Mojave National Preserve - Marl Mts. Loop.

[Algol]

Greetings,

I had the chance to do a short overnight trip at the Mojave National Preserve in early December 2021.
I did a loop around the Marl Mountains. The route was roughly half cross-country and half old jeep tracks/roads.

A picture is worth a thousand words... so you will find the pictures here
Marl Mountains

Weather was great and the hike was relatively easy. The old roads were an easy walk, the washes were sandy
but the sand was coarse and not too loose. The canyon that I took to traverse the range was alright, only a
couple of spots were thorny plants and rocks made a good obstacle. The Marl Spring area had a few visitors
using 4x4 vehicles (they were a little surprised when I walked by).

Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you and Happy New Year!

[GowerGulch42]

Very cool! We don't see enough from up that way on this forum. Thanks for sharing! What was your rough mileage?

[netllama]

Thanks for sharing. Those are some nice photos too!. Its been ages since I made it to Mojave Preserve.

[Algol]

@GowerGulch42

The trip was short day1 5.91m and day2 6.58mi

@netlama

Thanks, I keep working on getting better at taking the photos. Sometimes it is hard to really capture what you are seeing.

[John Morrow]

@GowerGulch42

The trip was short day1 5.91m and day2 6.58mi

@netlama

Thanks, I keep working on getting better at taking the photos. Sometimes it is hard to really capture what you are seeing.

I love hearing about someone getting creative and doing a neat backpack exploration in the Preserve.  Thanks for the TR!

[MojaveGeek]

Looks like a couple of beautiful days. Game cam at that spring? When I find game cams in wild places I like to open them up if I can and put the SD card in my phone to see what's been in the area - if they are not locked down. Of course I put it back to start the cam up again The spring is very cute, looks like there was water.

[Algol]

Looks like  a couple of beautiful days.  Game cam at that spring?  When I find game cams in wild places I like to open them up if I can and put the SD card in my phone to see what's been in the area - if they are not locked down.  Of course I put it back to start the cam up again     The spring is very cute, looks like there was water.

It was a neat experience. That is in deed a trail cam, I guess the NPS has a nice shot of me walking up to the spring. There is a well/hole just a few feet up (opposite from the camera)
it's about 10ft or 15ft down with a 45degree slope. You can see the water at the bottom. I suppose if you are brave to crawl in there or if you have a long string and bottle you could
get to it. The pipe that goes down from the spring to a water trough is disconnected which seems to be inline with the NPS desire to restore water sources to a more natural state and distribution.