Brannigan Mine Road

4.8/5 (5 reviews)
Baker, California (San Bernardino County)
Last Updated: 06/13/2022

Trail Information

Highlights

Brannigan Mine Road is in the western corner of the 1,542,776 acres Mojave National Preserve which leads to its namesake, Brannigan Mine, a gold mine that operated in the 1930s. While the start of the road is not far from fast-food restaurants and the 18-wheelers of I-15, it already feels isolated and remote. Most of the road is a soft, easy glide through the sandy desert with the Old Dad Mountains in the distance looming larger every minute. Once in the foothills, you will enjoy views to the west of a Mojave Wilderness a pristine desert protected to remain in a natural state by minimizing human impact. A climb into the foothills, you will come upon the Brannigan Mine Camp, where its original cabins and have been repaired and preserved by "Adopt-a-Cabin" volunteers and are open to view. Still standing are many mining structures used to extract and process the gold ore and numerous mine shafts. While all the mine openings are now safely closed with steel gates, large openings in the gate allow you to peer down the tunnels carved from solid rock and often disappearing into the far darkness.

Trail Difficulty and Assessment

Trail Navigation

Trail Reviews

4.8/5 (5)
Open
Rated 4/5
Visited: 05/01/2023
Difficulty Accuracy: Easier

Took this trail out of Baker to camp in the Mine area... was nice. Easy,
Partially Open
Visited: 11/06/2022
Difficulty Accuracy: Harder

There is a sign at the waypoint 12 gate saying the road to the cabin is washed out and the first 100 feet or so looked very bad and rocky compared to our previous visit earlier in February 2022 so we turned around.
Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 05/04/2022
Difficulty Accuracy: Easier

Stayed at the cabin overnight. Explored the mines above the cabin the next morning. Beautiful views and really not that bad of a trail to get out to Baker. Had plans to continue on but a member of our group had vehicle trouble we had to get out to Baker.
Official Crew
37400
Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 09/27/2021
Difficulty Accuracy: Harder

The road from the cabin up to the rest of the mining operation may be harder than I remembered from April. It's definitely a 4 wheel drive segment. The cabins are nicely maintained and beautiful views off to the south.
Official Crew
37400
Open
Rated 5/5
Visited: 04/13/2021

What a wonderful destination. I did not take near enough time to explore the mine and will be planning a 2nd trip perhaps to camp at one the mine sites shown in the review. The mine's engineering interests me and perhaps a read-up of 20th-century mining techniques will provide me some insight into the function of all the structures at the site. I'm not one to explore a mine shaft but the shaft near the cabins was gated 30 ft in and it was an opportunity to see up close the reinforcement and lack there off in the solid rock of the shaft. The verticle shafts at Waypoint 16 were very deep! When dropping a stone down the shaft I could not hear its impact. The cabins have been kept up, repaired, and are available for use. Starbucks Exploring provides several pictures of the interior of the cabin.

From the Community

Start a free trial and get this level of detail on every trail guide
Start Free Trial