Starbuck's Exploring

Sign in Subscribe

Latest

Black Hands Pictographs

Black Hands Pictographs

I found these solitary black pictographs hidden under a pile of granite boulders out at the northern end of Joshua Tree National Park. The pictographs here are very faded. A casual passerby wouldn’t even notice them. You have to know what you are looking for and stop a minute

Nampaweap Petroglyphs

Nampaweap Petroglyphs

Tucked away in the juniper-dotted canyons of the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in northwestern Arizona next to Mount Trumbull lies one of the region's most extensive collections of rock art - the Nampaweap Petroglyphs. Meaning "foot canyon" in the Paiute language, the name probably refers to

American Family Mine

American Family Mine

This is a small but interesting modern mine camp with some equipment still left on-site. The mine was probably last worked in the 1980s, but most of the work was done during the Depression era. The compressors and engines are neat to see still in place. The hoist indicators are

Old Dad Mountain Petroglyphs

Old Dad Mountain Petroglyphs

On a cold January day in 2015, I hiked out into the wilderness of the Old Dad Mountains in the Mojave Desert. Just driving out there was a bit of a challenge; the roads were long and rocky. After parking the truck, I hiked up an alluvial and entered into

MacClatchie Power Mine

MacClatchie Power Mine

A long hike into the Death Valley region led us to this small mining operation. Judging from the artifacts found at the site, the mine was probably worked during the 1930s Depression and WWII eras. Inside the mine is an ore car, which is always an amazing find. Seeing a

Sprucemont Ghost Town

Sprucemont Ghost Town

Sprucemont (really called Spruce Mountain) was actually a few mining camps spread across Spruce Mountain. First mined for lead-silver ore in 1869, it was a long-lived and successful mining area. The mines here produced ore all the way into WWII, almost a hundred years worth. The mines are now caved,

Carrot Men Pictographs

Carrot Men Pictographs

Off in western Colorado is a small canyon that cuts through sandstone with a unique set of blue and red pictographs. Shaped like carrots, these "Carrot Men" are believed to have been created by the Archaic peoples somewhere between 3000 BCE and 100 years ago. The square shoulders