Jawbone to Lake Isabella — Jawbone Canyon OHV Connector

Jawbone Canyon cuts north off Highway 14 near Cantil into the El Paso Mountains and feeds a web of OHV routes before the main connector climbs into the southern Sierra Nevada foothills toward Lake Isabella. The canyon itself opens wide in the lower wash — packed sand and cobble — then pinches into granite walls where flash floods have polished the rock smooth. The Dove Springs area is the hub; from there the Jawbone-Butterbredt Area of Critical Environmental Concern pushes north and east through creosote and Joshua tree scrub before elevation gain brings juniper and eventually pinyon. It’s a legitimate 50-mile cross-country connector that most people only know the bottom third of.

Lower Jawbone Canyon is accessible to most high-clearance 4WD rigs, but the upper connector toward Kelso Valley and Lake Isabella gets rocky and rutted enough to warrant a locker and solid skid plates. The BLM requires a California OHV Green Sticker or equivalent for off-highway sections. Fuel in Mojave before you start — Isabella is your next option and that’s 70-plus miles in. No water in the canyon; carry everything. Best seasons are October through April to avoid triple-digit desert heat. Cell service is nonexistent in the canyon bottom.