Crossing the Mojave Desert on a Road No One Can Explain

Published at : 12 Dec 2025

There's a road in the Mojave Desert that shouldn’t exist, a straight line cut across nearly 50 miles of high desert, pointing almost perfectly from Barstow toward Palmdale. There are a number of theories about this road and it's history, but nobody agrees on what it actually is or why it was built.

Not to mention, about half down the road between Barstow and Palmdale, are the ruins of settlement, named on maps, that there is virtually no information about available online.

In this video we travel down what is known as the Barstow-Palmdale Road and try and uncover why someone put so much effort into building a perfectly straight line through one of the harshest deserts in California. Along the way we find some clues (and some things that sadly shouldn't be there).

Karmafrog1's video on the Barstow-Palmdale Road: https://youtu.be/cYvX9bwWrwc

○ Gear we use: https://www.amazon.com/shop/sidetrackadventures

►Join us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SidetrackAdventures

►Please subscribe for weekly updates showcasing some of our adventures: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdueDRFYPVgzPAAOM_bxVWA?sub_confirmation=1

►Also please follow Sidetrack Adventures on Instagram: https://instagram.com/sidetrackadventures

►Music in this video is from Epidemic Sounds; use our link for a free trial: https://share.epidemicsound.com/v927fj