Impassable Pass is a gap in Alvord Mountain, in

San Bernardino County, California San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a County (United States), county located in the Southern California, southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the ...

. It is located just south and outside of the boundary fence of

Fort Irwin National Training Center Fort Irwin National Training Center (Fort Irwin NTC) is a major training area for the United States military in the Mojave Desert in northern San Bernardino County, California. Fort Irwin is at an average elevation of . It is located northeast o ...

.Edward Leo Lyman, Overland Journey from Utah to California: Wagon Travel from the City of Saints to the City of Angels, University of Nevada Press, 2008.

History

Impassable Pass was a pass through Alvord Mountain for the Old Spanish Trail and the later wagon route called the

Mormon Road Mormon Road, also known to the 49ers as the Southern Route, of the California Trail in the Western United States, was a seasonal wagon road pioneered by a Mormon party from Salt Lake City, Utah led by Jefferson Hunt, that followed the route of S ...

, between Bitter Spring and

Fork of the Road Fork of the Road was the locale along the Mojave River where the junction of the Mojave Trail / Mojave Road and the Old Spanish Trail / Mormon Road was located in San Bernardino County, California. The location of Fork of the Road was on the nor ...

, the next water on the

Mojave River The Mojave River is an intermittent river in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains and the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Most of its flow is underground, while its surface channels remain dry most of the time, ...

. The pass overlooks Spanish Canyon below it to the south, through which this route a passed through the south facing slope of Alvord Mountain to the open desert beyond its mouth.

The site today

The site of Impassable Pass still exhibits deep ruts from the passing of the wagons of

Mormons Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

, the Forty-niners and later immigrants and the freight wagon trains that used the road from 1855. A large boulder installation exists at the top of the old roadway of the pass into Spanish Canyon, thwarting modern travelers from driving over the ruts, and a rock ring at the top of the pass may be the remains of Mormon signal fires.High Potential Trail Segments: Old Spanish Trail Alternative B
from nps.gov, accessed September 28, 2015

References

External links

from digital-desert.com, accessed September 28, 2015. A recent photo of the wagon road down toward Spanish Canyon from the summit of Impassable Pass.
Impassable Pass
from facebook.com/Barstow4Wheelers/photos accessed September 28, 2015. Photo of Impassable Paas.

from elpasomountains.blogspot.com accessed September 28, 2015. Photo Caption: "The SandNSky Jeep at the bottom of a section of The Old Spanish Trail. Note the wagon ruts that are still faintly visible. Photo by Scott Schwartz." {{coord, 35, 07, 28, N, 116, 35, 11, W, display=title Landforms of San Bernardino County, California Old Spanish Trail (trade route) Mormon Road