{"id":2471,"date":"2014-03-24T05:46:35","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T05:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backroadswest.com\/blog\/titus-canyon-road-trip-copy\/"},"modified":"2025-02-11T04:37:54","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T04:37:54","slug":"cima-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.backroadswest.com\/blog\/cima-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Cima Road"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Mojave National Preserve only has a handful of paved roads into its interior and Cima Road is one of them. \u00a0<\/strong>There are lots of things to see and do along this road and, for those who travel the I-15 between Las Vegas and Los Angeles, it can provide a nice break from what is often a monotonous and traffic-congested drive.<\/p>

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You could easily spend half a day exploring the assorted attractions along Cima Road but you don\u2019t have to. \u00a0Just add an hour to your travel time and enjoy a relaxing drive on a road where there are almost no other cars and all that beautiful Mojave Desert scenery.<\/p>

On your short journey from the I-15 to the small desert hamlet of Cima, you\u2019ll see countless Joshua trees, a large variety of desert plants specific to the Mojave Desert, a well-maintained hiking trail, the ruins of various old buildings, a small portion of what used to be a large cattle ranch from the late 1890s, a historic memorial and maybe (if you\u2019re lucky) a tortoise or two. A drive along Cima Road truly gives the curious traveler a quick peek into what the Mojave National Preserve has to offer.<\/p>

Dome Fire of August 2020<\/h3>

Before we excite you about visiting this corner of the Mojave Desert, we need provide this disclaimer: much of this area was devastated by fire in August of 2020.<\/p>

We originally wrote most of this article in March 2014, with photography taking place from 2002 to 2014. We then visited in December 2020 in preparation to update this article and accompanying video tour.<\/p>

The fire was started by lightning on August 15, 2020 and because there were many other fires going, at the same time, this fire was given a low priority. It burned for almost two weeks.<\/p>

It ended up destroying 43 thousand 200 acres. Much of the Cima Dome area is now a graveyard of Joshua tree skeletons. It is estimated that as many as 1.3 million Joshua trees were killed in the fire, as well as countless cactus and other desert plants.<\/p>

When we visited, we expected to find no vegetation at all and piles of ashes. Instead, we found a forest of Joshua skeletons and small ash mounds where the desert plants once stood. With the abundance of those skeletons, we were hopeful that some may survive and in ten years or so the place would be a forest of mutant Joshua trees similar to places we visited in western Joshua Tree National Park.<\/p>

Visiting this area along Cima Road is sad indeed, since this place is probably no longer the largest Joshua Tree forest anywhere. It does give an idea of what happens after an event like this. South and east of the burn zone however, much of the desert vegetation still thrives and is very dense here as compared to other places in the Mojave Desert.<\/p> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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