Dusty Trails

We finally had an opportunity to go out in the desert with a group of friends. We drove a loaned side-by-side. It’s nice to have friends that put you in their extra rides!

The first part of the ride was over the “roller coaster”, a series of hills with some gradual to steep hills with some pretty sharp turns. If you ever road the Mad Mouse, this is similar! Didn’t get any photos of that part of the ride, we were both doing our best just to hang on and stay in our seats!

Down in one valley we saw a group of desert sheep. There were 8 of them. We stopped in a small ravine and saw some footprints in the rock, put there thousands of years ago. That same place had some quartz veins that were up to 2’ wide and ran for several hundred feet. It was fun scrambling all over the rocks and finding quartz and other kinds of rocks. Jan can identify what kinds of rocks they were - to me, they were all just “rocks”.

We stopped at a place called the Toilet Bowl, aptly named, as you can see. This is a group of active and less-active mines. There is gold, silver, lead, and copper. If you’re thinking of a new lifestyle, there are several claims are for sale!

After some more trails, and circling up for lunch, folks headed back to Gold Star. We and the Youngs headed to another out of the way stop in a small canyon. Over the years people have brought in chairs, tables, recliners, and a lot of funny signs. Jan had a bit of nerves on the way in, since there was a 25’ drop off on her side. She was better on the way out, maybe because the drop off was on my side!