Brannigan Mine Road

Brannigan Mine Road is in the western corner of the 1,542,776 acres Mojave National Preserve which leads to its namesake, Brannigan Mine, a gold mine that operated in the 1930s. While the start of the road is not far from fast-food restaurants and the 18-wheelers of I-15, it already feels isolated and remote. Most of the road is a soft, easy glide through the sandy desert with the Old Dad Mountains in the distance looming larger every minute. Once in the foothills, you will enjoy views to the west of a Mojave Wilderness a pristine desert protected to remain in a natural state by minimizing human impact. A climb into the foothills, you will come upon the Brannigan Mine Camp, where its original cabins and have been repaired and preserved by "Adopt-a-Cabin" volunteers and are open to view. Still standing are many mining structures used to extract and process the gold ore and numerous mine shafts. While all the mine openings are now safely closed with steel gates, large openings in the gate allow you to peer down the tunnels carved from solid rock and often disappearing into the far darkness.