Trona Pinnacles National Natural Landmark — Searles Dry Lake Tufa Spires

Rising out of the Searles Dry Lake bed east of Trona, the Pinnacles are a field of calcium carbonate tufa towers — some barely knee-high, others pushing 140 feet. They formed underwater during the Pleistocene when Searles Lake was a deep, full body of water. Now the lake is dry and the spires just stand there looking alien and excellent. You’ll recognize this place from dozens of film and TV shoots; production crews love it for the sci-fi aesthetic. As an overlander staging for or returning from Death Valley, it’s a legitimately worthwhile detour — nothing else looks like this in the California desert.

Access is via a dirt road off CA-178, roughly 5 miles east of Trona. The BLM road is typically passable in any vehicle with reasonable clearance but can get soft and rutted after rain. There are no facilities beyond a pit toilet and some minimal signage. No water, no fee. Cell signal is thin to nonexistent. Sunrise and late afternoon light hit those spires just right — plan accordingly.

500 tufa spires on a Mojave dry lakebed.