Inscription Canyon via Black Canyon Road

The twenty-two-mile-long Black Canyon Road north of Barstow passes over a seemingly endless flat dry lake bed, follows the western edge of the beautiful and untouched Black Mountain Wilderness, and ends at Inscription Canyon, one of the most iconic destinations in the West Mojave Desert. This desert adventure offers the most beautiful terrain, iconic sites, and historical ruins the Mojave Desert has to offer.

Admire the Desert Lighthouse, a full-size operating lighthouse constructed in the desert as a modern art piece. View the artifacts still present from the 1870s, when Black Canyon was a busy stagecoach route, and admire the toughness it took to live there at that time. Glimpse 12,000 years back in history, where ancient Indian drawings inscribed in the black lava rock depict their lives when the area was lush with water.

And if this trail does not fill your day, explore the many nearby Bureau of Land Management marked desert trails to make your own discoveries.