The El Paso Mountains, California

01Where are the El Paso Mountains?

The El Paso Mountains run southwest to northeast for about 18 miles, east of Highway 14 and north of the Rand Mountains and Randsburg Red Rock Road. Red Rock Canyon State Park sits at the western end of the range, and Highway 395 crosses it near Johannesburg.⁴

BLM describes the landscape as badlands: from Black Mountain, at 5,244 feet the highest point, the ground falls into the Black Hills and breaks into dark volcanic mesas and reddish buttes cut by narrow canyons. Creosote covers most of it, and Joshua trees grow on the western side of Black Mountain. Some of the oldest non-marine fossils found in the West, of early camel-like and horse-like animals, were discovered here, and visitors may see desert tortoises, Mohave ground squirrels and raptors.¹

02Can you drive in the El Paso Mountains Wilderness?

Congress designated the El Paso Mountains Wilderness in the California Desert Protection Act of 1994, on about 23,780 acres of BLM land.³² The same act transferred about 20,500 acres of federal land to Red Rock Canyon State Park next door.³ BLM’s Ridgecrest Field Office manages the wilderness.⁷

BLM’s 2026 closure of routes in desert tortoise critical habitat applies across the western Mojave.⁹ Friends of Jawbone’s list of closures in its region does not name the El Paso Mountains,¹⁰ but check BLM’s closure map for the specific route before you drive it.⁹

03Last Chance Canyon

Last Chance Canyon runs from Saltdale in the south to Black Mountain in the north, and part of it is inside Red Rock Canyon State Park. It holds archaeological sites including pictographs, village sites and rock shelters, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places on 5 December 1972.⁵ The southern part of the wilderness is in the Last Chance Archaeological District.² Geologically it is the best place to see the Goler Formation, rocks more than 3,000 feet thick and 55 to 65 million years old.⁶

BLM asks wilderness visitors to follow the Leave No Trace principles, among them leaving what you find.¹ The part of the canyon inside the state park, which has its own rules, is covered in hiking at Red Rock Canyon.

04Burro Schmidt's Tunnel: its history and how to get there

William Henry “Burro” Schmidt was a prospector with claims in the El Paso Mountains who dug a tunnel through the inside of a mountain by hand, with some explosives. He broke through to daylight on the far side in 1938, found no gold, and died in January 1954.¹¹¹² How long it is depends on the source: Visit California says roughly 2,000 feet,¹² Wikipedia nearly 2,500 feet, or about half a mile.¹⁴ It was registered as a California historical resource on 20 March 2003.¹³

Getting there. Friends of Jawbone locates the tunnel seven miles east of Highway 14 by route EP15.¹¹ Visit California’s directions leave Highway 14 for Redrock-Randsburg Road, then take Mesquite Canyon Road, a dirt road it says is best driven in a high-clearance four-wheel drive, then EP15 for 2.7 miles and a half-mile spur to the site.¹² Do not attempt it in a low car, and check the route’s status with BLM first.

05Bickel Camp

Friends of Jawbone describes Bickel Camp as a Depression-era mining camp founded by Walt Bickel in 1934, where he mined placer gold with tools and methods of his own, and says it has since been turned into a museum site with much of his equipment still in place.¹⁵ We could not confirm from an official source who looks after it now or when it can be visited, so treat it as a place to find out about locally before you go.

06What to know before you go

• Carry at least a gallon of water per person per day: many areas here have little or no dependable natural water.¹⁶
• Check road conditions and beware of flash floods; if you are stranded, stay with your vehicle.¹⁶
• Fire restrictions apply on BLM land for much of the year, and a free California Campfire Permit is needed for a campfire or stove.¹⁷
• BLM’s Ridgecrest Field Office, (760) 384-5400, is the authority on what is open.⁷