Camping and Off-roading in Johnson Valley

If you like to cruise endless desert dirt roads, crawl up rocky trails, and blast through dry lake beds, then Johnson Valley Off-Highway Vehicle Area is a must do. Johnson Valley is located in Southern California’s high desert in Lucerne Valley off of Highway 247. Widely known as the home of King of the Hammers, an off-road Jeep race, Johnson Valley is full of dirt trails that meander amongst rocky mountains and wide open desert. I’ve camped at Johnson Valley several times to off-road and explore, and I’ve also watched Mojave Off Road Racing Enthusiasts (MORE) races zoom through the dusty trails. In fact, some of my friends used to race their class nine cars and class 1400 trucks and my husband and I would help out in the pits during their races. (And by helping, I would make racing videos; I’m not mechanically savvy!) Johnson Valley is a beautiful desert to camp and play in, so if you’re thinking about making the journey, here are a few tips and camping spots to check out.

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Aerial Views of Tectonic Gorge Trail, Ocotillo Wells

I decided to test my DJI Phantom quadcopter on our recent camping trip out in Ocotillo Wells to see what kind of aerial footage I could capture. Here’s a short video of my footage, along with a few aerial photos. Read More

Breaking in the New RZR XP 1000

We made a short day trip out to Johnson Valley to start breaking in our new RZR XP 1000, and wow, this machine is incredible! It’s a completely different offroading experience from Jeeping… now we can go very fast over crazy terrain! I made a quick video of our first ride, and if you get the itch to investigate XP 1000’s further, check out Polaris’ website.