California's Once-Thriving Gold Mine Hub Is Now An Abandoned Beauty Just An Hour From Red Rock Canyon State Park

The Mojave Desert in California is dotted with ghost towns that offer a fascinating glimpse into the boom and bust of the state's gold rush history. These once-bustling mining towns are skeletons of their previous selves — their welcome signs bleached white from the desert sun and their roads overgrown with sagebrush. Today, California reportedly has nearly 350 ghost towns, landing it in second place behind only Texas on this list of the U.S. states with the most ghost towns. One such ghost town is Garlock, a relic of the gold mining era that is located in the Fremont Valley of eastern Kern County, California.

While often overshadowed by other better-known abandoned mining towns nearby, like the sprawling Calico Ghost Town or the "living ghost town" of Randsburg, Garlock is worth a pit stop for those road-tripping down historic Highway 395 or for anyone visiting the majestic Red Rock Canyon State Park, which is less than an hour away. Though little remains of the once-thriving community today, its surviving structures and quietly beautiful desert setting offer visitors the opportunity to step back in time to an era in California's history that was shaped by both tremendous hope and hardship.

While Garlock may be a ghost town today, it was once a prosperous gold mining hub. After gold was discovered in the hills behind Garlock in the 1880s, mining began to take off in the area, and in 1894, a businessman by the name of Eugene Garlock built an ore mill in the town of Cow Wells, which would later be renamed Garlock. At the town's peak, Garlock was home to several hundred residents and helped provide water, ore processing, and other services to the nearby mines.

The town thrived for several years, until a series of events led to the town's demise, including the construction of a mill in 1903 in Randsburg, a town about 9 miles west. Many of Garlock's residents relocated to Randsburg, which today remains a "living ghost town," with a general store that serves old-fashioned phosphate sodas. After Eugene Garlock died in 1907, Garlock declined further, though a few businesses stuck around for a few more decades. The old adobe schoolhouse became a store — and allegedly operated as a brothel and speakeasy during the 1920s — and a curio shop existed in the town up until the 1960s. The town also operated a post office off and on until 1926.

Today, only a few buildings are still standing, and several have been fenced off, presumably to prevent further damage. Visitors are welcome to roam through what remains and read the placard that details the town's history. Some of the buildings you can view include the water tower and the schoolhouse.

While abandoned places have long enchanted travelers all over the United States, the eerie, abandoned ghost towns of California have an added beauty to them. Perhaps it's because the arid climate has helped keep many of these towns so well preserved, insulating them from the wood rot, mold, and rust that so often overtake ghost towns in rainier climates. There's a unique beauty to the unchanging, desolate nature of isolated outposts like Garlock. Peer out the window of one of the abandoned buildings in Garlock, and you'll see nothing but miles of olive-green sagebrush and the crest of the rolling El Paso Mountains in the distance.

Garlock is located off U.S. 395, about a 50-minute drive from the vivid red rocks and sandstone cliffs of the underrated Red Rock Canyon State Park. Like Garlock, Red Rock Canyon remains under the radar compared to other scenic California desert destinations, like the nearby Death Valley National Park. Red Rock Canyon and Garlock also share the same mountain range, where over 100 types of fossils of extinct plants and creatures have been unearthed, including three-toed horses, saber-toothed cats, and camels that resemble giraffes. If you're flying in, Garlock is located about a 3-hour drive from Los Angeles International Airport.