Belden Arrastra and Mikiska Petroglyphs
I had looked for this arrastra some time ago but instead found another mining camp. That ended up being a good trip, even without finding my elusive target. Still, it wasn’t an arrastra.
Alice Hunt Pictograph Shelter
A few years ago, a few friends and I went out to search for some rock art sites in a canyon in Death Valley. It was still pretty early in the season, so it wasn’t hot yet.
We were hunting for some petroglyph and pictograph sites in the canyon.
Mine near the Endowment Mine
White Mountains Wickiup
I had known about a wickiup, a traditional Native American dwelling high in the White Mountains of California, for a while. I thought it would be an interesting find, so I decided to go on a hike to see if I could track it down.
MV Mill
I found this hidden mill in 2013. It is unusual in that a Pelton wheel powered it. Water was funneled into a ditch and then a pipe and poured over the waterwheel, which drove the equipment inside. A water-powered mill is a rare sight in the land of little rain.
S and S Mine
Way back in 2009, we went hiking out into the middle of the white-hot heart of the Mojave Desert in search of a modern mining site. We found it. The operation had been inactive since at least the early 1980s, and the mining camp was nearly intact. Almost everything was
Piedras Grandes Pictographs
Back in 2015, we went out to the Piedras Grandes pictograph site. Piedras Grandes means "Large stones," and these granite boulders out in the southern part of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park certainly are that. The site is inside the Piedras Grandes Cultural Preserve, and it is a short