Chloride Cliff from NE Outside Beatty

[John Morrow]

Looks like there is a dirt road off 95 south of Beatty or one that leaves Daylight Pass Road opposite the Rhyolite turnoff.  They are straight as an arrow through gently sloped terrain.  I am wondering how far I could get to where the road begins to drop off toward Chloride City with my Subaru Forester.  Looking to cache water for a loop potentially of Keene Mine TH to Indian Pass Tr

[DAW89446]

Looks like there is a dirt road off 95 south of Beatty or one that leaves Daylight Pass Road opposite the Rhyolite turnoff.  They are straight as an arrow through gently sloped terrain.  I am wondering how far I could get to where the road begins to drop off toward Chloride City with my Subaru Forester.  Looking to cache water for a loop potentially of Keene Mine TH to Indian Pass Tr

It’s been more than two decades, but recall that there were no issues for my Chevy S10 4x4 pickup with no lift and stock size tires. plenty of desert pavement with a bit of sand now and then.

[TacoLand]

I just pulled some photos from 2007 when I drove a stock Tacoma down the dirt road on 374 that's just south of the one way entrance to Titus.

Didn't take it all the way to Chloride Cliffs – stopped just short of the Park boundary so we could have a legal campfire the night before entering DVNP – but the road was basically desert pavement as mentioned above.

[Kauri]

We drove that road in 2005-ish in our (then unmodified) 4Runner. We left the cliffs area quite late in the day but were able to get back to pavement before dark. Back then I recall it was surprisingly smooth going, like everyone else here has said. As long as your Subaru has good tires and you're well prepared for a flat, and IF the road is in relatively the same condition as it was 15+ years ago, it seems likely that you could get to the junction with the Monarch Canyon Road. However, I could be recalling incorrectly, since we had driven to Chloride Cliffs via the Monarch Canyon Road, and many roads would probably feel smooth (and flat) after that adventure.

[Beardilocks]

I was there about 3-4yrs ago. It was generally a pretty relaxed road but I seem to remember crossing several dips/washes, whose condition could change frequently. And I think a few off-camber bits. I’m not sure how close to Chloride you could get, you might have to hike the last part. Once you cross the boundary it gets much worse.

But then I once met an 80yr old man in an ancient Mazda sedan at the Cottonwood Canyon entrance. He’d been driving roads like this in normal cars his whole life. So YMMV.

With good tires and a way to deal with flats (air pump, Jack, plugs,etc) you might be ok to the boundary.

[MojaveGeek]

Went in there back in April. Against advice here, we drove a Subaru in from the pavement west of Daylight, passing Monarch Canyon crossing. We got to a spot where the road makes a sharp right turn to the west and then a hairpin and steep climb to the east. There's a big step up there that will stop most sedans and we had to back down to the hairpin to park, and walked from there.

Walking from there, in 1 1/4 miles there is a junction in an open area at about 4360 ft where, on foot, one turns right. The road is running E/W at this point, and I believe the road coming in to that junction from the E is the one you to which you refer. There was much more sign of vehicles there, and we saw at least one, I can't recall if it was a sedan but it was definitely not a monster rock crawler, that had come in that way.

That's the way I would go next time... But we still had a great day; we day hiked down to the Big Bell mine, going down by the old haul road, and back up via the much much nicer constructed miners' trail.

[Kauri]

MojaveGeek, did you take any photos of the road that goes by Monarch Canyon on your recent trip, that you could post on the forum? I haven't been able to find recent info online about that road, and it might be good data to have on the forum. Thanks!

[DAW89446]

You can also continue on east instead of turning north toward Rhyolite. If you continue east you come out on US95 just north of Carrara. I remember that road being pretty sublime. But there were plenty of wash crossings, which are always subject to change.

[MojaveGeek]

Sorry, no photos of the part of the road around Monarch. IIRC it was pretty good up to that point, for a sedan.

[John Morrow]

Sorry, no photos of the part of the road around Monarch.  IIRC it was pretty good up to that point, for a sedan.

I recently drove the road to Chloride Cliff (from highway near Hells Gate and Hole in the Rock Spring) as far as Monarch Canyon.  Except for one small climb at 1.1 mile with exposed rocks and deep holes, it is in sedan shape.  Too bad it has that one spot.  Wish teh NPS could do some "spot maintenance" when 95% of a road is in a better condition than a single spot  or couple of problem spots.