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Amboy Crater is a great destination if you are looking for something to do on these warmer spring days, especially if wildflowers are on your “must see” list this Spring.
Coincidentally it’s situated about 66 miles from Joshua Tree, Needles and Barstow and is right off historic Route 66 – I’ll let the numerologists assign meaning to that little fact.
What it means to me is DAYTRIP. If I see BLM land less than an hour away – its hard for me to not just jump into the car for a short drive to some public lands that offers up some different desert. The volcanic landscape of Amboy gives off a different color tone which makes some of its unique wildflowers pop a little bit more. This weekend “yellow flower season” came on strong with neon yellow patches of desert dandelions opening up to soak in some the sun on the along the sides of Highway 62.
I love seeing these return almost every Spring, although my backyard didn’t get the bumper crop I enjoyed last year. Mellow orange and apricot globemallows are opening up – and the entire Morongo Basin has the familiar spring color palette of browns, yellows, oranges and pale purples.
Amboy Crater shows up a little different. Its located in the Mojave Trails National Monument and surrounded by the Mojave National Preserve – 1.6 million acres of almost unsettled desert filled with sand dunes, springs, and dry lake beds.
I’ve barely scratched the surface of exploring the preserve, but a great place to start is crater itself – a hard to miss 250 foot tall dormant cinder cone volcano. It was designated as a National Natural Landmark in 1973, and is a rocky but relatively relaxed 1 mile hike from the parking area to the base of the crater.
This is where you’ll get to see some seriously dark and moody volcanic landscapes – deep black lava rock that can give a different contrast to the flowers popping up in the preserve. The crater is considered dormant – or extinct – but I don’t find much excitement in that fact. The last time Amboy rumbled was an estimated 10,000 years ago – making it one of the youngest lava fields in the continental United States.
If this sounds even more lunar-like than other areas of the mojave – you’d have to ask an astronaut as I haven’t made it up to the moon yet. However – it does have a distinctly sci-fi feeling as you make your way to the trail that leads to the rim of the crater, especially right now when the desert lilys are in bloom.
These are different than the low-to-the-ground datura that you can see everywhere in the basin right now. Desert lilys look a bit like a stalk of asparagus before they open up – they also have long leaves coming up from their base with a distinctly wavy edge – and their blooms can sit a foot or two above the ground. The flowers are bright white with pale blue-green accents that look otherworldly in the middle black lava rock.
When I was there last week, many of the lilys were beginning to open up around the crater. However, just a few miles up the road in the basalt fields there were lots of hidden caches of these delicate desert flowers – it just takes a bit of exploring and wandering around which is my favorite use of BLM land.
The desert lily is just one example of the unique types of flora that The Mojave National Preserve is host to. I was on the lookout for desert holly – a shrub with spikey silvery leaves and pink blooms. I didn’t spot any on this trip but if you need a good example of what to look for – the Mojave Desert Land Trust has a nice example of desert holly in their desert discovery garden.
For me it wouldn’t be a daytrip without some tourist attractions – so don’t forget to swing by the famous Roy’s diner while you are in Amboy. Don’t forget a couple quarters and a penny to squish in the machine if that’s your thing. (Here’s a tip from one penny smasher to another – pennies made before 1982 are going to have more copper in them and squish better. )
There’s lots more to explore in the preserve and in all of California’s extensive public lands. See photos and links below, and check out my other stories on free and easy hikes and daytrips here in Southern California’s Mojave desert.
Visit: Amboy Crater National Natural Landmark
Read: Escape to Sawtooth Canyon campground for a free staycation in a different desert landscape
