Old Dale Road

Ran this trail South to North. It’s a great area to explore for a few hours with multiple offshoots to extend the trail time. There are some old cabins and mines to explore. Most of the trail is a simple dirt road. The middle section includes a climb and some shelf roads. There weren’t any obstacles to navigate as such, but some very rocky areas where a bit of clearance helps.

This is a great route into Joshua Tree with tons of offshoots. Most of this is fairly easy except for the pass in the middle, which is a little tricky but not too bad. We ran this north to south, which (as others have said) is probably a little easier because the difficult part is downhill. Take it slow, enjoy the scenery, and obviously stay on the trail, especially through the National Park.

I ran this north to south, and as Keenan below mentions the crux of this trail's difficulty is in the mountain pass near the golden egg and the North Star/Sunset mine. Since I ran it north to south, the tricky section was all downhill for me and therefore easier. I'd say larger tires are required and a moderate lift is highly recommended. I'm rating this harder as per the guide's direction, but if you only run it north to south then it's more appropriate to say spot on. If you're out in J tree, this is an excellent alternative to the standard way into the park!

Ran this in our 2011 JKU with 4” lift, 35’s, and 5.13 gears, and another 2015 JKU with 3” lift and 35’s. About 85% of the trail is washboard dirt road, but the remaining 15% is definitely on the high end of moderate rating. Around the middle of the trail is when things get more interesting as you go through a mountain pass area and the trail gets more treacherous. We ended up hitting that hard section of the trail in the dark and made it just fine, but it is slow going and I would highly advise against it without at least a small lift and big tires. It did seem like rain had washed the trail out possibly making it more difficult than it has been in the past. As we are pretty experienced off-roaders at this point we did not spot each other, but beginners will definitely require good spotting in the hard section to make it through without body damage. Last thing to note is the difficult section is pretty much on a shelf road so if you are nervous of heights beware.

Just ran the trail as part of a 2-day overland trip. The trail was pretty smooth and was able to get through it pretty easily.

Fun! We ran it from north to south. The trail is exactly as advertised. Lots of washboard straight roads with a few rocky sections, and LOTS AND LOTS of side excursions and things to see. I had no issues whatsoever with anything technical and most was done in 2 wheel High., with 4 wheel low used mainly to slow steep decents. Unfortunately we ran it blindly because the upload of the GPX to GAIA remained unfound in my tablet so we missed most of the side excursions. Well, at least my regular wheeling buddy who was passenger NOW understands WHY I bought him a subscription to Trails OffRoad and he now sees that we missed pretty much all the side excursions. And he's installing the app on his tablet today. From now on there will be a planning pow-wow where we look at the route and figure out what we want to do. This was a day trip from LA so the 450 miles in one day without much side adventures to get out of the car and move around was plain dumb. Plus, we were done by 3:00 PM so we took Pinto Basin Road up into the park on what was probably the most tourist-filled day of the year for the park, adding to the driver tiredness and shock that we encountered such a mass of humanity in the desert. I mention this because we can't be the only knuckleheads with non-vehicle preparation problems! Waypoints and side excursions will now be planned so we don't miss all the fun!

This is my first time playing around in the Pinto Basin portion of the Park. Was a little more trail like than road like in some spots which made it fun. Not too many people off the roads today, but a lot of people on the paved roads around the park.

South to North. The first and last miles are fun faster road. Mines were fine to explore and would definitely come back and camp. Lots of places on the BLM side. The rocky section between 4 and 5 I didnt have any trouble with but did use the armor/scraped a few things on aired down 33’s on a stock 4 door Rubicon. Just enough to make you think about your line. This is my first time so cant say if its more eroded. Larger tires and you are totally fine.

Great trail with lots to see. Running larger tires, 35+, will make the sections that warrant the Moderate rating very manageable. Plenty of mines to check out and not a lot of people out there. Did this as a day trip but would do an overnight next time so we can do more exploring.

Just did this trail today with my wife. We entered through the south side of Joshua tree. The first say 12 miles are pretty easy scenic drive. Once you start climbing up the mountain the rocky terrain makes it fun to navigate. My wife and I had a blast.

Cool trail nothing crazy here but fun as long as its cool outside or you have good ac lots of mines and trail offshoots to explore great for the family

Night wheeled this in my 2nd Gen 4Runner. Running 31s with Bilsteins on all 4 corners. Road in was like those things designed to wake you up if you veer off the road!? Vibrates a ton. Maybe it's my ol Yota? Airing down helps. Anyway, was tons of fun! Camped overnight in RTT. Saw a few others out there as well.

Did it again... I did want to add that the part of the road over the mountains has deteriorated some since I started doing this trail a few years ago and is getting, well... even more fun.

Great trip with tons of history to be explored. We reversed this track and went north to south.

Ran Berdoo to Geology to Old Dale, hitting Mission and Brooklyn mines along the way, and finished through Mecca Dale Road and Gold Crown Road which ended right at the 62. Fun loop that provides plenty of miles with fun obstacles and sites, to fill most of a day. is mostly a rocky floor/wash that winds through the canyon with occasional tight squeezes between massive boulders, a few waterfalls (one is optional and has a large legal bypass area to the right, little offshoots, shooting and camping, and a spectacular journey. Geology is an extremely easy packed dirt road with rare, deep ruts to play between. This ends at busy soft pavement (don’t need to air up) that winds through the junction where the Borrego and Colorado join, giving rise to a unique battle of the two drastically different ecology. Old Dale is slightly difficult than Berdoo as it climbs up and around a series of old mines on a shelf road laden with decent sized rocks to give you just enough off camber moments to get the blood flowing, but nothing severe enough that we ever thought we were in a sketchy situation. In all, these offer a great opportunity to test the flex, stretch the old 4lo, and crawl a few big rocks relative in size to Gold Mountain, but on mostly flat ground, which taking in the always uniqueness of the deserts

We did this trail from the south to the flag building in a Stock 2020 Rav4 TRD. We had to turn back at that point Because we ran out of ground clearance.

