Three Classic Desert Road Trips

Some of the best days out here don't have a single destination — they're drives. The desert around Yucca Valley is laced with lonely highways and only-in-the-Mojave sights, and a full tank turns them into an adventure. Here are three classic road trips, roughly shortest to longest.

Route 66 to Amboy

Head out past Twentynine Palms and north into the empty Mojave to pick up historic Route 66 at Amboy, home to the restored Roy's Motel & Café — the classic 1938 roadside sign and cabins that show up in a hundred photographs. It's about ninety minutes to two hours from the house one way, so make a day of it. Five minutes from Roy's, the Amboy Crater is a near-perfect volcanic cinder cone you can hike to (cool weather and early starts only). Carry everything you need out there; it's genuinely remote, with no services for long stretches.

The Salton Sea, Salvation Mountain & Bombay Beach

A longer, stranger day heads south to the Salton Sea, California's accidental inland sea, and the surreal human landscape around it. Near Niland stands Salvation Mountain, a hillside that one man, Leonard Knight, spent decades coating in half a million gallons of paint and Bible verses. Nearby Bombay Beach, a faded resort town turned art colony, is full of installations among the ruins. Reckon on about two hours each way from the high desert, and treat the sea itself with care — it's shrinking and salty, more haunting than swimmable.

The Pioneertown loop

For an easy half-day, keep it close: drive up to Pioneertown for the Old West facades and, if it's open, a meal at Pappy & Harriet's, then wind back down through the hills at golden hour. It's the gentlest of the three and still delivers that big-desert feeling.

Rules of the desert road

• Fill the tank before you go, and top up whenever you can — stations are far apart.
• Carry more water than you think you need, plus snacks, sun cover and offline directions (signal drops for long stretches).
• Tell someone your plan, and don't push a low-clearance car onto rough dirt.
• Start early: the light is better and the heat is kinder.