Bradshaw Trail / Palen Pass April 2011
Land Rover Club of San Diego – Bradshaw Trail/Palen Pass trip
by Bilstein Shock Absorbers on Monday, April 11, 2011 at 12:09pm
Bilstein’s Shane Casad led an overland trail run for the Land Rover Club of San Diego in late March. The 3-day trip embarked from the North Shore of the Salton Sea. The first major trail was the Bradshaw Trail, a 70 mile (point to point) desert road that stretches from the Salton Sea to the outskirts of Blythe, CA. Most of the road is very smooth, fast, and fun. The Bradshaw Trail offers a few interesting side trips; Shane chose to take the group to explore Red Canyon and Augustine Pass along the way.
Bombs……A road side attraction on the Bradshaw.
After breaking camp on Sunday morning, the group finished the Bradshaw Trail and then turned north on dirt roads, towards the Palen Pass Trail. In a self-proclaimed “genius maneuver,” the group was able to cross 1-10 and fuel up, only touching a couple miles of pavement. The Palen Pass Trail is a junction off Midland-Rice Road, located about 15 miles north east of Blythe, CA. This is a very beautiful and desolate part of the desert. The trail travels through a wilderness corridor of pristine desert and is well marked. The ghost town of Midland, the Eagle’s Nest Mine, and Patton’s Cabin were some of the highlights along the way.
This chimney stack is just about the only landmark left in Midland, CA. Below are the smoke stack bases for a huge gypsum processing plant. The only thing left was a huge cement slab. The town of Midland was purposely burned down in the 1970’s as a Fire Department training exercise. It was very interesting to drive around Midland which is predominantly a huge collection of cement slabs and roadways.
Eagle’s Nest Mine
After breaking camp on Monday the group finished the Palen Pass Trail, ending on CA Hwy 177 about 10 miles north of Desert Center. All in all, it was a great excursion and everyone had a lot of fun. All of the vehicles were properly prepped and there were no mechanical malfunctions experienced over the 3 days.
To the right is the view from Patton’s Cabin from where troop exercises could be monitored down in the valley below.
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