I'm making a trip down to SoCal next week to visit some places relevant
to family history, with Ridgecrest my destination for Wednesday. After a
lot of poking around with GoogleEarth, I've decided I want to try and
take Redrock Randsburg road just before Red Rock Canyon, over to
Randsburg, and then into Johannesburg, before heading up to Ridgecrest.
Grandfather owned a blacksmith shop in Johannesburg around 1905, though
I can see from street view, there's no hundred year old buildings left.
But just want to visit these two towns as I know he was in and around both.

Poking around between satellite and street view, I see both signs
warning of flooding, and a couple decent stretches of road covered
partially or completely with sand. It's rather obvious fair amounts of
water cross that road from time to time. I'm well aware that rain far
away in the mountains can reach the flats as flash floods fairly
quickly. Between that and my impression this road doesn't seem to get a
lot of traffic, I'm wondering...

So my question is, if at the junction of 14 and Redrock Randsburg Rd, I
see obvious storm clouds to the north, would I be wise to stay on 14 and
take 395 back down into Johannesburg/Randsburg? It sure takes a big
chunk out of the drive and I'd love to see in person the isolation that
Google Street View hints at.

But I have no desert experience and have read more than a few accounts
of flash flood fatalities far away from the rainfall. It appears that
the first bit of that road crosses a low point that potentially drains a
pretty vast area. Anyone familiar with this area?


Jon