This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Bradshaw Trail" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(November 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Bradshaw Trail
Mother and child on Bradshaw Trail, February 2019.
Length	70 mi (113 km); Historically 180 miles (289.68 km)
Location	Colorado Desert,Southern California
Established	Cahuilla & Halchidhomapce ;José Romero 1823- ;William Bradshaw 1862-
Designation	Historic Trail,National Backcountry Byway
Trailheads	Currently:Dos Palmas Oasis toPalo Verde, CA Historically:San Bernardino, CA toLa Paz, AZ
Use	Hiking Off roading Horseback riding Camping Historically: Native American trade Route (pce-c.1890's) Mexican Mail Route (1825-1847) Stagecoach &Gold Prospector road (1862-1877)
Elevation change	2,420 ft (740 m)
Highest point	Chuckwalla Mountain Pass, 2,500 ft (762 m)
Lowest point	Dos Palmas Oasis, 80 ft (24 m)
Difficulty	Medium to strenuous
Season	early Autumn to late Spring forthru-hikers; year-round for other users
Sights	Chuckwalla National Monument ,Dos Palmas Oasis
Hazards	Severe weather Dehydration Heat wave Flash flood Disorientation Cacti Exposure Venomous Snakes &Arachnids Hypothermia Mountain lions (rare) Diarrhea from water
Surface	soft sand / natural dirt
Website	BLM Bradshaw Trail
Trail map

TheBradshaw Trail is a historic overland stage route and ancient Indian trail in theColorado Desert ofSouthern California. In 1862,William Bradshaw established the first road acrossRiverside County to theColorado River as an overland stage route. Starting inSan Bernardino, the trail was heavily traveled from 1862 to 1877, transporting miners and other passengers to thegold fields atLa Paz, Arizona. An approximately 70-mile recreational trail (110 km) along the route is maintained by the Riverside County Transportation Department.

This route across the Colorado Desert was part of an Indigenous trade network. It was used by Native peoples including theCahuilla,Halchidhoma,Maricopa, and others, who knew the locations of springs and water holes and traveled between what’s now Southern California and the Colorado River region. Historians named the ancient trade route theCahuilla-Halchidhoma Trail.

Historically The route ran fromSan Bernardino, California, through theSan Gorgonio Pass andCoachella Valley, past theSalton Sink (now filled by theSalton Sea), through theChuckwalla Mountains, and east to theColorado River whereBradshaw's Ferry was available to transport travelers across the river to the gold fields upstream inLa Paz, Arizona. Once in La Paz, additional eastern roads provided access to the mining districts of the central Arizona Territory, nearWickenburg andPrescott.

The current trail is a gradeddirt road, that traverses southeastern Riverside County, and a minimal part ofImperial County, Western trailhead beginning roughly 3 miles (4.8 km) east ofDos Palmas Oasis and Eastern terminus about 4 miles (6.4 km) north-west ofPalo Verde, CA for a total of 70 miles (110 km).

In February 1776, FriarFrancisco Garcés on an expedition from Tucson traveling north on the Colorado River encounteredHalchidhoma natives which guided him west on the Halchidhoma trail. Eventually Garcés reached the Pools of Tesquien today known asChuckwalla Springs, on February 28. The Halchidhoma informed Garcés that the trail they traversed connected them to the Cahuilla's lands. They failed to provide Garcés with guides and he had better luck further North on the Colorado River with theMojave natives. If the Halchidhoma had provided guides they would've kept following the trail west to Dos Palmas Oasis, past San Gorgonio pass, and reached his destination, theSan Gabriel Mission nearLos Angeles. Instead Garcés traveled around the Mojave Desert, reaching his destination through theCajon Pass/Mojave Trail.^[1]

Spanish presence at San Gorgonio Pass on the trail was documented as early as 1809, Spanish missionaries from the San Gabriel Mission would conduct Baptisms of Cahuillas at theArroyo Blanco River atWanapiapa Village near Whitewater Canyon. Starting In 1815, missionaries would conduct yearly journeys to collect Salt several miles east of the San Gorgonio Pass in theSalton sink (Northern Shore of Salton Sea), territory reached only on the Cahuilla's trail. The yearly salt journeys lasted until the 1830's. Beginning in the very early 1820's MexicanVaqueros grazing cattle fromRancho San Gorgonio would travel east of the San Gorgonio pass on the trail and into Sec-he, a Cahuilla village with ahot spring. the Spanish named the village Agua Caliente, today known asPalm Springs.

In 1821, José Cocomaricopa, aMaricopa leader, traveled on foot from theGila-Colorado River region to San Gabriel Mission with a small group of companions. When they arrived, he handed themissionaries an official letter from the commander of thePresdio of Tucson, whom he met in February. He told the missionaries that they had covered the distance from the Colorado River to San Gabriel in six days, following an existing Native trail across the desert. They said they came to trade, showing that Indigenous traders were already using this overland route between the Colorado River area and coastal California before Mexican and later U.S. expeditions formally opened it.

