Silurian Hills = Mines, Cabins, Colosseum Mine - Feb. 13-14, 2015

boyfester · Feb 15, 2015

I met up with a bunch of people from SCORE (So Cal Off Road Explorers), an off-road group on meetup.com, for a short 2-day run of the Silurian Hills. A great group of people. That is a really cool area!

We met at Baker at 8AM on Friday. I got the go-ahead from the wifey on Thursday night and so I got to wake up at 4AM to get there in time.

This couple pulled a tent trailer everywhere we went on Friday and half of Saturday. They were from Sacramento and had already spent some time in Death Valley.

First stop off of Highway 127 was this small cemetery. I chose to drive up while everyone else walked.

This guy was buried with some of his favorite keepsakes.

We headed up Harry Wade Exit Route first to find some mines.

Hood Cam looking towards Dumont Dunes

There were two horizontal mines just above.

The entrances were welded shut.

boyfester · Feb 15, 2015

Beautiful view from here.

That's Dumont Dunes (where my finger is pointing). We used to go there in my youth.

After we left the mine, a medical helicopter flew over head.

The next stop was an old cabin which provides shelter and food for anyone who needs it.

The former owners have passed on but these cemetery plots were adjacent to the property.

boyfester · Feb 16, 2015

We headed back out the Harry Wade Exit Route and headed to Crusty Bunny Ranch Cabin in the Valjean Valley.

This next trail in the Valjean Valley is noted as "Desert #25 - Kingston Wash Trail" in the So Cal Backcountry Adventures book by Peter Massey and Jeanne Wilson. Again, the scenery was amazing.

This was an emergency place for water storage for miners.

Next up was the Eastern Star Mine (to the left of the water tank on the mountain).

Just before the Crusty Bunny Ranch Cabin were these mine workings of the Eastern Star.

Can you say hantavirus boys and girls? There was rat poo everywhere in this place.

boyfester · Feb 16, 2015

We camped at the Crusty Bunny and this was my abode for the evening. Is there anyway to remove the seat bottoms from the back seats of the 4Runner? If I could remove those, I'd be able to stretch out perfectly.

Sunset

The next day we continued north up the Kingston Wash.

Hood Cam again. The extra 10hp I get with this scoop made this trip a breeze!

More shafts. This rock wall was an entire geode.

The Kingston Wash offered up a few challenges. This was one of them. It was no problem for any of our vehicles but we had to move some exposed rocks or create ramps with others to get the tent trailer through so it didn't rip out the trailer's water tank.