Rainbow Basin Natural Area — Attraction in Barstow

The road going to and from the main paved road is a little washboardy it and can be pretty choppy so take that one pretty slow or try and alternate sides of the road to hit smooth banks.

Loop Drive itself is absolutely gorgeous, with stunning orange red green and yellow colors coming out from all the rocks and the slotted Canyon Drive is a lot of fun as well.

The drive could be done in a mid size SUV as well, anything smaller than a Subaru outback I would advise against. The cut outs that you’ll see along the trail are definitely more geared for a jeep or larger 4 x 4 truck, pretty heavily sanded or drops on those. The drive itself isn’t too bad the notes of it being extremely narrow and really tight switchbacks are pretty exaggerated, if you’re comfortable driving in a city or can parallel park you can get through...

awesome scenery! the ONE WAY trail was fun! (I stress one way as you can't turn around, yes some yahoo was going the wrong way & luckily it was wide enough, at that particular spot) we read a review that a someone in a 'regular sedan' had no issues going through, and maybe is the case after maintenance. We went through 5/26/19, and our stock 2018 silverado 1500 4x4 hit bottom where some water had cut across the trail and created a decent sized dip. Our truck probably has less clearance than a subaru forester... maybe... my point though: don't take a regular sedan and expect to not get in to trouble. Not for the need of 4wd, but a rock or washed out dips can pin you...

In my opinion, the loop scenery road requires off road oriented vehicles. I went in my 4x4 right after it rained a lot and there were deep slots the water carved into the road. (Lots of bumps.) Maybe in better weather and aired down tires, you could possibly do it in a normal SUV/car, but I still wouldn't recommend it.

Then again, I have no idea what the conditions are when it's dry and more flat. It would probably be more forgiving, maybe not.

Aside from the road conditions, the area is very beautiful if you're into nature, minerals, and rock formations. Some of the weirdest colors I've seen in rocks and sediment. You need to...