José the native was escorted from San Gabriel Mission to San Diego Presidio to speak toJosé María Estudillo, a Spanish lieutenant. The Maricopas were instructed to leave Alta California and return to their lands on the Gila River. Estudillo wrote down the route the Maricopas took back to the Colorado river. The Spanish were perplexed on how the natives appeared at San Gabriel first and not San Diego, since the Spanish would use a more southern route to cross the Colorado Desert known as thede Anza trail. This established trail heading east towards the Colorado River had closed in July 1781, following theYuma Crossing massacre in which hostileYumas killedFriar Garcés and more than fifty other Spanish settlers.

For the Spanish and later Mexican governments it was imperative the land connection be re established from coastal California settlements to the easternProvince of Sonora, specifically Tucson. If José Cocomaricopa reached San Gabriel carrying a letter from Tucson, through hostile Yuman lands surely there was an undiscovered route to Sonora from California.

In December 1823, under orders from California GovernorLuis Antonio Argüello, Lieutenant José María Estudillo & Captain José Romero led an expeditionary military force from Mission San Gabriel, to find an overland route from San Gabriel to Tucson, afterde Anza's alternate southern trail closed, in 1781 after a massacre of Spanish settlers perpetrated by Yuma natives.

Retracing José Cocomaricopa's steps they tracked east through the San Gorgonio Pass into the Colorado Desert and were escorted by Cahuillas following the Cahuilla–Halchidhoma trail, to Dos Palmas Oasis. From there they attempted to continue east toward the Colorado River, but their two Indian guides unfamiliar with the trail's eastern section in the Chuckwalla Mountain range, led them astray north of the trail nearPalen Lake, forcing the party to turn back without reaching Tucson on that attempt. Two years later in December 1825, Romero completed the expedition. Romero effectively re-established the Sonora to Alta California land connection and set the stage for the route’s use as a mail and courier path between the two Mexican provinces.

In August 1846 GovernorPío Pico and GeneralJosé Castro escaped to Sonora following theCapture of Los Angeles using the Cahuilla-Halchidhoma trail. at the time the Americans did not know about this route which ensured his safety of not getting apprehended by the American military.

In January 1847 Mexican California resistance leaderJosé María Flores escaped to Sonora with around 36 Mexican soldiers after their defeat at theBattle of La Mesa. Romero followed the Cahuilla–Halchidhoma trail, passing east of the San Gorgonio Pass into Dos Palmas, then across theAlgodones Dunes, and finally reached theYuma Crossing.

In 1850,Dr. Isaac W. Smith leading as Captain of a wagon train arrives in San Bernardino from Iowa. He followed General Flores' route from Yuma to San Bernardino via the San Gorgonio Pass.

In November 1853Second lieutenantRobert S. Williamson led a military expedition to survey an optimal train route for the Southern Pacific railroad known as thePacific Railroad Surveys. Williamson surveyed the San Gorgonio Pass and the Coachella Valley, at the eastern foothills ofSan Jacinto &Santa Rosa Mountains.

In December 1855, SurveyorJames Greer McDonald mapped section boundaries from San Gorgonio to Colorado River, using the trail.

In September 1857, as part of petitioning the John Butterfield mail route to pass from Yuma to San Bernardino, instead of Los Angeles or San Diego, a public petition was presented to the board of Supervisors asking a road be surveyed from San Bernardino to the frontier of the Colorado Desert into Yuma.Dr. Isaac W. Smith from San Gorgonio Pass is elected to lead the survey retracing his route seven years ago, he established the exact route to be later re-discovered by Bradshaw, however at Dos Palmas Oasis, Smith's party turned directly South towardsAlgodones Dunes then to Yuma. This expedition was named the "Smith Survey".

In January 1858, a Butterfield road scout Captain Kenyon made use of the trail leading a wagon party through the "Smith Survey trail".

In Summer 1858, during the June-August months Warren Hall, the Southern California Division Superintendent organized a working party to set up water points and sink wells, and to build stage stations along the trail. Stations were erected at White Water and Agua Caliente. In August efforts were abandoned after finding it impossible to develop water stops over the one hundred miles of wagon road between Dos Palmas and Yuma, through the arid Algodones Dunes. TheButterfield Overland Mail was not awarded to San Bernardino.

In January 1862Pauline Weaver who had a ranch in San Gorgonio Pass, struck Gold on the banks of the Colorado River.

