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.
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March 14, 2023 update from the National Park Service reports: "deep washouts, may be impassible to even experienced 4WD vehicle operators."
https://www.nps.gov/moja/road-conditions.htm
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.
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.
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.
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.
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After a 40 year career as an electronics engineer and manager in the defense industry, I retired in 2017 and relocated to Orange County, California from Dallas Texas. I have off-roaded for several years on a motorcycle mostly in TX, LA, OK and AZ and as a retirement present to myself, I purchased a Jeep Wrangler and I am now able to reach areas I would never dream of on a motorcycle. My wife and I are now enjoying exploring the remote areas of Southern California that are only accessible by off-road.
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