2016 Fall Mountain Trip Part 1; Garlock, CA ghost town

In the fall of 2016 I had a bunch of unused vacation time and decided to head out revisit eight National Parks in California, Utah and Arizona.

The first day of the trip started out early climbing over the Sierras to the Mojave Desert via California State Route 58 across Tehachapi Pass. I made my way to CA 14 north as I was heading towards Death Valley National Park.

After following CA 14 northward to northeast Kern County I took Redrock-Randsburg Road east. After reaching Garlock Road I took it east to US 395 passing by the Garlock ghost town site.

Garlock was the site of a gold stamp mill which was constructed in 1896. Gold in Garlock was mined out the nearby El Paso Mountains and community appears to have been enough of a success to warrant on/off Postal Service until 1926. Garlock appears to have seen secondary use as a rail siding on the nearby Southern Pacific Railroad line which still crosses near the community site. There is actually a substantial number of buildings remaining in Garlock but most are fenced off.

From the eastern end of Garlock Road I took US 395 north to Searles Cut-Off which I used to enter rural San Bernardino County. I next took Trona Road northward towards CA 178 but I'll leave that for Part 2 of this series.

Part 2 can be found here:

2016 Fall Mountain Trip Part 1; the Panamint Gap in California State Route 178

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