4.51 acres land for sale about 12 miles N of Trona, California by Ridgecrest with a paved road to the property! It's about 2 hours N of Barstow, 4 hours W of Las Vegas and 3 hours NE of Los Angeles. Anywhere you look, you are completely surrounded by mountains on this property. This would be a perfect spot for someone seeking a rural home site just outside of the busy town of Ridgecrest. It’s located about 2.5 hours NE of Bakersfield between the China Lake Naval Weapons Center and Death Valley National Park.
All of the photos were taken of the property and surrounding views in January and February 2017. We started our morning out in Ridgecrest, where we ate breakfast at Kristy’s Family Restaurant – delicious and so busy we were lucky to get there when we did. When we left the building the line was out the door! We didn’t want to start our morning too early because we wanted to get the best lighting to take photos of this property as the mountains were so tall surrounding it that we were worried the sun wouldn’t make it up over the mountains before 10!
The drive out to the property from Ridgecrest is short and beautiful. We took Hwy 178/Trona Rd. East out of Ridgecrest to Argus/Trona then turned left onto Homewood Canyon Rd. We then took another left onto paved Crow Canyon Rd which brought us to the property. Crow Canyon Rd runs along the South of the property for very easy access. It’s only about 3 miles from the main Hwy 178 that takes you to Ridgecrest!
Our notes say “WOW! LOVE!” If you love mountains, then this is the place for you! It's nestled in the Canyons of the Argus Mountains, with views of Argus Peak, Panamint Range, Slate Range, Searles Valley, and of course Homewood Canyon and Crow Canyon. No matter which way you turn, there is something spectacular to look at. Since we viewed the property in February, there was still some snow on Argus Peak, which stands at 6,562 feet tall. The Panamint Range is the Western boundary of the Death Valley National Park – just a hop, skip, and a jump away from this property.
There are several neighbors in the area, but it is very serene and quiet being so far from the main highway. To the South is a large white farm house that reminded us of
Anne of Green Gables. An adorable brown cabin with a green roof sits to the North that looked like it backed up to the mountain behind it. One of the neighbors to the West even had palm trees on their property. What an oasis! There was power close to the property at several of the neighbor’s houses. You would need to contact the local power company to see how much it would cost to bring the power to the property.
The terrain is fairly flat but does slope up towards the back as you get closer to the ravine which is part of the property also! Sagebrush and mesquite trees scatter the ground. We didn’t see any animals during the two hours we spent at the property, however we definitely saw evidence of rabbits and what looked like a little bunny tail. At one point an owl let us know he was nearby, however we never got to spot him. The property sits in Crow Canyon but has a little bit of Homewood Canyon as the ravine seems to mark the boundary of the two connecting canyons. You can see in the aerial maps that the neighbor to the West has made a dirt road running through the property; however it would be fairly easy for them to make a new road following their easement around the property.
The ravine on the property is amazing! Lots of interesting rocks (even some lava rock!) and boy is it huge! It has the larger edge of the ravine which is almost 30 feet tall in some places - just massive! Lynn went pretty far into the ravine. It's so big you can't even see her in some of the pictures we took! The rocks are a bit unstable and parts of the ground are wet, making for a bit of suction, so be careful walking through it yourself. There are also quite a few small caves in the side of the ravine, which could house any number of critters.
Trona is the unincorporated community just South of the property. It originally began as a mining town in the late 1800's and was at one point one of the only reliable American sources of potash (an element used to make gunpowder) in World War 1. The town adjoins the Searles Dry Lake in Searles Valley, just Southwest of Death Valley. The mine/production company, Searles Valley Minerals, is still active and most workers commute from Ridgecrest every day. A few miles South of Trona are the Trona Pinnacles, which is a collection of over 500 tufa spires sprouting up from the Searles Lake basin.
The property located on the Eastern side of the Sierra Nevada's, which is playground for Southern Californians. As we drove through Lone Pine, we stopped to have lunch at a local diner and all we saw were tourists, leaning over maps and talking about their travel plans, whether through Death Valley or further up North to Mammoth Lakes. Mammoth Lakes is the destination skiing and snowboarding resorts in California. The town attracts approximately 4 million visitors every year, being surrounded by the Eastern and Western Sierras and having many mountains, lakes, streams and forests for the every day explorer.
Ridgecrest is the major town closest to Homewood Canyon. It grew in the 1950's and 1960's as a community for the China Lake Naval Air Weapons Station. It is the US Navy’s largest landholding, with 85% of the Navy’s land for training and research. In total it covers 1.1 million acres which is larger than Rhode Island. From the research we have done it seems like this is where all the rocket scientists go to do their research and develop their technology - there's some pretty smart people there!
Ridgecrest is centrally located between Hwy 395 and Hwy 14, making it a great place for shopping and business. Besides the Navy base, there is also the Coso People rock art in the Big and Little Petroglyph Canyons. Archaeologists have recovered over 20,000 Native American petroglyphs in the Canyons. This area is also popular for hunting, golfing, hiking, and flying/gliding. We also got to see some people off-roading through several trails and dirt roads just outside of Trona - we want to go!!
This is the first time we have owned land in Inyo County, so we are excited to get to know the area more!
Enjoy :)
Amber May
Financing Price: $15,000
Terms with $1,250 down payment: $13,750 at 8% interest with approximately 55 monthly payments of $300.
90 days same as cash with only $1,250 down! If $7,500 is paid toward the property within 90 days from the contract date Smile4u will waive the remaining balance!
180 days to work like a dog to pay it off early with $1,250 down! If $9,375 of principal is paid in the first 180 days from the contract date Smile4u will waive the remaining balance!
If purchasing a Contract for Deed Click Here to view the highlights of our owner financing.