Home / Mojave Preserve and Desert bikepacking trips / 2010, Mojave National Preserve / Day 5: Woods Wash mountain-bike ride via Gold Valley from Mid Hills campground, Mojave National Preserve 73
Today I finally ride a few of the old dirt roads that cross the Gold Valley area of Mojave National Preserve. Excellent mountain biking. 35.4 round-trip bicycle miles from Mid Hills campground plus two hiking miles.
- After sleeping in a bit, and eating breakfast, I pack up and leave the tent for today's ride across Gold Valley to Woods Wash
- A quarter mile down the road from my campsite at Mid Hills campground, I turn right on Wild Horse Canyon Road
- About two miles down Wild Horse Canyon Road, I reach my next turn, an unnamed road that I'll call Gold Valley Mine Road
- Gold Valley Mine Road passes briefly through a patch of juniper and sagebrush that escaped the 2005 brush fires
- Gold Valley Mine Road rolls over a series of natural drainages as it climbs gently up the hill
- I ride up a few unevenly banked segments on Gold Valley Road
- I reach a crest on Gold Valley Mine Road and try my cell phone: it works!
- I pass through an old ranch fence and a sign marking the adjacent hiking trail
- After a short climb to a crest at about 5440 feet elevation, Gold Valley Mine Road begins heading downhill
- The scenic views, hills and rock piles on upper Gold Valley Mine Road would make it a good place to camp
- Views toward Wild Horse Mesa on the way down Gold Valley Mine Road
- I whoosh down Gold Valley Mine Road, toward Gold Valley itself
- I reach the old Gold Valley Mine site and stop for a tourist break
- The windmill at the Gold Valley Mine site is from the American West Windmill Company in Amarillo, Texas
- A full water trough at Gold Valley Mine
- An old sink (pierced by bullets, of course) at Gold Valley Mine, Mojave National Preserve
- I stand on a small tailings pile at Gold Valley Mine and look down at an old pit
- Close-up of the pit at Gold Valley Mine, Mojave National Preserve
- I drop another 400 feet of elevation as I ride down the bottom of Gold Valley Mine Road
- The lower part of Gold Valley Mine Road passes through a sandy area
- Lots of bright yellow flowers near the lower part of Gold Valley Mine Road
- I take a detour and visit the Hole-in-the-Wall Visitor Centre to refill my water bottles from its outdoor tap
- A poster at Hole-in-the-Wall visitor centre warns of possible mountain lions in the Mid Hills area, where I'm camping
- After my break at Hole-in-the-Wall, I make my way over to the dirt road that will take me to Woods Wash after 7 miles or so
- After 1.5 miles on Woods Wash Road is government property, probably a residence for Preserve staff
- Woods Wash Road makes a two-mile U-shaped detour around the government property
- East of the government-owned house, Woods Wash Road passes through gentle hills
- Ah, a gate to pass through!
- I pass an abandoned corral, with the Woods Mountains in the background
- Another fence boundary to pass through as I ride down to Woods Wash
- The last couple of miles toward Woods Wash are a bit sandy in places, but rough enough to provide traction for a mountain bike
- I arrive at the Woods Wash Wilderness boundary, stash my bicycle behind a bush and convert from biker to hiker
- Indian paintbrush blooming in Woods Wash
- I reach the lava flows of the historic Woods Wash area
- Yucca spines
- White thistle growing in Woods Wash
- I climb a hill and get a glimpse of Woods Wash northward toward Twin Buttes
- Barrel cactus, cholla cactus, and white buckwheat blossoms in Woods Wash
- I walk across to the other side of Woods Wash and note some pink cactus blooms
- It's even hotter on this hill than it was on the hill behind me on the other side of Woods Wash
- Yuccas in Woods Wash near the exposed rock
- I climb down the hill for the hike back up Woods Wash (to my right), but the canyon ahead into the Woods Mtns gets my attention
- As I hike back up Woods Wash to my bicycle, I try my cell phone, and it works
- Back at Woods Wash Road, my backpack goes back into my saddlebags and I start the ride back to Mid Hills campground
- Abandoned cistern in Woods Wash
- As the road rises slowly out of Woods Wash, it heads toward Table Mountain for a while, then turns left (west)
- As the road rolls over the hills, I'm sometimes looking straight at the Woods Mountains
- At other moments, the road heads straight toward the Twin Buttes
- After passing the southern tip of Twin Buttes, I open and close the old gate again
- With Wild Horse Mesa in the backgound, I spot an oversized and eroded old tire along Woods Wash Road
- "For flat base truck rim only"
- I decide to try a possible shortcut road that veers north (the right fork) off Woods Wash Road
- The shortcut road enters a sandy area, which I eventually forces me to dismount and walk the bike a bit
- The road pops out of the sandy wash briefly, and I arrive at the remains of an old cabin in Gold Valley
- I peek inside the one-room Gold Valley cabin
- The rear (west side) of the Gold Valley cabin has a window
- The stucco exterior on the south exterior wall of the Gold Valley cabin is peeling off
- I take one last look at the Gold Valley cabin, with the Woods Mountains in the background
- A half mile further up this unnamed Gold Valley road, I encounter a fence (or is it a locked gate?)
- I ride back down the 1.3 miles of this road in Gold Valley, passing the cabin again on the way
- The sandy part of this road is hard to ride, even in the downhill direction!
- Back on Woods Wash Road and approaching the government-owned residence, I notice a "No-hunting zone" sign
- Back on "the good part" of Woods Wash Road, the final 1.5 miles to Black Canyon Road rides smoothly
- Pink Desert four o'clock flowers and the yellow blooms of Snakeweed(?) pick up the sunset glow nicely
- Table Mountain and Twin Buttes take on a postcard-photo aura as I ride slowly up Black Canyon Road
- I look back regularly while climbing Black Canyon Road to take in the purple haze in the warmer areas south of Mojave Preserve
- At sunset on Black Canyon Road, I pass the Gold Valley Ranch
- Just north of Gold Valley Ranch, Black Canyon Road is signed as a four-wheel drive road
- Bumpy, bumpy, slowly uphill pedaling on the upper part of Black Canyon Road
- My headlight goes on as Black Canyon Road turns black
- After the four short hills on Wild Horse Canyon Road, I reach the entrance kiosk at Mid Hills campground
- Mountain-bike route elevation profile across Gold Valley, Mojave National Preserve, from Mid Hills campground to Woods Wash
- Mountain-bike route across Gold Valley, Mojave National Preserve, from Mid Hills campground to Woods Wash