years. Thriving at elevations between 2,000 and 6,000 feet, it flourishes in the arid climate and sandy soil. Its distinctive branching structure supports desert wildlife, making it both an iconic symbol of the desert and a keystone species in this rugged ecosystem.
Scattered across the arid plains, clusters of Joshua trees stand resilient under the vast Mojave sky. With rolling hills in the distance, this desert landscape is both sparse and full of life, a testament to the hardiness and unique beauty of these iconic trees.
Amid the rugged terrain of the Mojave Desert, life endures in surprising forms. The Datura wrightii, or sacred datura, flourishes in the arid sands of Joshua Tree National Park, its large, trumpet-shaped white blooms both alluring and dangerous. Though delicate in appearance, this plant is highly toxic, containing potent alkaloids historically used in medicine and rituals. Blooming in the summer, its brief, striking beauty contrasts sharply with the harsh desert landscape.
Joshua Tree’s rock formations showcase nearly two billion years of geological change, beginning with ancient sediment deposits that later transformed under intense pressure into gneiss, the park’s oldest rock. After spending millions of years underwater, tectonic forces lifted the region above sea level, where erosion, weathering, and climate shaped today’s striking landscape. These natural processes continue, revealing an ever-evolving geological history.
A Room with a View: As they always say in real estate, "Location, location, location."
The Artistic Eye.
Sunset: Joshua Tree National Park
Solitude along Kelbaker Road, stretching through the heart of the Mojave National Preserve.
A Natural Blonde: The Venus of Nevada, or Lady Desert, is a bold sculpture created by Belgian artist Albert Szukalski in 1992. Constructed from breeze blocks, the figure stands at the Goldwell Open Air Museum near the Rhyolite ghost town, just outside Beatty, Nevada. Rising from the Mojave Desert, it evokes ancient fertility symbols, with its dramatic form blending human shape with the rugged desert landscape. Szukalski’s work presents a striking contrast between art and nature, offering a surreal and imposing presence. Along with other sculptures in the outdoor gallery, the Venus of Nevada continues to captivate visitors with its timeless allure.
The End of the Road: This abandoned 1962 Chevy Impala two-door hardtop, located just outside Rhyolite, Nevada, shows clear signs of deterioration. With the front half of the vehicle missing, only the rusting rear remains, left to decay in the harsh desert conditions. Its remains stand as a stark reminder of how quickly human-made objects fade in an unforgiving landscape, a characteristic of the Mojave Desert’s relentless environment.
The Rhyolite train station, built in 1908 by the Las Vegas and Tonopah Railroad, served as a lifeline for this once-thriving Nevada mining town. Constructed in Mission Revival style, it symbolized the optimism of Rhyolite’s brief boom during the gold rush. By 1910, as gold dwindled, the town’s population plummeted. Train service ended in 1914 when the railroad went bankrupt, sealing Rhyolite’s fate as a ghost town. Over the years, the station has been a casino, a museum, and a souvenir shop, now standing as a striking remnant of the past.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train (BNSF) crossing the Mojave Desert between Barstow and Ludlow, California.
The Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Baker, California, is a relic of mid-20th-century roadside Americana, known primarily for its distinctive neon sign rather than the building itself. Built in the 1950s, the hotel catered to travelers along the major routes connecting Los Angeles to Las Vegas before the development of the interstate highways that bypassed towns like Baker. With its neon-lit “Aloha” theme, the Royal Hawaiian stood out as a quirky nod to Polynesian culture, which was popular in the United States during that era.
An abandoned house in Ludlow, California, stands isolated in the open desert. Its front porch, cluttered with debris, features an old stove and a lone office chair, a stark reminder of the building’s forgotten past.
A black leather computer chair, its surface torn and worn, sits alone in a quiet, abandoned house in Ludlow, California. A single ray of light from the left casts a stark contrast on the faded leather, highlighting the room’s decay.
