EMHT Segment 4: Fenner to Needles

Total Miles
144.5

Technical Rating

Moderate

Best Time

Spring, Fall

Trail Type

Full-Width Road

Accessible By

Trail Overview

This is leg 4 of 4 to complete the entire East Mojave Heritage Trail (EMHT), a meandering and comprehensive tour of the Mojave Desert. Terrain will vary in this segment but is mostly hard pack. The scenery will change between wide-open desert expanses, awesome canyons with unique geologic features, a rugged rock garden, and a return to canyon and wash that is Eagle Pass, finishing at your original starting point in Needles at the El Garces train station. On this leg, panoramic views, rugged terrain, and remote territory await the EMHT explorer. A mailbox is placed in a remote location along the route to sign in. This segment is BLM land, so dispersed camping is allowed anywhere along the trail.

Photos of EMHT Segment 4: Fenner to Needles

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Difficulty

Uneven, rutted dirt trail with loose rocks, sand, erosion, and washes.

Technical Rating

Status Reports

Danny May

Oct 02, 2025

2001 Jeep Grand Cherokee

Open

Normal

Washboard

Traveled east to west starting at Hwy 95. Softball sized rocks most of the first few miles. Running 20psi in my Ram 2500 it was bearable. It was probably a good idea to run east to west as heading west would have been a tough climb out of washes for my heavy truck. Other than the exits out of washes, it was mostly 2wd. My Ram had no trouble at all.

Easy warm up trail. Roadwork is going on by the Colorado River so may have to detour in some places.