“It’s alive and waiting for you. Ready to kill you if you go too far. The sun will get you, or the cold at night. A thousand ways the desert can kill”
The Mojave is a desert of wind, temperature extremes, Joshua Trees and solitude. When most people hear the word ‘desert,’ images of tumbleweeds, rattlesnakes and bleak desolation typically come to mind. In reality, the Mojave is anything but a wasteland. Amongst the sand and sagebrush lie many places of beauty and wonder, and of historic importance. Some are the result of time and the elements, some are the result of man and his efforts to live in the Mojave, both in recent and prehistoric times. Let’s go see what we can find.
Palmetto dates back to the 1860s, coming into existence after the discovery of a rich vein of silver ore by H.W. Bunyard, Thomas Israel and T.W. McNutt in 1866. Unfortunately, the vein played out within two months and the miners moved on to the next boom town.
Read MoreAfter surviving some great hairpin turns and the descent from Sitgreaves pass and through the Black Mountains, the valley opened up and the driving was easy. It was still early morning on Day Two of my “Goodbye God, I’m going to Texas” roadtrip. I had left Oatman and the burros behind and driven through Goldroad, which is once again an active mining area. There were some spectacular views from Sitgreaves Pass but the view before me was pretty cool as well, with one of those Arizona-type of pokey mountains up ahead. My next stop would be Cool Springs, AZ.
Read MoreThis is the third California Inspection Station built in Daggett. Its predecessor operated from 1930 until 1953 and was the one featured in the 1940 film version of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. This station shut down for good in 1967. But they forgot to tell the pigeons.
Read MoreJoshua Tree National Park, the California Gold Country, forgotten places in the Mojave Desert. These are a few of my favorite things.
