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Ascending Sheep Pictographs
Out in the Utah desert, we found an amazing set of Barrier Canyon Style pictographs. The panel consists of an animal spirit figure surrounded by bighorn sheep and two amorphic figures on the right. In...
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Blackmail Mill
There isn’t much left at this old silver mill. I had a fun time climbing around and through the broken timbers. The mill once supported a cross-cut adit connected to a deep shaft. The adit is caved...
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Juggler Petroglyphs
This is an interesting and fun little Fremont petroglyph site. The single anthropomorphic figure is surrounded by concentric circles. Amusingly, he looks like he is juggling suns, hence the name. It’s...
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Ames Camp
Roy Ames located some fluorspar claims in the hills above this little camp in 1941 but it doesn’t appear that he produced much if any fluorite. I suspect some of the buildings were already here by that...
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Grand Wash Cliff Colony
I met up with exploring legend Roger Mitchell to explore the Grand Wash Cliffs of Arizona. It was a surprise to both of us when we found an abandoned group of cabins tucked back in the woods. The...
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Victory Mine
Boxy and I recently re-visited this interesting little tungsten mine out in central Nevada. I first visited this mine in 2002. It was originally discovered in 1945 by W. L. Sovy, Jack Southerland, and...
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Algonquin Mill
The Algonquin is an old mine and mill. It was one of the earliest mines in Montana’s Philipsburg district. By 1877, it was being worked by a 10-stamp mill for silver with minor amounts of gold. The...
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Funk’s Cave Pictographs
After a long hike across empty sand flats and through desolate canyons, we found a small alcove with a few Fremont figures and a six color rainbow pictograph on the back wall. I’ve never seen anything...
View Article2017 Year End Summary
We did a lot of great trips in 2017, including trips in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and Hawai’i. I was out exploring for 48 days this year, which isn’t bad. This site...
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Par Value Mill
Late autumn of 2017 found us tracking down a very unusual stamp mill high in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. The mill was a unique hammer design called a Pratt Ideal Stamp Mill. Very few of...
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Joshua Tree “Cowboy” Petroglyphs
A few weeks ago, we wandered out to this remote corner of Joshua Tree to check out an unusual set of petroglyphs. Unlike most of the abstract petroglyph panels I come across, these had a few human...
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“Three Bachelor’s Camp”
We found a small prospector’s camp out in the wilderness of the Death Valley region. I call it “Three Bachelor’s Camp” because there are three cabin tent pads scattered around the site. Interestingly,...
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Covington Falls Petroglyphs
There are a couple of very faint petroglyphs and pictographs out at Covington Falls. I think most hikers walking the route walk right passed them without noticing. The petroglyphs are located at a...
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Box Flat and Prickly Pear Cowboy Camps
Sometimes, you just feel like driving on some wide open dirt roads. I went out to the Utah desert hunting for a few pictograph sites. Instead, I came across two cowboy camps. Not much is left at...
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“Lost Pick” Prospector’s Camp
While hiking way out in the backcountry wilderness of Joshua Tree National Park, exploring buddy JP and I stumbled upon an old prospector’s mining camp. Hardly anything is left at the camp: a few cans,...
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Moccasin Tracks 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...
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Corkscrew 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 Mine. The mine was worked for colemanite (an ore of borax) in the 1950s by the US Borax Company....
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“Circle Sun Ledge” Pictographs
Hidden on a small and inconspicuous ledge, deep in the Joshua Tree wilderness, is an interesting pictograph site. When we discovered it in 2016, after a lengthy bushwhack, the park archaeologist told...
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“Red Wall” Springs Cabin
This is a little cabin that we have visited from time to time. It is surprisingly well furnished for being way out in the middle of nowhere Nevada. It has it’s own spring and cowboy bath. Great for...
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“Joshua Tree Car Wash”
Our National Parks aren’t known for their collections of junked cars… Joshua Tree has a collection though (and so does the Mojave NP). I heard there were a few wrecked cars out in the wide expanse of...
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Owl Panel, Nine Mile Canyon
Hidden away in short side canyon of Nine Mile Canyon is this fantastic little petroglyph panel of owls. How often do you see owl petroglyphs? For me, it isn’t very often. They are pretty amazing. If...
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Scallywag Mine
This is a more modern mine out in Death Valley probably worked for lead or antimony. It has two tramways and a few ore buckets still on-site. Getting up to the mine is a challenge. There is one dry...
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Scratch Awl Mine
Over this last summer, we visited a few old mining ruins in Montana. We went out of our way to visit the Scratch Awl Mine as I was hoping there would be some equipment left on site to see. The Scratch...
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Agai Pah Pictographs
Agai Pah is the Northern Paiute name for Trout Lake, or Walker Lake as we know it today. This is an intriguing pictograph site. Located on an isolated boulder, red pictographs appear on a single side...
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North London Mill
Miner’s first worked gold, silver and lead from the London Mine in 1874. After it was developed, they decided to try and work the lode from the south side of London Mountain. The South London Mine was...
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