Hightower Road

Hightower Road is an overland adventure across the deep sandy basins of the Mojave's Ward and Chemehuevi Valleys and then through the spectacular deep canyons, towering peaks, and natural rock arches of the Whipple Mountains. Along the way, a short detour up NS427 visits the long-abandoned Capitan Mine and its many abandoned vehicles, the ancient petroglyphs at West Well on the War Eagle Mine Loop, and exits driving over the Parker Dam holding back Lake Havasu.

The majority of the road is on BLM land, and dispersed camping is allowed anywhere except a 6-mile section that passes through the well-marked Chemehuevi Reservation near the end of the trail. Surprisingly few existing campsites can be seen from the road, and some of the better camping is found on the Capitan Mine site, nine miles from the north end of the trail and off of the many intersecting trails and spurs over Hightower Road's length.

Traveling southward, the road surface changes dramatically from the soft sand of the desert floor to the hard-packed gravel as you climb through the mountains. While the mountain section of the road surface itself does not present any driving difficulty, the road's steepness, combined with tight, twisting, blind turns over shelf roads and steep drop-offs, can be intimidating. The soft sand at the north end of the trail and the need for confident traction when climbing the mountains require a high-clearance 4x4 with good all-terrain tires and an experienced mountain-road driver.