Field notes from exploring backcountry locations of the Western United States

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Southern Nevada and Tonopah Basin

Southern Nevada and Tonopah Basin

Southern Nevada and the Tonopah Basin

Picture Canyon Pictographs

Picture Canyon Pictographs

Well named Picture Canyon floated to the top of my list of places to go recently. Hikers have rediscovered this canyon at the southern end of the Sheep Range (and inside of the Desert Wildlife Refuge) in recent years in their search for missing long distance hiker Kenny Veach. He

"White Elf" Mine

"White Elf" Mine

Dan and I came across this active claim in the remote reaches of Nevada back in 2008. It is an interesting place in some lonely country. We didn’t know it was active until we came across the camp. Of course, we left everything alone. I’m only posting a

Southern Nevada Mine

Southern Nevada Mine

The Southern Nevada Mine was an early mine in the Searchlight District and started out with the Spokane Shaft in the 1900s. In the first few years the miner’s encountered water at 200 ft depth and abandoned the Spokane Shaft. They started working on the Blossom Shaft a half

Oakland Mine

Oakland Mine

The Oakland Group of mines never produced much. The mines were worked for gold from 1922 to 1934. A vertical shaft is reported to have gone down to at least 75 ft with drifts and a separate incline shaft that dropped to 85 ft. Water was encountered at these depths

Crescent Peak Arrastra

Crescent Peak Arrastra

I visited a fairly modern arrastra in Southern Nevada in 2019. It is mostly intact with the drag stones still in place. That is a rare find! The district was worked prehistorically for turquoise but there are some small gold deposits here. A shallow shaft and other prospects are behind

Super Cave Pictographs

Super Cave Pictographs

This is a sandstone rock shelter in southern Nevada with an interesting assortment of pictographs. Native American Southern Paiute and Mohave made their homes here and either could have made these markings. The site itself looks like it could have been a small encampment above a wash. I explored a

Hidden Forest Cabin

Hidden Forest Cabin

Tucked away inside a canyon of the Desert National Wildlife Refuge is the Hidden Forest Cabin. Built around 1900 by folks unknown, the rustic, single room log cabin was once used by Nevada game wardens in 1936 when the Desert NWR was established. More recently, in 2008-2010, the cabin underwent