Robbers Roost Mini Mart

Not quite sure why there is a market there, out of the dozen times I've stopped, it was open once. And the door was locked and someone saw me and let me in.. all that signage gives false hope.. I give up

Named for a nearby outcropping where an 1800s bandido named Tiburcio Vasquez hid out to rob a stagecoach full of Owens Valley silver heading to Los Angeles, Robbers Roost "Ranch" is--like so many "attractions" in the California desert--an overnamed and underestimated place.At its minimum, Robber's Roost is a small mini-mart along the 14 freeway where passersby can grab a cold drink and a snack and use a clean restroom. For the history buff, there is a somewhat avant garde "Ghost Town" of old buildings from the 1930s that are peppered by the owners with their own brand of high-desert humor. The buildings are legit from nearly a 100 years ago, but the contents and the white-lettered painted signs on damn-near everything are sort of funny... like the way a 7th grade math teacher's jokes are funny.This is the kind of place that Huell Howser probably would have gotten to eventually, but Huell died before he got to this one on the list. Interestingly, Vasquez was only in SoCal for a short part of his 20 year crime spree across Alta California, but in that short time, the dashing fellow managed to build a little history here at Robber's Roost, and down the highway at the area now called Vasquez Rocks, where he and his gang hid in the many canyons and caves from a posse.Anyway, if you absolutely can't hold it until Mojave, or if you wake up and realize that your Travelocity stay in lovely Ridgecrest isn't ending up being what you thought it was going to be... and you've already visited Red Rock Canyon... why not stop in here and take some photos for Yelp? Maybe that's it-- this is a great place to get a Yelp Check In and write a cheap review. Or just let the kids run around after a few hours in the car.

Great place to visit highly recommend if your off roading in the desert. Set this a destination ride you can also rent UTV's as well from Mojove Offroad Adventures.

While visiting the Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest, picked up a brochure of places to see in the area with this antiques store/ghost town on the cover. "FREE!" written across the top with their hours being 'til 5 p.m. daily. It's 3 p.m., so we truck on over there, arriving at 3:30-ish and discover the place entirely deserted with the antique store closed. The entrance to the "ghost town," however, was unlocked (it's a handle-less screen door, for the record, but honestly you could just walk around the fence). We were worried about trespassing, but since the hours were posted 'til 5, we figured maybe we'd see someone in the back (which we didn't). Anyway, this place really is a roadside attraction with this big statue in the front of a barefoot backwoodsman with a buxom gal on one arm and a jug of moonshine in the other. A sign in the tree behind it calls them Lil' Abner and Daisy May. The rest of the "ghost town" is pretty much a bunch of abandoned buildings from the 1930s that were taken over by this family who seem to be filling these dilapidated houses with whatever they could find to make it look vaguely Old West. I mean, we're talking an old fax machine in their "bank" and the "wishing well" being a bucket sitting in an old tire. Everywhere there are wooden signs with whitewash lettering over-labeling everything: "house," "pickett fence," "loose gravel," etc. The "jail" is an empty room with a couple discarded toilets. Other rooms were just filled with scraps and debris (see photos). The area actually has a lot of history. In the nearby mountains is an outcropping of rocks known as "Robbers Roost," called so for the bandit Tiburcio Vasquez whose gang used to hide out up there and rob stage coaches, traveling the trail that's now Highway 14, on their way to Los Angeles. One of the crosses in the fake ghost town's "Boot Hill" cemetery is marked Vasquez. A plaque on the property is dedicated to Sidney and Violet Armistead, "Pioneers of the Mojave Desert Inn and Station, Est. 1931."

Wanted to drop in here and post up a review for this place. While out exploring Dove Springs on a recent trip I saw on my GPS this store located next to the fwy14. We scooted over that way and I must say, we were highly impressed. I don't remember the owners names off the top of my head but they were extremely friendly, funny, and very much wanting to show us around the place. The first thing I noticed was how clean the place is. As another Yelper mentioned, the store portion of this place is new and they even took us behind the scenes to show us the new kitchen area opening up soon where they will serve hamburgers, etc. Back to the clean part... all the landscaping in front of the store was raked, weeds pulled and nice plants, etc all around. The porch of the store (where we had lunch) was also very clean with a table and chairs to sit down at.Now the "Ghost Town" part. While it may have that Old West feel and look, they are REALLY missing an awesome opportunity here. As others have said, there is random junk just laying in some of the rooms. I think if they cleaned that up, didn't "over sale" the Ghost Town part, and try to make it more authentic then they would have a real winner here. Unfortunately it just misses.Other then that, I will now be visiting this store to pick up ice, snacks and more while camping and ATV'ing in the Dove Springs OHV area. No more Jawbone Canyon Store for us! Robbers Roost is our new GO TO place.

My hubs and I finally decided to check this place out while heading out to AV a couple weeks ago. This ghost town is about 15-ish minutes from the 178 connecting to the 14 highway. There isn't really a turn out road, so you gotta be sure to slow down as you get closer. As advertised, this ghost town is free to enter and everyone is encouraged to purchase something from the mini mart that has been newly built. The store used to be part of the main entrance, but I'm assuming they moved only a few feet so they would be in a nice AC'd room, as opposed to an old rickety shop with only the desert wind coming through. We noticed a few people sitting outside, who ended up being I believe the owners. I've never been to a ghost town before so I didn't know what to expect. But for a free tour, what's not to like about it? There is a bathroom located near the entrance of the ghost town. Some of the buildings we walked through were a saloon, which was cool because they had art on the wall that had been painted on there, a couple gambling tables set up, and a couple bathrooms set up-how it used to look like I'm assuming. There was also a house with a small bed/kitchen/bathroom, a bank that is also connected with the jail cell. They set up a fake body in the cell that freaked me out initially then realized it wasn't real. And a small wishing 'well' towards the end of the town/entrance. Afterwards, we went into the mini mart to see about the frog balls that are advertised. We only ended up getting a can of pop which cost around $1.35, which is kinda expensive and never ended up asking or seeing any 'frog balls.' I would definitely come back here if I had some out of town visitors and am definitely interested in seeing more ghost towns.

Learning More about my Local History...yep! Tiburcio Vasquez is connected to San Gabriel. His suit case, a collection of the last of his possessions before getting arrested, can be found at the San Fernando Mission.

The store if closed due to remodeling. We rode in on our off road vehicles to check it out and its closed. 1 star because there is nothing there.

Great place to get FIREWOOD Big Bundles. They will have pizza full deli and BEER soon. Stop and get what you need.

Not a fan. Wanted to show my kids a couple ghost towns on our road trip and this was the first. After 5 minutes, we all just looked at each other and left. This is not a ghost town. It is a bunch of broken down buildings with random new stuff broken inside (except for the house with the computers ???).Do not waste your time stopping. The store section said closed for remodeling so disappointed we couldn't get a snack or drink. One star for having a bathroom available, albeit it didn't flush (yuck).