The Mojave and Death Valley Run
Las Vegas out to Death Valley and back across the Mojave — two ghost towns, a mining camp on a private mountain, and the tallest thermometer in the world in the hottest place it could reasonably stand.
7 stops · 3 days · Nevada, California · roughly 403 miles point to point
See the whole route and everything odd beside it
OddWay draws your route first, then plots every stop that falls inside the detour you're willing to make. No hunting through a list to work out what is actually on the way.
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Every one of the 7 places in the index. Plan a route and the map narrows to what's actually near it.
Three days across the emptiest and hottest country in the index. This is the route where preparation is not optional.
Out of Las Vegas
Start with the Haunted Museum on Charleston Boulevard, which is the last air-conditioned thing you will see for a while, then head northwest.
Rhyolite is the easy one: BLM-managed, walk freely among the ruins of a town that appeared in the Bullfrog gold rush and emptied within a decade. Leadfield is the better story — a boom that lasted under a year in 1926, driven by promotion rather than ore. It sits on the one-way Titus Canyon Road, closing October 2026 to September 2027 for repairs, so check first.
The hard middle
Ballarat and Cerro Gordo are both privately owned and neither is a visitor attraction in the way the word usually means.
Ballarat is adobe ruins off Panamint Valley Road with no dependable services. Cerro Gordo is eight miles up a steep dirt road into the Inyo Mountains, and the whole townsite belongs to somebody — follow the owner's current rules rather than treating it as open ground.
Neither is a casual detour. Both are worth it if you go equipped.
Back to the tarmac
Baker and the world's tallest thermometer, 134 feet for the 134 degrees recorded at Furnace Creek in 1913. Then Calico, restored by Walter Knott and handed to San Bernardino County in 1966 — ticketed, busy, and after four days of desert, pleasantly ordinary.
Take this seriously
Summer here is genuinely dangerous. Carry far more water than you think, fuel at every opportunity, and tell somebody your route. Phone signal is absent for long stretches and the unpaved sections want proper clearance.
Spring and autumn are the seasons for this. July is not.
The Route
Zak Bagan's The Haunted Museum
Las Vegas, Nevada
Zak Bagans' The Haunted Museum fills a historic Las Vegas mansion with rooms devoted to paranormal objects, notorious crimes, occult artifacts and items claimed to be cursed or haunted. Visitors follow a guided experience through the collection, with age restrictions and upgraded experiences available.
Rhyolite Ghost Town
Rhyolite, Nevada
One of Nevada’s most substantial ghost towns preserves the skeletal remains of a once-booming Bullfrog mining city only a few miles from Death Valley.
Leadfield
Beatty, Nevada
The boom lasted under a year in 1926-27, after aggressive promotion pulled miners and investors into Titus Canyon and poor ore collapsed the whole thing. A few shacks, workings and ruins remain along the one-way Titus Canyon Road — which is scheduled to close from October 2026 to September 2027 for repairs.
Ballarat
Searles Valley, California
Founded in 1897 to serve gold mines in the Panamint Mountains, with around 400 residents by 1898. What is left is adobe ruins and scattered mining remains off Panamint Valley Road. Privately owned, genuinely remote, and with no dependable services.
Cerro Gordo Ghost Town
Lone Pine, California
A silver, lead and zinc town high in the Inyo Mountains from the 1860s, holding an unusually complete set of mining structures. The whole townsite is privately owned and reached up a steep eight-mile dirt road — follow the owner's current visiting rules rather than treating it as open ground.
World's Tallest Thermometer
Baker, California
Baker’s 134-foot electric thermometer was created by businessman Willis Herron to commemorate the 134°F temperature recorded in nearby Death Valley. The first version was built in 1991 but toppled in high winds before opening, and the rebuilt structure was illuminated in October 1992; it remains a prominent I-15 roadside landmark.
Calico Ghost Town
Yermo, California
Calico grew around one of California's richest silver districts from 1881, reaching roughly 1,200 residents before falling silver prices emptied it. Walter Knott restored the surviving town and gave it to San Bernardino County in 1966. Ticketed: historic buildings, shops, the Maggie Mine and a railroad.