Ballarat (Ghost Town) CA 93592

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John

Serene place that time forgot. If you sleep there, or get there before the dune buggies and 4x4s come around, you'll hear nothing but maybe the odd donkey hee-haw in the distance. Absolute peace and tranquility. Worth a stop fasho.

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Wade Wilson

Ballarat ghost town earns a solid 2 out of 5, and it works hard for both of those points. You show up expecting a slice of Wild West history and instead get two standing buildings, two collapsed ones, and an entire scrapyard of rusted metal that looks like someone detonated a car dealership in 1953. There is nothing here. That is not an insult, that is the brand. No shops. No activity. No vibe except “post-apocalyptic yard sale”. The silence is so complete you start wondering if even the tumbleweeds gave up. Still, there is something weirdly fascinating about how empty it is. Pure abandonment. Zero polish. It feels like the desert’s own museum of decay. You spend a few minutes wandering around, you take a couple of photos of rusty car corpses, you nod and say “yup, this sure is nothing”, and you head out. Two points for being honest, unique, and vaguely interesting. Three points deducted because… come on. It is basically rubble with a marketing team.

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Mike Subocz

Very chill area, pack it in, pack it out! Nice little store with a few things. We stayed in Ridgecrest over night and drove to Ballarat, last 2 miles or so on dirt road. Several of us road thru one of the canyons to the south end of Death Valley on dual sport bikes and side by sides. We are planning on going back in March next year. Is a low lying area, be cognizant of heavy rains during your stay.