In February During the initial phase of the American Civil War theCalifornia Collumn under Union GeneralJames Henry Carleton leftCamp Carleton in San Bernardino towards the San Gorgonio Pass, onto Yuma Crossing to contest Confederate presence in the newly establishedConfederate Arizona on the east bank of the Colorado River.

in April, after receiving the news of the gold strike in the Colorado River, William Bradshaw gathered a posse of eight adventurers and led their path eastward of Los Angeles on May 18, they took the stagecoach to San Bernardino and went on foot until they reached the Mormon settlement of Fort San Bernardino. From here William went throughSan Timoteo Canyon to Duff Weaver's residence, brother of Pauline the prospector who reported the claim. They kept heading east until they reachedSaahatpa, where they encounteredJuan Antonio the chief of the village. After passingDr. Smith's Ranch and entering San Gorgonio pass They camp next toWhitewater River at the entrance of the Coachella Valley. The next morning at dawn they march into un-familiar territory, they follow the trail south the eastern foothills ofSan Jacinto &Santa Rosa Mountains. Bradshaw reachesToro Village where he befriends Cahuilla chiefCabazon, so much so that Cabazon and a traveling Cocomaricopa Native, illustrate a map of the remaining trail to the Colorado River. Bradshaw travels to Dos Palmas Oasis, through the Chuckwalla and Mule Mountains toProvidence Point, on the Colorado River's shore. Bradshaw begins his Ferry service on June 16, 1862.^[2]

He renamed it toBradshaw Road it was referred to other names likeRoad to La Paz,^[3] orGold Road,^[4] A formerforty-niner, Bradshaw knew that the northern gold mines were rapidly becoming exhausted and that the flood of refugees from the area would need a more direct trail from the south across the desert to the new strike at La Paz. Without a direct trail, it would be necessary to travel a great distance southeast toYuma, then north up the river to La Paz. Bradshaw was also aware of the financial possibilities that could be found in a goldboomtown.

Originally 180 miles (290 km) long, the western trailhead began east of San Bernardino in theSan Gorgonio Pass. Bradshaw and his party traveled southeast through Agua Caliente, nowPalm Springs, and then South to a village where theTorres Martinez Indian Reservation is now located. There Bradshaw was befriended byCabazon, a chief of the Cahuilla Indians of theSalton Sink, and aMaricopa from Arizona who was visiting the Cahuilla villages. They provided Bradshaw with the knowledge of the route of their ancient trade route through the Colorado Desert, including the location of springs and water holes.

Armed with this information, Bradshaw traveled eastward near present-dayMecca at the northern tip of the Salton Sink, to Bitter Spring at the foothills of theOrocopia Mountains and on 5 miles to an existing stage stop called "Dos Palmas Spring." Leaving Dos Palmas, the men continued through the pass eastward between the Orocopia andChocolate mountain ranges, briefly skirting the southern end of theChuckwalla range, crossed through a gap in theMule Mountains and reaching thePalo Verde Valley two miles southwest of the modern community ofRipley. Despite the fact that the trail crossed mostly barren desert, water was reasonably plentiful with water holes found at roughly 30-mile (48 km) intervals atCanyon Springs,Tabaseca Tanks,Chuckwalla Springs andMule Spring.

Crossing the Palo Verde Valley to the northwest, they crossed a slough of the Colorado River called Laguna, and Willow Springs Station, toBradshaw's Ferry, the crossing point of theColorado River toMineral City east of what is nowBlythe. Once they crossed the Colorado River, the party rode upstream for approximately five miles to the gold fields of La Paz.

Between 1862 and 1877, the Bradshaw Trail was the main stagecoach and wagon route between Southern California and the gold fields of La Paz and other places in western Arizona. TheLa Paz - Wikenburg Road connected the Bradshaw Trail to the interior of Arizona Territory and the mining districts there. Olive City was the first Bradshaw ferry crossing for the trail from 1862 to 1864. With the founding of Mineral City, which became the new Bradshaw ferry crossing, Mineral City became part of Ehrenberg when it was established in 1866.

From 1870 the trail ended and connected with the toll road to Wickenburg at Ehrenberg as La Paz, became a ghost town when its mines played out.

Southern Pacific constructed a railroad connecting Yuma to San Bernardino via Coachella Valley. The railroad began construction in 1879 and was completed in 1883.

From September 1905 to February 1907, the Colorado River overflowed into theSalton Sink, the engineering disaster led to the creation of the modern Salton Sea. The disaster permanently inundated part of the trail near the northern tip of the Salton Sink & severalSPRR rail stations.

in the early 20th century, long-distance travel is dominated by railroads and early highways, not old wagon roads. The Bradshaw route survives mostly as a rough local road across public lands, used by ranchers, survey/utility crews, and miners accessing claims in the Mountains.

TheCoachella Canal began construction in the 1930s. Trenching was done at the base of theOrocopia Mountains, this construction development split the historic Cahuilla-Halchidhoma trail in two at the Dos Palmas Oasis. The Cahuilla portion of the trail that traversed fromSan Timoteo Canyon to Dos Palmas was forever lost to urban development. Only the Halchidhoma section of the trail from Dos Palmas to the Colorado river, remains to present date.

