Barstow Travel Information
Barstow is more than a highway and railway hub, if transportation
is a big part of the city’s culture. The lyrics of the famous song
“Route 66” gave Barstow a mention. The Skyline Drive-In is one of the
few drive-in theatres left in the county and there is, of course, the
Route 66 Museum and the Western American Railroad Museum. Railway and
Amtrak stations double as mini-malls and museums as if for the
convenience for the 60 million people that pass through here a year.
Barstow has a different kind of importance as well - home to the U.S.
Army National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, Marine Corps Logistics
Base and NASA's Goldstone Deep Space Network. However, for the
average tourist, what elevates Barstow beyond a historical pit stop is
its surroundings. The Mojave Desert spreads out in every direction and
it’s no flat, dull stretch of sand. You can practically spelunk lava
tubes within view of the city. The beautiful and colorful rock
formations and ancient fossils of Rainbow Basin are a brief drive
away, as is the playa Coyote Dry Lake. The old Calico mining town is
preserved as California’s official Silver Rush Ghost Town and the
Calico Early Man Archaeological Site, as important a site of early
human history as you’ll find in the United States, is also
nearby. Travel a little further out to Mojave National Preserve
for more desert-style history and recreation, or to Stoddard
Valley Off-Highway Vehicle Area if you’re an off-roader.
Located 115 miles east of Los Angeles and 150 miles southwest
of Las Vegas, Barstow should be hard to miss: Interstates 15 and 40,
and Highways 58 and 247 all converge in town.
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