Kelso Dunes at Mojave Desert National Preserve – CA

The day of chasing the sun continues…..

From Sedona at Sunrise, to Mojave Desert National Preserve for sunset. Drive involved calculated breaks to make sure we reach in time for sunset.

Coming back from New Mexico, we gained an hour entering California.

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We decided to stop at Kelso Dunes for sunset and it is fairly accessible from Hwy 40.

Take the the exit to Kelbaker road and drive till the intersection of Kelso Cimo Rd. Turn left at Kelso Cimo to go on the dirt road for a few miles.

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There is a restroom and a parking lot to reach the Kelso dunes.

The dunes start at the parking lot itself, but it’s relatively flat in this section.

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To reach the big dunes its a good 30min walk. We were again pressed on time and decided not to get to the top of the big dunes.

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Basically just walked around the area for pinkish sunset colors and desert silence.

If you happen to be there, walk up to one of the steep dunes and run down a dune slope, without trampling the vegetation, to hear the ‘singing/booming’ sound of the dunes. It’s pretty cool.

This is the last stop on our road trip. We stayed at Bakersfield that night. Next day morning we drove back to Sunnyvale.

A glorious 3300-miles of round trip on our Honda Accord 2003, came to an end with such colorful memories of sunrises and sunsets.