Starbuck's Exploring

Sign in Subscribe

Eastern Mojave

Mojave National Preserve and surrounding region of California

46 posts

Roger's Camp

Roger's Camp

This restored mining cabin known as Roger's Camp sits a little ways inside the Mojave National Preserve, with minor abandoned mine workings located just uphill. History Maurice Mulcahy of Dagget first stumbled upon traces of silver, lead, and tungsten deposits in the early 1900s. Later, three shafts were

Sacramento Wash Petroglyphs

Sacramento Wash Petroglyphs

Bronze Mine (New York Mountains)

Bronze Mine (New York Mountains)

The Bronze Mine, also known as the Live Oak Mine, was a lead-silver mine that also contained some tungsten and fluorite. The vein is in a contact zone on the eastern side of the New York Mountains between a Goodsprings dolomite formation and a quartz monzonite intrusion. The mine was

Aiken's Arch Pictographs

Aiken's Arch Pictographs

The pictographs inside of this arch, which formed from a collapsed lava tube, are some of the oldest, if not the oldest, in the East Mojave and have been dated to 9,300 BP. The symbols are mainly in red ochre and depict a variety of figures, primarily abstract, but

Lanfair Buttes Petroglyphs

Lanfair Buttes Petroglyphs

The Lanfair Buttes Petroglyphs (also known as Indian Wells Petroglyphs) are one of the more extensive sets of petroglyphs in the Mojave National Preserve. There are hundreds of petroglyphs here on desert-varnished rhyolite boulders. Almost one whole hillside is covered with them. Ancestral Mojave and Chemehuevi probably camped here for

Barnwell Petroglyphs

Barnwell Petroglyphs

In March of 2023, fellow explorers JP, Darthjenni, and W9JIM invited me on a trip to the Mojave National Preserve. The Mojave Preserve (and the East Mojave in general) is such a great place to off-road, camp, and explore. The park is crisscrossed by graded and 4WD dirt roads that

Tramway Mine

Tramway Mine

This gold mine lives up to its name. The inclined wooden tramway is the most interesting thing here, making this old mine worth visiting. Don't be confused; it is not an aerial tramway but a railed inclined tram used to lower ore down from the mine to the