Impassable Pass is a
gap in
Alvord Mountain
Alvord Mountain is a mountain range in San Bernardino County, California. The mountain was named for Charles Alvord, who prospected in the area of the mountain between 1860 and 1862. It is located 17.5 miles northeast of Yermo, California.
Histo ...
, in
San Bernardino County, California
San Bernardino County (), officially the County of San Bernardino, is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California, and is located within the Inland Empire area. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the population was 2,18 ...
. It is located just south and outside of the boundary fence of
Fort Irwin National Training Center
Fort Irwin National Training Center (Fort Irwin NTC) is a major training area for the United States military in the Mojave Desert in northern San Bernardino County, California. Fort Irwin is at an average elevation of . It is located northeast o ...
.
[Edward Leo Lyman, Overland Journey from Utah to California: Wagon Travel from the City of Saints to the City of Angels, University of Nevada Press, 2008.]
History
Impassable Pass was a pass through Alvord Mountain for the
Old Spanish Trail and the later wagon route called the
Mormon Road
Mormon Road, also known to the 49ers as the Southern Route, of the California Trail in the Western United States, was a seasonal wagon road pioneered by a Mormon party from Salt Lake City, Utah led by Jefferson Hunt, that followed the route of ...
, between
Bitter Spring and
Fork of the Road, the next water on the
Mojave River
The Mojave River is an intermittent river in the eastern San Bernardino Mountains and the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County, California, United States. Most of its flow is underground, while its surface channels remain dry most of the ti ...
. The pass overlooks
Spanish Canyon
Spanish Canyon, is a canyon that has its head near the middle of the southwest slope of Alvord Mountain below Impassable Pass at and trends south to its mouth, 1.6 miles east northeast of Alvord Well at an elevation of . The canyon is named fo ...
below it to the south, through which this route a passed through the south facing slope of Alvord Mountain to the open desert beyond its mouth.
[
]
The site today
The site of Impassable Pass still exhibits deep ruts from the passing of the wagons of Mormons
Mormons are a Religious denomination, religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the mov ...
, the Forty-niners and later immigrants and the freight wagon trains that used the road from 1855. A large boulder installation exists at the top of the old roadway of the pass into Spanish Canyon, thwarting modern travelers from driving over the ruts, and a rock ring at the top of the pass may be the remains of Mormon signal fires.High Potential Trail Segments: Old Spanish Trail Alternative B
from nps.gov, accessed September 28, 2015
References
External links
from digital-desert.com, accessed September 28, 2015. A recent photo of the wagon road down toward Spanish Canyon from the summit of Impassable Pass.
Impassable Passfrom facebook.com/Barstow4Wheelers/photos accessed September 28, 2015. Photo of Impassable Paas.
from elpasomountains.blogspot.com accessed September 28, 2015. Photo Caption: "The SandNSky Jeep at the bottom of a section of The Old Spanish Trail. Note the wagon ruts that are still faintly visible. Photo by Scott Schwartz."
{{coord, 35, 07, 28, N, 116, 35, 11, W, display=title
Landforms of San Bernardino County, California
Old Spanish Trail (trade route)
Mormon Road