Pisgah Crater Road

Pisgah Crater Road is a short drive from Route 66 over a heavily deteriorated asphalt road that quickly transitions to a gravel pumice road and arrives at Pisgah Crater. A sea of black and red pumice surrounds the crater at its lower elevations. This BLM road winds 300 feet up the side of the volcano, eventually arriving at the inside of the volcano's crater with its center of solidified lava, leaving to the imagination what it must have looked like 50,000 years ago after its last eruption. From here are impressive views of the surrounding desert and lava fields. The Pisgah Volcano Mine is now abandoned, but when active was scoured into an irregular shape making it 100 feet shorter than before any mining. The volcano is on private land but surrounded by BLM property. Black sand from the mine was used to create the black beaches of the Clint Eastwood-directed film Letters from Iwo Jima by spreading it over the white sandy beaches of Malibu. A four-wheel drive vehicle is recommended for the steep climb into the crater. Many existing rock fire rings for camping exist all around the volcano.