Misguided Talent: Inside the crumbling walls of this abandoned house, a single-eyed mushroom stares out—a quirky yet unsettling piece of graffiti. An odd mix of whimsy and decay, it’s a reminder of the creative marks people leave behind, even in forgotten places.
A hazy layer of smoke blankets Panamint Valley in California, drifting over from the Los Angeles wildfires, as seen from Father Crowley’s Overlook.
The Death Valley 49ers were a group of prospectors who entered Death Valley in late 1849 while seeking a shortcut to the goldfields of California. This ill-fated expedition encountered extreme conditions, including blistering heat and a lack of water, forcing them to traverse the harsh terrain for several weeks. Tragically, one member of the group, John Rogers, died from exposure and dehydration during their journey. His death underscored the perilous nature of their quest and led to the valley’s ominous name. As the group finally found their way out of the valley, William Lewis Manly famously paused on a high feature to overlook the land they had crossed and declared it “Death Valley” in memory of Rogers. This experience serves as a grim reminder of the dangers faced by those who ventured into this inhospitable region during the Gold Rush.
A red Ford Mustang cruises along Artist’s Drive, a scenic 9-mile one-way paved road in Death Valley National Park. The route leads to Artist’s Palette, a geological wonder where hills display a spectrum of colors, the result of oxidized metals in the earth. The drive offers a unique opportunity to experience the striking beauty of the desert landscape, with the colorful hills serving as a dramatic backdrop to the journey.
Artist’s Palette, Death Valley: A lone figure in red shorts stands against the vast, multicolored hills of Artist’s Palette, a vivid reminder of Death Valley’s immense scale and surreal beauty. The reds, greens, and purples in the rock layers seem even more striking next to the tiny silhouette, underscoring nature’s grand design. The colors come from mineral oxidation—iron creating reds and yellows, mica adding green, and manganese bringing in purples—each hue a result of complex chemical reactions over time.
Zabriskie Point in Death Valley is a breathtaking viewpoint, renowned for its rippled golden badlands shaped by the erosion of ancient Furnace Creek Lake sediments. From here, visitors can take in sweeping views of the Amargosa Range and the salt flats of Death Valley, with the rugged terrain below displaying an array of rich, earthy tones. The light at sunrise or sunset enhances the dramatic contours, making it a haven for photographers and nature lovers. On hazy days like this image, caused by smoke from Los Angeles wildfires, the horizon takes on a muted glow, adding an otherworldly atmosphere to the scene.
The Wrong Place for a 2007 Kia Optima EX Sedan: Stranded in the vast, unforgiving landscape of Death Valley, this car stands as a testament to the risks of venturing off-road in a vehicle not built for the desert’s rugged terrain. In decades to come, it will no doubt become another desert relic, viewed by tourists wondering how a vintage Kia Optima ended up in such a desolate place.
The Wildrose Charcoal Kilns, located in the Panamint Mountains of Death Valley National Park, were built in 1877 by the Modoc Consolidated Mining Company to produce charcoal for smelting ores from the nearby Argus Range. These beehive-shaped structures, about 25 feet tall, are some of the best-preserved charcoal kilns in the western U.S. They operated briefly until 1879, when alternative fuels became available. Made from local stone and lime mortar, they were used to convert wood from surrounding hills into charcoal for refining ores. While the labor force is not well-documented, it’s believed that American Indians, Chinese, and Mexicans may have helped with their construction.
Charcoal Kiln from The Wildrose Canyon in the Panamint Mountains.
Charcoal Kiln.
Wildrose Canyon, Death Valley: Two wild burros, descendants of those released after gold mines began to decline around 1906. By the early 1910s, most mining operations had ceased due to depleted resources, resulting in the release of burros that had been used for transportation and labor during the mining boom. Today, these burros thrive as living reminders of the region’s rich mining history and the people who once sought their fortunes in these rugged hills, now roaming freely in their natural habitat.
Delta Airlines Flight 822: A Boeing 737-900 parked at Gate D34 at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, preparing for departure to Raleigh-Durham International Airport, North Carolina.