Mojave Trails National Monument is a large

U.S. National Monument In the United States, a national monument is a protected area that can be created from any land owned or controlled by the federal government by proclamation of the President of the United States or an act of Congress. National monuments prot ...

located in the state of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

between Interstates 15 and 40. It partially surrounds the

Mojave National Preserve Mojave National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, USA, between Interstate 15 in California, Interstate 15 and Interstate 40. The preserve was established October 31 ...

. It was designated by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

on February 12, 2016, along with Castle Mountains National Monument and

Sand to Snow National Monument Sand to Snow National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located in San Bernardino County and northern Riverside County, Southern California. It protects diverse montane and desert habitats of the San Bernardino Mountains, southern Mojave Des ...

, also in southern California. It is under the administration of the

Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is an agency within the United States Department of the Interior responsible for administering federal lands. Headquartered in Washington DC, and with oversight over , it governs one eighth of the country's la ...

Features

Mojave Trails National Monument is the largest national monument in the contiguous United States and is almost entirely undeveloped. Like the adjacent

, Mojave Trails National Monument contains numerous desert mountain ranges, volcanic features, and sand dunes. Four wilderness areas are within the monument: Trilobite, Clipper Mountain, Piute Mountains and Bigelow Cholla Garden. The most visited area in Mojave Trails National Monument is

Amboy Crater Amboy Crater is a dormant cinder cone volcano that rises above a lava field in the eastern Mojave Desert of southern California, within Mojave Trails National Monument. It is about equidistant from Barstow to the west and Needles to the e ...

, a dormant cinder cone volcano, which was a popular sight for travelers in the heyday of

U.S. Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...

from the 1920s to the 1960s. Another area with developed recreation facilities is Afton Canyon, one of only two places where the 140-mile long

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, ...

continuously flows above the ground. Afton Canyon has steep rock walls that earned it the nickname “Grand Canyon of the Mojave”. One of the most remote areas in the monument consists of the nearly pristine Cadiz Dunes, which are orange-pink in color and almost entirely unvegetated. This dune field formed from the sand of dry lake beds.A Monumental Addition in California
/ref> Bonanza Spring, an important water resource, and Bonanza Springs Wildlife Area is also located in the National Monument. Cultural resources in Mojave Trails National Monument include 105 miles of historic

, between Needles and

Ludlow, California Ludlow is an unincorporated community in the Mojave Desert on Interstate 40, located in San Bernardino County, California, United States. The older remains of the ghost town are along historic Route 66. History Origins The community settlement ...

, the longest remaining undeveloped stretch of Route 66, as well as some of the best preserved sites from the World War II-era

Desert Training Center The Desert Training Center (DTC), also known as California–Arizona Maneuver Area (CAMA), was a World War II training facility established in the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert, largely in Southern California and Western Arizona in 1942. It ...

References

External links

Bureau of Land Management: Official Mojave Trails National Monument websiteU.S. Dept. of Interior.gov: Map of Mojave Trails National Monument
— ''with wilderness areas''.
Photo album for Mojave Trails NM
by BLM. * National Monuments in California Bureau of Land Management National Monuments Parks in San Bernardino County, California Protected areas of the Mojave Desert Bureau of Land Management areas in California Protected areas established in 2016 2016 establishments in California Units of the National Landscape Conservation System National Monuments designated by Barack Obama {{SanBernardinoCountyCA-geo-stub