Heart of the Mojave West

This is a beautiful, remote location just 1 mile off I-40, set between Mojave National Preserve to the north and the Trilobite Wilderness to the south. It is 100 yards off paved Kelbaker Road on an excellent dirt road.

The main camping area would accommodate 3 RVs fairly close together. It is extremely unlevel. My tongue jack was almost fully retracted, and my rear stabilizers would not reach the ground, which was not good in the 40 mph wind gusts. Behind the main area is a nice, almost level, pull-around site, but that was occupied when I arrived.

1/4 mile further down the dirt road from the main site is a crossroads, with a large, level site on the right. 1 mile in from the main site, on top of the ridge at the end of the valley, there is another site with stunning views, but only a van or small class-C would get up there without getting grounded.

There's a small hill next to the camping area, with views in every direction from the top. Amboy Crater is down the road to the south, but Route 66 is closed at the south end of Kelbaker Road, and Amboy is currently accessible only from the west.

Although it's close to the interstate, there is a mountain between that blocks the noise. It was fairly clean, but there was glass in some spots. Bring all your supplies - the closest grocery stores and Walmart are 80 miles away in Barstow.

Verizon service was excellent, with 4 bars, -98 dB, 42 Mbps 4G down and 20 Mbps up. The tower is 5 miles away on I-40.

We pulled in late at night and were able to find a spot that would work for the night. There was one camper here already but there was plenty of room. Nice and quiet, a few fire rings close by. Had a beautiful sunrise to wake up to. I would definitely be back. It was a great place to stop over on our way to our next stop.

On a month long trip, we stopped here both coming and going and found it to be a great spot between destinations. Don't know that it's worth more than a day or two, but the desert views cannot be beat. We found level spots both times for our 21' trailer. The only negative was we saw some n glass and shotguns shells around the area - can't completely escape the knuckleheads.

We really enjoyed our stay here. There wasn’t a lot of people while we were here. The most activity we saw was a group of ATVs going in to ride on a Friday and then hearing them pass back by as they left on Sunday. They must have been pretty deep in cause we didn’t hear them.

We stayed pretty close to the entrance. I would highly recommend scouting before you go too far along the road. It’s bumpy, steep, and kinda sketchy at some points.

Despite being just about a mile or so off the interstate, we didn’t hear any traffic or noise aside from the occasional truck or Jeep driving by to explore for a few hours.

Pretty clean. I did spend a little time cleaning up some junk left by a previous camper, but besides bullet shells and the occasional vehicle parts scattered on the sides of the road, quite clean.

The sites are all pretty level. We were totally level at our spot.

There’s so much great hiking and exploring to do here. There are fire pits at just about every spot.

Heading south off I-40, we took Kelbaker Rd and drove south for about a mile(ish) and turned left at a dirt road intersection. If you look right, you’ll see some sort of construction site. The turn left sneaks up on you. We drove down about 100m and found a good spot on the left that suited our 5th wheel. There are a few fire rings out there. Be cautious of nails. I picked up a handful, but there’s more out there. Apparently, this is common in dispersed BLM sites because plebs burn pallet wood.
This was during the Coronavirus era (hopefully that has passed by the time you read this) and we had a couple Rangers stop by to check on us. They said it’s a fairly quiet area and said the dirt road was called “pipeline rd”...but it’s not marked. We had some other campers nearby, but not within earshot distance.
There is another 5th wheel friendly spot if you continue down the dirt road. That will also be on your left and you drive between a couple smaller mountains. It would be a quieter spot.
The cool thing about this location is you can drive north for a day-hike up the Kelso Dunes OR drive south to hike Amboy crater. Both are highly recommended!
There are no service stations nearby. We made a trip to the Chevron on west I-40 (about 35 miles away) for water. There is a cute diner/small store called Roy’s diner in Amboy on old Route 66. But it’s pricey.
Overall, we would definitely stay here again.

Great spot but open. Only one RV in the area several hundred yards from us so pretty private. Soft sand road/track after 0.5 mile. Great mobile reception.

Easy to get to, arrived at night both times we’ve visited , in our 34ft Class A , amazing views and location, at least one or two other campers every time we went, stone rings, and enough space to drive around and settle in a spot. Only bad thing was having some coffee and breakfast enjoying the outside view then all of a sudden you see a camper pop a squat in plain sight and drop a #2 , other than that, was great a would go back again!

We pulled in in the dark and had no trouble finding the location using the coordinates. It is only a short stretch on dirt road and we had no issues. We found a mostly flat spot. The views in the morning were breath taking! Just as I had hoped there was complete silence and serenity. Totally recommend staying here before heading into the Mojave for the day.

Plenty of places to camp over here. Don’t get discouraged if the first one is filled, just go down the road a ways and you will find a nice spot. We recommend coming in before dark for two reasons-one, the terrain can be a little soft if you get off the packed ground, and two-you do t want to miss the sunset!

We stayed there last night and have only one thing to add. If you miss the turn-off from Kelbaker Rd, “like I did“. It was a long loong ways before I could find a spot big enough and solid enough to make a U-turn with my 29 ft rig and dingy. The turn off is 1.3 miles from the US 40 exit. And no, I didn’t see the construction vehicles on the right side until we were leaving this morning.