Fun trail. Nice stops of different abandoned mines. Took about 3 hours doing it South to North the flag building was cool. Did the entire trail in 4-high in a Jeep Rubicon 4-door with a suspension lift on 37” tires and had no issues at all. The section after the flag building was rocky and low slung vehicles could get hung up. We want to come back and do some of the off shoot trails.

Ran this trail from Joshua Tree National park area to HWY 62 (South end to North end) in a Nissan Frontier on 285’s and a 2” leveling kit (and blown out stock suspension, lol). Great technical trail and a lot of fun! Did not have any issues. Just took it slow and was careful of wheel placement. I didn’t need rear lockers on and was on 4 high the whole way. Once you get into BLM area, there are tons of camping spots. Took about 2 hours with 4 other vehicles.

We took various vehicles with varying driver skill up this road. We had a stock Jeep Gladiator, 2-inch lifted Subaru Outbacks, Isuzu Rodeo, Nissan Xterra, new Honda Passports, a Honda Ridgeline, 1st gen Ford explorer and a Mercedez Benz ML 163. We all made it up, but ofcourse some easier than others. Stock body on frame 4wd's should be able to make it up with no issues, but crossover's and any unibody SUV's will be challenged quite a bit more. This is my 3rd time up this trail, and it seems more eroded than in the past.

I did this trail from the south and found that despite having origins in JT National Park it has a remote quality to it. The difficulty of the trail is mostly confined to the part that transverses the mountains and there were a few spots the earned the trail the rating it has. Careful line picking rendered these obstacles completely doable, but a high clearance vehicle is mandatory in my opinion. For me the best part was the Brooklyn Mine branch trail. It certainly made the day worth it. I would say that the BM trail is a bit more difficult only because it has considerably more obstacles in a shorter distance. I gave this trail five stars for it's remoteness, extensive features of mines to explore, all the off-roading potential on the north side of the mountains and the Brooklyn Mine. I did this in a day and felt like two or even three days would have afforded me the time to truly appreciate this trail.

Did this Trail In the night to find a camping spot as Joshua Tree was a circus and packed. Old Dale Road is super washed out starting from Joshua Tree and doesn’t stop for a good miles in. The route gets hard before leaving Joshua Tree and reaching North Start Mine where there are some huge ruts. Pick good lines and you will be fine. Camped at North a star Mine and was in for a windy night. The rest of the route was easy stuff, Drive a JL Sahara on 33s no lift. Best of Luck

I started from the South and camped out off of the Brooklyn Jeep Trail before heading up the Pinto Mnt the next day. Such a fantastic trail with beautiful views. The only technical part is between 11 and 15 miles in when going over the mountain. I loved the trip and would recommend it for anyone with a few inches of clearance and 4L would help.

I would recommend taking this trail from the 29 Palms entrance and coming into the National Park. Our 1st campsite was about 8 miles in from the highway on. Old Dale was my favorite trail out of the other 3 we explored on our overlanding trip. The others, Pinkham Canyon & the Doberman Mine Trails, were great and worth exploring.

Started from the north...pretty long, fun trail with a ton of side trails and overall in good condition(washboard roads in the beginning are a little rough) and pretty sandy in some spots. I have a 2wd 2015 4Runner on 33 at’s and it’s completely doable. You just have to be careful with line choice at a few spots...hit my skids 3 times but only scrapes. Definitely recommend a lift. There are plentiful camp scenic areas to camp and I would recommend staying out more than a day to explore.

We started from the south side. Beginning was just a wash road. Only technicalities come in middle of trail when on mountain. Definitely clearance and 4L. But pretty smooth after that. We did run into a vehicle stock height and not a good day for him. Plan in doing it again with more time.

As a person new to off roading I went on this trail with a friend (he drivers a 2017 Tacoma TRD PRO and is basically stock, just upgraded skid plates, sliders and BFG K02 tires) I am driving my 2016 VW Touareg with Bilsteins and customs threaded spring plates. raised 2.5", 265/65/18 BFG K02 tires and custom sliders and full under body skid plates). I would rate this a moderate trail. You do need good tire placement on a few sections and I would recommend at least 10-11" ground clearance. Had a blast and did Burns canyon the next day and that was much easier.

South to north. First 11 miles was sandy wash, moderate washboards otherwise in good shape. From there, up and over the hill, the road was rough and washed out, but the WK Trailhawk in rock mode (high clearance, 4-low, diff locked and xfer locked, Kevlar belted tires) had no problems. Barely touched the skid plates. Sand was soft below Virginia Dale mine but made it through with out airing down. Exactly 3 hours drive time, but we were in no hurry. Beautiful weather, lots of desert flowers, lovely day.

I entered from the 29 palms side, there are a zillion off shoots you can explore on that side, some go to mines. Road conditions: 29 palms side was 2/10, the mountain portion was a 4/10, Joshua tree park side was 1/10. Off-road tires a must, and most likely some lift as well are required. I would not take a stock vehicle over the mountain.