WHERE TO RIDE & RACE YOUR UTV: MOJAVE DESERT
DOVE SPRINGS JAWBONE CAL CITY OHV AREAS
Thanksgiving week is one of the busiest times for OHV recreation throughout the southwest and especially California. Dune enthusiasts head to Glamis and Dumont, and the Mojave Desert hosts many thousands of OHV enthusiasts in southern California and into Nevada. The Mojave covers 47,877 square miles and also extends into Utah and Arizona, but the areas north and east of Los Angeles get the most visits on a big holiday weekend. The Jawbone Canyon, Dove Springs, California City, and Randsburg areas will see up to 300,000 people riding, camping in the desert, and eating their Thanksgiving dinners and trailside turkey sandwiches.
UTV Action does a lot of testing in this area, which is administered by the BLM, and we have a 100-mile loop that we do for long-term testing. This loop connects Jawbone, Dove Springs, Red Rock State Park trails, Cal City and Randsburg, where many OHVers stop for lunch. It has open desert, awesome sand wash, mountain trails, and some rock-crawling sections. It also connects with LA1 and LA2 powerline/aqueduct OHV routes and camping areas.
This area of the Mojave also hosts the Ave/BP Racing Pure Desert UTV racing series, which will have its first 2020 round January 3-4. The staging and start/finish area for these Pure Desert races is at the south end of California City Boulevard, past the end of the pavement. While camping in the Cal City OHV area requires a permit ($15-$100), camping on the Ave Racing property or Cal City MX Park doesn’t require a permit. Nor does camping in the Dove Springs, Jawbone, Garlock or Randsburg/Johannesburg areas. Johannesburg is north of Red Mountain, where the famous Husky Monument is a much-visited OHV attraction.
Mojave Adventures also makes this area home; it’s located at Robbers’ Roost on Highway 14, just two miles from the Burro Schmidt Tunnel road. Mojave Adventures rents RZRs and takes rides to the Petroglyphs, Dove Springs, Indian Wells, Fossil Falls and other notable and historic OHV destinations. Robbers’ Roost is a huge sandstone formation used by the bandit Tiburcio Valquez to hide in and rob stage coaches and mine payroll shipments. Mojave Adventures also has many routes including the 51-mile Jawbone-Dove Springs OHV Loop.
UTV Action spends Thanksgiving in the Dove Springs-Jawbone area, and this weekend is going to have especially good dirt and sand. Maybe we’ll see you there!
PURE DESERT 2020 UTV SERIES
1. Jan 3-4…240 California City, CA
2. Feb. 7-8…300 California City, CA
3. Apr. 17-18…360 California City, CA
4. May 15-16…300 California City, CA
5. June 19-20…240 California City, CA
6. July 17-18…300 California City, CA
7. Aug. 28-29…240 California City, CA
8. Oct. 9-10…360 California City, CA
Contact…www.averacing.com, (661) 524-1550
AVE RACING NON-POINTS UTV RACES
1. Oct. 30-Nov. 1…Off-Road C’Ships California City, CA
2. Dec 12-13…Cal City Gran Prix California City, CA
Contact…www.averacing.com, (661) 524-1550
CONTACT:
Bureau of Land Management
Ridgecrest Field Office
300 S. Richmond Rd.
Ridgecrest, CA 93555
(760) 384-5400
www.blm.gov
AVE/BP Racing
P.O. Box 2141
California City, CA 93504
(661) 524-1550
www.averacing.com
Cal City MX Park
24510 168th St.
California City, CA 93505
(760) 977-9774
www.calcitymx.com
RZR Adventure Tours:
Mojave Adventures
760-495-2474
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