About

TL;DR: Subscriber supported field notes from backcountry explorations of the Western United States.

Hello, I'm Guy Starbuck. I’ve spent most of my life finding little-known places in the backcountry of the Western United States (mainly California and Nevada) and sharing them with you here on this site. Many of my adventures are to historical mines, Native American rock art sites, or anything else with some history. The more remote the site is, the better.

Starbuck.org started way back in the dark ages of the internet (aka 1997). Initially, I hand-coded HTML pages, then rewrote the whole site in PHP. I eventually switched to WordPress. These days, I am on Ghost.org.

Some peaks. L: White Mountain. C: Langley. R: San Gorgonio.

I originally started this website to track my hiking and peak-bagging adventures. I had always preferred to hike to lesser-known peaks. Along the way, I passed countless historical mines and prehistoric rock art sites. Over time, I noticed some of them were being vandalized. History was disappearing. I decided to document and share what sites I could before they were gone.

Although I can’t always reveal the locations of the places I go, I do hope to share some of them with you.

Please Tread Lightly and Leave No Trace. Take only photos and leave only footprints. Respect what you find. Give others the joy of discovery.

This website has:

18,000+ photos
500+ posts
320+ posts with GPS waypoints
90+ posts with directions

This represents a fraction of the places that I've been to. My photo collection contains over 120,000 photos.

I have a few books in my library.

I post old and new trips. See News.

Please credit Starbuck.org if you use my website to find places. Don't use my photos without my permission.

Support my work

As of 2021, this is a reader-supported website.

Free subscribers generally have access to the post's history and description sections (same as nonmembers) but no access to directions, GPS waypoints, or photo galleries. See the Sample Trips page for examples of full-access posts.
Paid subscribers get full access to everything here. This includes:
- History and descriptions
- Directions, GPS, and maps (as they exist)
- Photo Galleries

Not all trips have directions, GPS, or maps. I've been asked not to disclose some locations.

My goal is to keep this site sustainable, enjoyable, and ad-free. Supporting it will keep it going and prevent it from becoming yet another abandoned blog.

Thank you for helping keep our adventures alive! By subscribing, you’re not only helping with servers and gear—you’re also supporting our research and trip reports.

Guest Authors

Check out posts by our excellent guest authors:

Interested in being a guest author? You can contribute, too!

Published Works

Articles

"Searching for Petroglyphs in the Cottonwoods" in the Panamint Breeze. June 2011.

Photos published in

"Pahranagat Mines, and the Settlement of Lincoln County, Nevada" - Jeanne Sharp Howerton. 2024.
"Skidoo, The True Story of a Mail-Order Bride in the Mining Camp of Reveille, Nevada" - Jeanne Sharp Howerton. 2021.
"The Cosmological Connections to Rock Art in the Great Basin and California" Western Carolina University Research Poster - Samantha Clark, Clara Ennis, Brittany Hormel, Kaley Kelly. 2019.
TRACCE Rock Art Bulletin - Maarten van Hoek. 2015 & 2018.
"Tybo, Nevada" - Robert McCracken, Jeanne Sharp Howerton. 2016.
"Historical Sites in Joshua Tree Closed Due to Theft of Artifacts" in The Survivor - David Halligan. Fall 2016.
"A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words" - The Friends of the Public Land Cabins. 2015.
"Ancient Universal Language of Man" - Chris Hegg. 2015.
"Religious Symbolism in Eastern California Ghost Dance Rock Paintings" - Alan Gold. 2014.
"Applying Trait-Based Models to Achieve Functional Targets for Theory-Driven Ecological Restoration" - Ecology Letters - Daniel Laughlin. 2014.
Charles Warren Center for Studies in American History. Promotional flyer. 2013.