The route ran from San Bernardino, California, through the San Gorgonio Pass and Coachella Valley, past the Salton Sink (now filled by the Salton Sea), and east to the Colorado River where Bradshaw's Ferry was available to transport travelers across the river. The gold fields were then some 5 miles northeast of current-day Ehrenberg, Arizona. The trail that remains today is a graded dirt road, that traverses southeastern Riverside County, and a part of Imperial County, beginning roughly east of North Shore and terminating about southwest of Blythe for a total of .