State Scenic Highway 247 247
State Scenic Highway 247 is a State Scenic Byway in California. Within California it covers roughly 80 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along State Scenic Highway 247 with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
State Scenic Highway 247, newly christened the High Desert State Scenic Highway, is California's newest official scenic highway, designated in October 2025. It runs through the Mojave Desert between Interstate 15 in Barstow and State Route 62 in Yucca Valley, passing the Ord Mountains, Lucerne Dry Lake, Homestead Valley, Black Lava Butte, and Flattop Mesa, along with the Blackhawk landslide, a prehistoric mountain collapse visible from the roadside, and stretches lined with Joshua trees, creosote bush, and cholla cactus. Small homestead communities dating to the 1950s Small Tract Act still dot Homestead Valley, giving the corridor a mid-century desert-settlement character alongside its natural scenery. Unlike the many eligible-but-undesignated highways elsewhere in the state, this route achieved full official status after a long local advocacy campaign, and it remains largely free of overhead transmission lines and billboards, the kind of undeveloped desert corridor the scenic-highway program is meant to protect.
- High Desert State Scenic Highway, designated October 2025
- Barstow to Yucca Valley via Ord Mountains
- Blackhawk landslide
- 1950s Small Tract Act homestead communities
- Joshua trees & Mojave Desert scenery
Plan a drive on State Scenic Highway 247 →
What is a State Scenic Byway?
State Scenic Byways are roads a state has formally recognized for their scenic, natural, historic or cultural value — each state's own curated collection of drives worth taking slowly.
Where to Stay along State Scenic Highway 247
4 campgrounds and RV parks sit within about 5 miles of State Scenic Highway 247.
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