Hunter Mountain Odds and Ends No. 1

Hunter Mountain is a prominent plateau-like mountain in the Cottonwood Mountains that is a pleasant retreat away from the desert below. Much of it is piñon pine forest and holds a fair snowpack much of the winter. In November of 2013 there was several feet of snow on Lee Flat and Hidden Valley,  and drifts were as deep as five feet in some places. The amount of snow on the top of Hunter Mountain is not known but likely greater than either of the aforementioned places. Hunter Mountain is a large granite block that was uplifted long ago and is one of my favorite places in the park, for the springs are abundant and well flowing. The area of Hunter Mountain is steeped in history, as its been used for cattle grazing since the 1870s, when Hunter Cabin was built. This post lists some of the odds and ends of Hunter Mountain exploration.

Death Valley Pictographs #1

This site was not difficult to reach, though took painstaking hours of research to find. I'll leave the location out of this one, it is vandalism free and is a very special place. Be sure to leave no trace.

All of these pictos are in red pigment,  and while there are glyphs over a small area, the pictos only in this small cave on the edge of a stark valley. The cave is in some sort of marble I think, and is essentially a boulder pile but is large enough to stay twenty degrees cooler than the outside air. I crawled through some of the smaller cracks inside to yield no further art. Enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them. Many were enhanced to better show the pigments.

Artifacts should be left where they are. It is illegal to remove them.

Keystone Mine Camp

Up Goler Canyon there lies a large mine camp. It was a gold mine, which is higher up on the mountain and was not visited on this trip in spring of 2014. This gold mine was originally developed by the famed Carl Mengel in his days in the region, but it was sold to the Monte Cristo Mines company in 1935 and renamed the Lotus Mine. It was worked on and off into the 80s, when most of the modern mines closed in south Death Valley. There were two arial tramways constructed, and there is a lot of cool junk lying around the site. Some of the rocks in this canyon are around 1.8 Billion years old. Just up the canyon is a very pretty pink rhyolite intrusion. 2016 UPDATE: Work is being done to reopen this mine. Someone is now on site most of the time.

Spring Break 2014 Overview

The entire report will be divided into individual sections, but this is an overview.

Beginning the trip, we drove over to Butte Valley via Goler Canyon from Searles Valley. We stopped at the Newman Cabin, Gold Spur cableway, Keystone Mine camp, and Mengel Pass. Once in Butte Valley, we hit all the cabins; starting with Stella's (also called Mengel's, Anderson's, and Greater View Cabin), then we went to Russel Camp. Unfortunately people were setting up camp there and we didn't lurk around and invade their space. Finally we went to Geologist Cabin at Anvil Spring. I was amazed at how rutted the road and parking at Geologist was; it suffered heavily from overuse and subsequent erosion. Anyway, the new and controversial outhouse is far enough away that it didn't impede views of the cabin and butte together, so we were able to enjoy the solitude of the lonesome stone cabin.

Salt Creek, of Salt Creek Beach Fame

       Lately I've been reading and thinking about the tragic story of how a wild stream turns sour and sad. It is a very small stream and basin, only about 4 miles in length and only draining 6.1 square miles. Since the area began to be heavily developed in the late 80s and early 90s, the hilltops were pushed into the canyon bottoms and the natural water channels were replaced by concrete pipes. Below is a map of the many miles of channels that were laid during the expanse of the suburbs.

Goblin Canyon Report

It's now been nearly a month since I completed this hike, but am just now writing this report. This was the best of my various explorations, as I have done many just around my house and such, but never a major undocumented feature like this large canyon in Towne Pass. Here begin the pictures and reporting.

After an (as usual) outstanding breakfast at Panamint Springs, we parked at the 4000 foot sign, expecting to complete a loop of the two canyons I had planned on hiking that day. Weather was a bit foreboding, but we carried on anyway.

Launching the new site!

Welcome to the site thats been in the back of my mind since I began my interest in Death Valley and the desert, but only now has become a reality. Enjoy my mental ramblings of geography, history, trip reports, thoughts, and most anything else. Enjoy my future posts!