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1900's Blacksmith Cabin

1900's Blacksmith Cabin

I met up with my hiking buddy, Ed, in 2012, and we ventured out into the Western Nevada desert. We did a few five-hour hikes to remote and long-forgotten miner’s cabins tucked away in the hills. There were no roads, heck, there wasn’t even a trail. We went

John’s Wash Arborglyphs

John’s Wash Arborglyphs

Most of the historical relics I find on my hikes are from the booming mining industries of the early 1900s, which dominated the Nevada landscape, but other activities were going on at the time. Ranching was just as important as mining to the early settlers, and sheepherding was a part

Mule Canyon Ruins

Mule Canyon Ruins

This is an Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) ruin site with many ruined towers and cliff dwellings. I had read about this site some time ago and was eager to go check it out. The site is not hard to reach, but hours of hiking and climbing are required to reach some

Circle Sun Ledge Pictographs

Circle Sun Ledge Pictographs

Hidden on a small, inconspicuous ledge deep in the Joshua Tree wilderness lies an intriguing pictograph site. When we discovered it after a lengthy bushwhack, the park archaeologist informed us that he believed it was a previously unrecorded site. Huzzah! The site features almost entirely abstract pictographs positioned along the

Corkscrew Borax Mine

Corkscrew Borax Mine

A few years ago, I met up with some of the guys, and we hiked out to visit the ruins of the old Corkscrew Borax Mine. The mine was worked for colemanite (an ore of borax) in the 1950s by the US Borax Company. Surprisingly, for all of its development,

Moccasin Track Petroglyphs

Moccasin Track Petroglyphs

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

Lost Pick Prospector's Camp

Lost Pick Prospector's Camp

While hiking way out in the backcountry wilderness of Joshua Tree National Park, my friend 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 a fireplace. Hidden nearby in a pile of