Hidden away in short side canyon of Nine Mile Canyon is this fantastic little petroglyph panel of owls. How often do you see owl petroglyphs? For me, it isn’t very often. They are pretty amazing.
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Starbuck's Exploring
Hiking and exploring backcountry locations of the Western United States.
Our National Parks aren’t known for their collections of junked cars… Joshua Tree has a collection though (and so does the Mojave NP).
I heard there were a few wrecked cars out in the wide expanse of the Pinto Basin but I didn’t know how many or what to expect or even if they were really there. In 2015, I decided to start up a trip to chase them down.
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This is a little cabin that we have visited from time to time. It is surprisingly well furnished for being way out in the middle of nowhere Nevada.
It has it’s own spring and cowboy bath. Great for dusty explorers.
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Hidden on a small and inconspicuous ledge, deep in the Joshua Tree wilderness, is an interesting pictograph site. When we discovered it in 2016, after a lengthy bushwhack, the park archaeologist told us that he believed it was a previously unrecorded site! Huzzah!
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A few years ago, I met up with some of the guys and we hiked out to visit the ruins of the old Corkscrew Mine. The mine was worked for colemanite (an ore of borax) in the 1950s by the US Borax Company. Surprisingly, it was productive only for a few years.
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On top of a mesa and way out in the Utah desert, we came across a few petroglyphs carved into the bedrock. And they were connected in a series… It is a trail! Neither one of us had ever seen anything like this before. Petroglyphs along a wall? Sure, all the time. On a ceiling? Yup. A petroglyph trail? I didn’t know such a thing existed.
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While hiking way out in the backcountry wilderness of Joshua Tree National Park, exploring buddy JP and I stumbled upon an old prospector’s mining camp. Hardly anything is left at the camp: a few cans, wood debris, a rock-stacked wall and fireplace. Hidden nearby in a pile of granite boulders is an old mining pick and a few boards of lumber. The old prospector must have stashed them here for safe keeping until he returned. He never did.
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Sometimes, you just feel like driving on some wide open dirt roads.
I went out to the Utah desert hunting for a few pictograph sites. Instead, I came across two cowboy camps. Not much is left at either of them: a broken stove, bed springs, dishes and utensils, but I found them interesting. I don’t know their age or history but they are fun to visit and ponder lonely life on the range.
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There are a couple of very faint petroglyphs and pictographs out at Covington Falls. I think most hikers walking the route walk right passed them without noticing.
The petroglyphs are located at a granite dryfall that collects water after a good rain. This is a scenic spot. Shaded by pinyon pine trees, it makes a pleasant spot to rest or take a lunch break. The Native Americans must have thought so too.
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We found a small prospector’s camp out in the wilderness of the Death Valley region. I call it “Three Bachelor’s Camp” because there are three cabin tent pads scattered around the site.
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