First time off pavement
Take the Mojave. The sand and cinder teach faster than rock does, the exits are closer, and a short route leaves room to be coached properly.
Route 01 · California
Death Valley
Below-sea-level salt flats, Titus Canyon narrows, and the high remote passes of the Panamint Range. The greatest vertical range of any route we run — you can start the morning 282 feet below sea level and make camp near 8,000.
- Badwater salt pan and the Devil's Golf Course
- Titus Canyon one-way narrows, no turning back
- Panamint passes and abandoned mine road grades
- Racetrack Playa when conditions allow it
- Duration
- 3 – 6 days
- Low point
- −282 ft
- Season
- Oct – Apr
- Difficulty
- Moderate – hard
Elevation profile · representative 4-day line
Route 02 · California
Mojave National Preserve
Cinder cones, Mojave Road ruts, dry lake crossings and Joshua tree forests with no one else for miles. The most consistently technical sand driving of the three, and the best route for a group that wants to be taught hard.
- The historic Mojave Road, rut for rut
- Volcanic cinder cone fields and lava tubes
- Soda Dry Lake crossing in the right conditions
- Deep sand washes — the best air-down classroom we have
- Duration
- 2 – 5 days
- High point
- 7,929 ft
- Season
- Oct – May
- Difficulty
- Moderate
Elevation profile · representative 3-day line
Route 03 · Nevada
Black Rock Desert
Open playa running, alkali flats, and remote geothermal springs on the far edge of northern Nevada. Two hundred square miles of hardpan with nothing on it — the emptiest ground we take anyone.
- Open playa driving with no route markers at all
- Applegate Trail remnants and the historic emigrant line
- Backcountry geothermal springs at the playa edge
- Night skies with no light dome in any direction
- Duration
- 3 – 7 days
- Playa
- ~200 sq mi
- Season
- Jun – Oct
- Difficulty
- Moderate
Elevation profile · representative 4-day line
Choosing
Which one is right for your group
You want the hard version
Death Valley. Shelf roads, one-way canyons and mine grades where a wrong line has a real consequence — and where the recovery training stops being theoretical.
You want to feel far away
Black Rock. Less technical driving, far more emptiness. If the point of the trip is the silence and the sky, this is the one.
Limited departures
Tell us where the pavement should end
Send your dates, group size and appetite for difficulty. We'll return a proposed route, camp plan and menu within two business days.