Project-JK Mojave Desert Black Mountain Wilderness Winter Run

The Black Mountain Wilderness is by far one of our most favorite destinations in the Mojave Desert as it is both beautiful and filled with rich history. During the late 1800's, travelers would pass through the Black Mountains and make an overnight stop at Black Canyon Well on their way to the Panamint Range carrying needed provisions or back to Los Angeles with cargo of valuable silver ore. One of these travelers left his mark on several of the black volcanic rock faces indicating that he was "J. & A. Tillman" and that he was in this area on "Sep 3, 1874 San Francisco Cal". Of course, well before the miners, Native Americans spent a vast amount of time in this area and left a stunning array of petroglyphs into the rock faces and some of which depict a herd of big horn sheep.

When we made this particular trip out to the Black Mountain Wilderness, it was soon after a big winter storm and one that left an unusual amount of snow and water behind. While it was very cold out, it was also amazingly beautiful out that day and we made sure to make many stops along the way to take it all in. Our first stop was at the old Black Canyon Well where we looked for one of three famous Tillman signatures and played in the snow. Scouts Cove was our next stop and after checking out the home miners had carved out of a tuffa tower, we spent some time rock hounding for the same fire opals that the Tiffany Jewlery Company had sought after many years before. From there, we made our way over to Inscription Canyon to admire the intricate petroglyphs carved into the black volcanic rock by an ancient people long since gone.

Our final destination on this trip took us well out of the Black Mountains and due to the unusual amount of snow and water everywhere, required that we drive for miles through deep water and mud. While this entire trip can normally be done without the need of a 4WD, I can assure you that we were all glad to have our Jeeps. Just as the sun was about to set, we made it out to one of our favorite dry lakes in the Mojave Desert and one that is simply breathtaking to see after a big storm as you will see in this video. Of all the years we have been coming out to this dry lake, there have only been a handful of times that we've seen it with this much water in it and, this was the very first time we had seen it with all this snow around. Truly, it was an experience to be remembered and maybe the only time we will ever see it like this again.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• Project-JK
• Jeep
• JK
• Wrangler
• Mojave
• Desert
• trail
• run
• Black
• Mountain
• Wilderness
• Inscription
• Canyon
• well
• Scouts
• Cove
• petroglyphs
• fire
• opal
• Tillman
• snow
• water
• dry
• lake

[mudslinger1984]

Cindy, im assuming your wife, is an excellent videographer and editor. Not only are these the best Jeep videos on Youtube, but some of the best quality videos as well. Thank you for all the time and effort put into making these.

[wayalife]

@mudslinger1984 yes, cindy is my wife and she appreciates the kind words :)

[somement]

Watching wayalife's videos is what made me buy a JK and I love it!

[wayalife]

@somement wow, that's awesome to hear - thanks :)

[stealth1692]

@somement how cold does it get during winter in the mojave

[wayalife]

@stealth1692 during the winter time, it can get really cold at night. below freezing temps are not uncommon.

[Albacorewing]

Outstanding video.

[opastrel]

each of your video and excursion related to makes me proud of owning a 4wd and be an offroader

nature must be respected and enjoyed a lot more than it really is

this should be the way of life

tks for doing all of this

[spankybrandonf]

thats one of my favorite areas to go when i was still living out west, when i lived in crestline california in mountains, we would go threw the high dessert and go to all the fun Mojave areas, once upon a time we talked about following Mojave river from hesperia until it ended, because we heard you can follow it all the way to the Colorado river.

[OGKILLa9365]

badass jeeps

[YouAreGoForTLI]

Beautiful video, as always. Very well done!

[BIGBRUTIS1]

Man that looked like an amazing trip I wish I would of took my JK out with you guys. Thanks for sharing your adventure definetly some amazing sights to be seen here.

[locolalo1364]

Great video.

[JohnathanTraver1]

all your videos are excellent quality and enjoyable to watch plz make and post more

[toplinefool444]

Did you find any nightkin?