Approximate location — plotted from published sources, not a site visit, and not a guarantee of access.
William Bradshaw blazed this 70-mile desert road in 1862 as a stage route from San Bernardino to the La Paz gold fields on the Colorado River. BLM now manages the surviving California segment as a National Back Country Byway, a graded dirt track across public land with views of the Chuckwalla Bench and the Orocopia, Chuckwalla, and Mule Mountains. Soft sand makes four-wheel-drive the realistic choice.
Cultural sites and artifacts are protected by federal law (ARPA/NHPA) — stay on established routes, touch and remove nothing, and follow the managing agency's and the affiliated tribe's guidance on access.