State #2 - Part #4!

In Part 3, we fended off wild chipmunks while we ate lunch.

Welcome to my blog.

Here's a shot of a yucca.

After leaving Quail Springs, we drove down Keys View Road (a small road inside the park) and made it to the Lost Horse Mine trailhead.  The sign at the dirt road offshoot to the trailhead said parking was full, and when we made it there, there was a vehicle in every spot.  However, luck was on our side, and right as Chris started to maneuver the truck into a place where we could could turn around, a car pulled out!  We had a space!  We geared up and started out.

Here's a detailed history of the mine, but in short, in the late 1800s, a family of ranchers lost their horses and while they were out looking for them, they stumbled across a claim they felt would be a good spot for a gold mine.  They were right, and it operated until 1905, when the vein was lost after a fault line was exposed.  When Joshua Tree became a national monument in 1936, the Park Service took over ownership of the mine, and they keep it now as a location to which you can hike; it would be unfair to say it's something like an "exhibit," as it's pretty much just something to look at from behind a giant fence (it's dangerous, as you might imagine).

The Lost Horse Loop is 6 miles total, but we were planning to do the hike to the mine, which is a small spur trail from the main one, about 2 miles into the hike (we'd head back after that, doing an out and back route).

These spiky dudes looked like they had just finished blooming,

and I loved their yellow color against the desert background.

Like I mentioned on the last blog,

the vegetation is exceptionally different

from area to area within the Park,

and this trail was no exception.

We didn't see these dudes anywhere else.

This hike was rated as moderate by the Park Service's website, and that seemed about right.  All totaled, it was about 4.25 miles out and back, and the elevation changed from 4600 feet above sea level at the trailhead to 5070 at the mine.  Some of the ascents got our hearts pumping, but we only stopped to rest once (for my ankle, which I'd done something to on the easy hike around Skull Rock earlier in the day), and it was a nice downhill almost all the way back.

As we drew closer to the mine, we could see bits of old equipment, including rusted out axles, cables, and piping.

Looking at the mine from the start of the offshoot trail

Chris, taking the low road

I loved looking at this - 

the bits on top looked like steampunk owls

"But, I want to go IN the mine!"

If you make this bigger,

you might be able to see that someone wrote
"Long Beach" on the wheel.  :)

In this part of the park (sort of the northwestern quadrant), you could see pretty far - all the way to Big Bear Mountain, which is a popular ski resort (my brother Jim and I have been there with Dad before, maaaaany years ago).

Big Bear, waaaay in the distance - 

it's the one with snow on top.

We made the two mile hike back without incident and were happy to hang up our boots and packs once we finished the drive back to Arlene.  It was about 3pm, and we relaxed at the camper as we watched the sun set once again.

Chris chilled outside and read some articles for his class,

while I took a nap inside the camper.

It was a nice, chill afternoon.

For dinner, we'd brought along one of the steaks from our first Butcher Box delivery (verdict - really good meat for a moderately reasonable price - if you're interested, I think we have a code for referrals or something), and since we'd have a campfire on this trip, I also wanted to make baked potatoes in the coals.  Chris had never done this before, so he was skeptical, but it turned out great!  Honestly, he should know better than to question my knowledge of all things related to potatoes.

Proper potato placement

As nighttime truly fell, we once again tried at our hand at astrophotography and were once again disappointed with the results.  Oh, well!

These shots were the best of the bunch.

Impressive, non?

After putting away the camera and doing a fair amount of stargazing, we were ready for bed.  Thankfully, we'd remembered to shut the windows earlier this night, so after setting off the CO detector one more time (this time at an earlier hour), it was relatively pleasant in the camper.  We still went to bed wearing more clothes than normal, but at least it wasn't ALL the clothes we'd brought along, which was the case the night before.

On the next blog, we wrap up this adventure and head home!

Later!

Amy