Colorful Geology and Striking Formations at Rainbow Basin Natural Area

The loop drive is interesting, with fascinating, colorfully rugged geology. Not recommended for timid drivers. Definitely NOT a drive to do during wet conditions and NOT for larger vehicles, especially RV's, trucks with campers, or large SUV's, as there are a few tight spots and/or narrow turns. We did it in about 45 minutes in a Ford Escape. When you come out, there is an intersection wit 3 options, but there isn't a sign saying which way to go to get back to main road. You want to tae the one on the left. We started to take the one to the right, which will supposedly also take you to a main road, but we turned back about 1\4 mile out as it just got rougher and bumper the further we went.

Great destination! Enjoyed the open trail and peaceful outdoor atmosphere.

Let's start with the positives, Rainbow Basin outside of Barstow is naturally beautiful with some incredible rock formations, beautiful colours, and a deep feeling of being in mother nature's solitude, it is worth seeing believe me. Now the extremely serious negatives about Rainbow Basin, I've read many reviews stating that it had been driven in a regular sedan? I will say now this is nonsense! Let me elaborate. When you leave the tarmac road to drive to the Basin entrance you are on an uneven dirt track, when you approach Rainbow Basin there is a sign saying "One Way" from there the road becomes very uneven with lots of rocks all over the road, I think many parts of the road are actually a dried river bed. The day we went was 23.08.26 it was around 110 degrees there was literally nobody around just us, we were in a Mercedes GLE 350 so a high SUV, many points as we drove around I was concerned about catch the base of the car, luckily I did not. As we continued to drive the road became noticeably narrower, until we came to a point where it looked like there was no turn, we had to stop get out to look at the tight bend, it was impossible to pass, huge holes in the ground plus a bend that did not look passable! Only options was to reverse which was incredibly difficult given the severity of the terrain, I had to reverse back as far as I could then perform numerous tight manoeuvres to turn around, given if I went to far back the car would have fell in a gully, to far forward I'm hitting a rock face! Very tense and concerning period in the middle of nowhere with little or no phone signal. Once turned we drove out along the one way road the wrong way, as this was our only route back to safety, it was only when we got out and back to the dirt track did we see "road closed" signs lay face down on the floor, these signs must be stood up, the basin needs managing before someone gets hurt or worse! Not sure if wind had blown them down or been knocked down, but this trip could of ended significantly differently. We reached out to the local government website to report this and hopefully warn others, no numbers to ring still awaiting an email response.

Easy drive through area with walking trails and amazing rock formations

Great destination! Enjoyed the open trail and peaceful outdoor atmosphere.