5 Best Sights in The Mojave Desert, California

As you enter the Mojave National Preserve, you'll pass miles of open scrub brush, Joshua trees, and beautiful red-black cinder cones before encountering the Kelso Dunes. These golden, fine-sand slopes cover 45 square miles, reaching heights of 500 feet. You can reach them via a 1.5-mile walk from the main parking area, but be prepared for a serious workout. When you reach the top of a dune, kick a little bit of sand down the lee side and listen to the sand "sing" (or vibrate). North of the dunes, in the town of Kelso, is the Mission revival–style Kelso Depot Visitor Center, a striking building that dates from 1923. It's normally open everyday but Tuesday and Wednesday, but it's closed for renovation until 2025; check ahead for updates.

A mile from the San Andreas Fault, this natural bowl-shape depression in the earth is framed by 300-foot rock walls. At the bottom is a stream, which you can reach via a moderately strenuous 1-mile hike. You also can detour on a short nature trail; at the top, an interpretive center has displays of native flora and fauna, including live animals such as snakes, lizards, and birds of prey.

Created millions of years ago by volcanic activity, Hole-in-the-Wall formed when gases were trapped between layers of deposited ash, rock, and lava, and the gas bubbles left holes in the solidified material. You will encounter one of California's most distinctive hiking experiences here. Proceeding from the blue sign across from the Hole-in-the-Wall Information Center, you walk gently down and around a craggy hill, past cacti and fading petroglyphs to Banshee Canyon, whose pockmarked walls resemble Swiss cheese. From there you head back out of the canyon, supporting yourself with widely spaced iron rings (some of which wiggle precariously from their rock moorings) as you ascend a 50-foot incline that deposits you back near the information center. The one-hour adventure can be challenging but wholly entertaining.  There are no services (gas or food) nearby; be sure to fill your tank and pack some snacks as well as water before heading out here.

Many science-fiction movies set on Mars have been filmed in this area 8 miles north of Barstow. Huge slabs of red, orange, white, and green stone tilt at crazy angles like ships about to capsize, and traces of ancient beasts such as mastodons and bear-dogs, which roamed the basin up to 16 million years ago, have been discovered in its fossil beds. The dirt road around the basin is narrow and bumpy so vehicles with higher clearance are recommended. Rain can quickly turn the road to mud so, at times, only four-wheel-drive vehicles are permitted. Owl Canyon has 22 primitive campsites.

Fantastic-looking formations of calcium carbonate, known as tufa, were formed underwater along fault lines in the bed of what is now Searles Dry Lake. Some of the more than 500 spires stand as tall as 140 feet, creating a landscape so surreal that it doubled for outer-space terrain in the film Star Trek V. The Pinnacles also served as the backdrop in Planet of the Apes, Battlestar Galactica, and music videos by Rihanna and Lady Gaga. An easy-to-walk ½-mile trail allows you to see the tufa up close, but wear sturdy shoes—tufa cuts like coral. It's located 45 minutes east of Ridgecrest, and the best road to the area can be impassable after a rainstorm.