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

[boyfester]

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]

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]

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]

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.

 

[boyfester]

Once you're out of the wash there are Joshua trees as far as the eye can see.

All the jets in the air made an almost perfect tic-tac-toe board in the sky.

We headed down Excelsior Mine Road en route to the Colosseum Mine.

We took the Powerline Road to get to the Colosseum Gorge Trail. There was a hawk flying nearby looking for lunch.

The Colosseum Gorge Trail was rocky but easy going. The black hose on the left ran the length of the trail until I got to Greene's cabin.

This is Greene's cabin or what's left of it.

These are where the scales used to be.

The trail to get to the Colosseum Mine climbed higher and higher offering a great view of Clark Mtn.

The mine's size is really impressive (see my truck for scale) and the echoes couldn't be beat.

I proceeded down to the bottom. There were some crumbled rocks that were the same size as my truck.

After the mine visit, I had to leave along with some others while the others stayed another night. This section of the trail is the Colosseum Gorge.

Ivanpah Solar Farm is in the distance. We started the trip near Baker but ended up south of Primm, Nevada.

Apparently 5th Gen 4runners do come in tan color.

The ride home was beautiful.

 

[Chsbrgr]

Nice report. Nice pics too. Thanks for sharing, makes me want to see that area. I'm guessing you don't use a "point and shoot" camera?

 

[boyfester]

Nice report. Nice pics too. Thanks for sharing, makes me want to see that area. I'm guessing you don't use a "point and shoot" camera?

No, I really need to get one. I used to have one but it recently broke. This iPhone 4 takes decent pictures but does not compare to my old Canon.

 

[LMR]

Nice pics, thanks for sharing.

 

[scrap metal]

Looks like a cool trip!