Reroutes and Supplements to the Four EMHT Guidebooks

Prepared by: Billy Creech - Fractal Exploration

The East Mojave Heritage Trail created by Dennis Casebier and the Friends of the Mojave Road in the 1980s is a comprehensive tour through some of the most remote portions of the East Mojave Desert. In its original form, the EMHT covered 660 miles. Four hard cover guidebooks provide historical facts, information on local flora and fauna, detailed geographic descriptions, as well as cumulative mileage along the route.

With the implementation of the 1994 Desert Protection Act, which established the Mojave National Preserve and designated Wilderness Areas, the trail was closed in at least 13 places impacting a minimum of 75 miles – thus rendering the guidebooks useless as navigational aids – although still very useful for general guides and historical information.

Beginning in 2018, Billy Creech set out to remap the EMHT. He spent 18 months researching, mapping, and coordinating with both BLM and NPS before setting out on a solo journey in May 2019 to re-route the EMHT to account for current wilderness boundaries and points of interest along or near the route. After more coordination with Federal agencies, as well as the MDHCA, and more trips to Mojave Desert, supplemental guides for the original books have been completed by Billy Creech, with assistance from John Marnell and Larry Vredenburgh.

Fuel points remain the same as those in the books. In the interest of desert preservation and impact mitigation, in some areas the original trail was rerouted onto a more established trail where there is no meaningful difference in the overall experience. In some cases, the Supplements will recommend an optional path that may be less challenging.

The original EMHT books are available from our online store. Each hard cover book includes a printed copy of the Supplement for that book. Links to the four Supplements and GPS tracks of the EMHT Route are available below.

You can purchase the original hard cover guide books here:

Segment 1 — Needles to Ivanpah

Segment 2 — Ivanpah to Rocky Ridge

Segment 3 — Rocky Ridge to Fenner

Segment 4 — Fenner To Needles

You can save about $22 by purchasing all 4 books at one time here:

Segments 1-4 — All 4 Volumes

Download the Supplements from these links:

Supplement 1

Supplement 2

Supplement 3

Supplement 4

Download GPS Tracks

The GPS tracks of the realigned EMHT are available in two formats. The KML format is compatible with most GPS units and may be used with Google Earth. The GPX format is also widely compatible with GPS units.

Download KML Track

Download GPX Track

Driving the 660-Mile East Mojave Heritage Trail

On 9 November 2020 CAL4WHEEL published an online article authored by Billy Creech titled “The East Mojave Heritage Trail.” The article is available here.

On 24 January 2020 Expedition Portal published an online article authored by Billy Creech titled “Driving the 660-Mile East Mojave Heritage Trail.” The article is available here.