In 1942 TheDesert Training Center began operation. Established by Major GeneralGeorge S. Patton, Jr. in response to a need to trainAmerican combat troops for battle in North Africa duringWorld War II. Over one million men were trained at the eleven sub-camps scattered throughout the California Desert. Patton's Throne is the nickname given to a specific observation point hill near the Bradshaw trail on the Chuckwalla mountain range south ofCamp Young Headquarters. General George S. Patton Jr. is said to have overseen tank maneuvers during World War II training exercises.

In 1948, County maps began labeling the route as Butterfield trail.

In June 1974, the trail was renamed from Butterfield trail to Bradshaw Trail by the Riverside county board of supervisors.

In 1992, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) designates the surviving California portion of the route as the Bradshaw Trail National Back Country Byway.

On January 14, 2025 theChuckwalla National Monument was established in the final days ofJoe Biden’s US presidency. the remaining section of Bradshaw trail is located entirely within the park’s boundary.

The western start of the current Bradshaw trail begins, 10 miles (16 km) east ofNorth Shore, California adjacent to the trail's historic stagecoach station of Dos Palmas. The remaining fragment mostly passes through Public land (Chuckwalla National Monument), and offers sweeping views of theOrocopia,Chuckwalla, andMule Mountains. The extreme eastern end of the trail atRipley, California, intersects 30th Avenue, 2 miles (3.2 km) west ofSR 78.Four-wheel-drive vehicles are recommended because of sections of soft sand. No amenities may be found on the trail itself.

TheBradshaw Trail National Backcountry Byway is overseen by theBureau of Land Management’s Palm Springs–South Coast Field Office.

TheChocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range which borders a part of the Bradshaw Trail to the south, is a livebombing range and is clearly posted as such.

• List of Riverside County, California, placename etymologies#Bradshaw
• Wiley's Well

• Gunther, Jane Davies.Riverside County, California, Place Names; Their Origins and Their Stories, Riverside, CA, 1984.LCCN 84-72920.
• Wheeler, G.M. & Bergland Eric, 1875,Topographical Sketch showing the Outward and Inward Route of a Party, while examining as to the practicability of a Diversion of the Colorado River for Purposes of Irrigation, Lithograph by Eric Bergland, 1875. From, Wheeler, G.M., Topographical Atlas Projected To Illustrate United States Geographical Surveys West Of The 100th Meridian Of Longitude Prosecuted In Accordance With Acts Of Congress Under The Authority Of The Honorable The Secretary Of War, And The Direction Of Brig. Genl. A.A. Humphreys, Chief Of Engineers, U.S. Army. Embracing Results Of the Different Expeditions Under The Command Of 1st Lieut. Geo. M. Wheeler, Corps Of Engineers. Julius Bien, lith., G. Thompson, Washington, 1876 from davidrumsey.com accessed December 3, 2014.] Shows the Colorado River aboveEhrenburg, Arizona to Stones Ferry at the mouth of theVirgin River, inSouthern California, parts of Nevada, and Arizona. Includes the roads and railroads of the time, including the detailed routes of the Bradshaw Trail and theMojave Road. From a Wheeler Annual Report. Gift to the David Rumsey collection by Mark Sappington.

• Johnston, Francis J. (1977).The Bradshaw Trail. Riverside, CA: Riverside Historical Commission Press. p. 215.
  • Reviewed inPolich, John L. (Summer 1978). Strong, Douglas S (ed.)."The Bradshaw Trail".San Diego Historical Society Quarterly.24 (3).
• Lech, Steve (2012).For Tourism and a Good Night's Sleep: J. Win Wilson, Wilson Howell, and the Beginnings of the Pines-to-Palms Highway. Riverside, CA: Steve Lech. p. 164.ISBN 978-0-9837500-1-7. (for more information about Dos Palmas Spring)

• BLM page on the Bradshaw Trail outlining recreational activities and access information
• Bradshaw Trail history at desertusa.com

• Bradshaw Trail
• 1862 establishments in California
• Geography of La Paz County, Arizona
• Transportation in Riverside County, California
• Transportation in San Bernardino County, California
• Colorado Desert
• San Gorgonio Pass
• Coachella Valley
• Lower Colorado River Valley
• State Scenic Highway System (California)
• Historic trails and roads in California
• Historic trails and roads in Arizona
• Transportation in Imperial County, California
• Bureau of Land Management Back Country Byways

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles needing additional references from November 2025
• All articles needing additional references
• Use American English from September 2025
• All Wikipedia articles written in American English
• Use mdy dates from January 2025
• Pages using infobox mapframe with missing coordinates
• Pages using infobox trail with unknown parameters
• Pages using gadget WikiMiniAtlas
• Articles using KML from Wikidata
• Pages using the Kartographer extension