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Joshua Tree

Joshua Tree National Park and the surrounding area in California

76 posts

Quartz Butte Pictographs

Quartz Butte Pictographs

Back in early 2022, I met up with a fellow rock art enthusiast to do a little scouting expedition in the backcountry of Joshua Tree National Park. There is a small pictograph and petroglyph site there that he knew about, and we wanted to see if there were any more

El Dorado Mine

El Dorado Mine

James “Chuckwalla Jim” Wilson discovered a rich gold-bearing outcrop of rock in this canyon of the Hexie Mountains in 1901. He called it the "El Dorado" (also spelled Eldorado) and transported small batches of ore on burros to the mill at Pinyon Well or all the way to

Silver Bell and Golden Bell Mines

Silver Bell and Golden Bell Mines

Unlike many of Joshua Tree's more remote mining sites, the Silver Bell and Golden Bell Mines can be reached via a relatively easy 2-mile loop hike. This makes them ideal for visitors who want to see mining sites with limited time or who prefer shorter trails. Silver Bell

Chuckawalla Bill's

Chuckawalla Bill's

Anthony William Simmons, also known as Simon but more famously as "Chuckawalla Bill," fixed up this little cabin and lived here from around 1932 to 1936. From what I could piece together, he was born on August 2nd, 1875, in Pennsylvania. He served in the U.S. Army

Lucky Turkey Arrastra and Blind Mule Placer Cabin

Lucky Turkey Arrastra and Blind Mule Placer Cabin

These mines are a bit of a mystery as very little is known about them. The hike visits a roofless stone cabin first, then heads over to the Lucky Turkey Mine with its arrastra, and finally out to a remote cabin at the Blind Mule Claim. The little bits of

Duct Peak

Duct Peak

You will need to dust off your peak-bagging boots for the trek up the 3,137-foot Duct Peak. This small peak is in the eastern part of Joshua Tree in what I call the "Empty Quarter" of the park. This section of the park is completely undeveloped, and

Big Wall Petroglyphs

Big Wall Petroglyphs

In late 2017, my friend JP and I explored in the backcountry of Joshua Tree National Park. On our way to another site, we stopped at a small petroglyph site in a wash that we are calling the "Big Wall Petroglyphs". There are only a handful of petroglyphs