Kessler Peak Road

Kessler Peak Road follows the valley between the Striped and Ivanpah Mountains in the Mojave National Preserve. The road travels through a heavily mined area with no shortage of intersecting trails and mines to explore. Perhaps the most easily reached and most interesting mine is the Evening Star Mine. Originally one of the many area claims made by J. Riely Bembry (of Riely's Camp), he sold the claim, and the new owners erected a massive head frame and operated it as a tin mine from 1939 to 1944. The 50-foot-tall head frame or guillotine is still standing strong, allowing visitors a close inspection. The mine used cables and pulleys to lift buckets loaded with ore from the adjacent mine shaft and dump them into the top of the head frame, where it was crushed in preparation for shipment and refinement. Continuing from there, the road enters the Shadow Valley basin, where it becomes surrounded by a decimated Joshua Tree forest, the effect of the 2020 Dome fire.

Many dispersed camping sites can be found along the road, especially at the mine sites, with the best camping at the southern end of the road at Sunrise Rocks Campsite. Sunrise Rocks Campsite offers several campsites comfortably nestled amongst the rock jumbles, with rock or iron fire rings and large flat areas for multiple vehicles and tents.

Most of the road is easy over flat compacted gravel, but sections, especially near the north end and the spurs leading off the road, can be made up of sharp-edged, cantalope-sized rocks with deep rutting in the roadbed. The trail is best suited for an agressive high clearance vehicle with skid plate protection.