Roy is still nursing his wrist, so we jumped on the excuse to do some more exploring. With the cooler temperatures we headed down to the the south end of Joshua Tree National Park, along the I-10 corridor. This area is well known for it's series of water sources that were so vital to early travelers, especially the Indians. We headed out to the Hayfield Summit area to see some petroglyphs. We started at the base of the hills, where we should have dropped into the wash.
Looking down into the wash from where we parked the vehicle
I have been reading Hal Summers blog, Hike Every Day and recently he has been spending a lot of time checking out old Indian trails. As we were getting ready to start hiking, I saw what I thought might be the remnants of an old trail in the hillside above us. We started hiking cross country and soon decided that there was no trail, but I did notice that there was a series of ducks.
A duck on a boulder
Even though by this time we could see a well defined trail on the other side of the wash, we just had to follow the ducks. After about a quarter of a mile we found a mine site. It was well marked by a large pile of stones.
Pile of stones marking the first diggings we found
There was a small dig, not more than about eight feet long and only a few feet deep. As we were looking around from something more interesting, we noticed that there was an old trail on the hillside we were standing on. Needless to say, we just had to check it out. The trail was in disrepair and grown over in many places, but it switched back up the side of the hill until we arrived at a more extensive dig.
Roy on the old trail in one of the "better" sections
This dig was several times larger than the first one
This second dig was much more extensive than the first, but still wasn't too interesting. However, the trail continued on up toward a saddle about another hundred feet above us. Naturally we just had to continue to follow the trail and soon enough we found the workings of an old mine.
Remnants of the old mine
Now we had some artifacts to look at, this was getting to be more of the entertainment level we had been looking for. As we continued to explore the site it kept getting better and better until we found that actual mine itself. It looked good, but not good enough for Roy to go into, so I stayed out to keep him company. Actually neither of us would ever dream of going into a hole like this, the danger is just too great.
Vertical mine shaft
While looking around the site Roy found the claim, dated 1986, so I guess it wasn't that old after all. I find it hard to believe that 20 years ago that all this work was done. I think that it was an old mine site that was "rediscovered" and claimed in recent times, because I don't think that modern miners would build the trail that we followed. It was designed for mules and I don't think anyone is mining with them in these parts. One interesting thing about the claim was that as a reference point it mentioned the Hayfield Summit Spring. We could see another trail on the other side of the hill we were on that seemed to lead to the spring, so we decided to head over and check it out. We figured that the reliable water supply would have some sign of Indian visitation.
Heading out to find the spring
The route to the spring turned out to be very intimidating looking and surprisingly easy. There was quite a bit of exposure and you certainly wouldn't want to fall, but we didn't and soon were overlooking the spring and at the saddle that joined the trail to the spring.
Looking down the steep slope to the area of the spring
Soon we were down in the bottom of the wash at the "spring" which turned out to be a small concrete dam across the wash. From the dam we hiked up the canyon and it soon became very steep and rocky. I was wishing I had on my climbing shoes in places. Since Roy had followed the trail, he got ahead of me and soon I was struggling to catch up to him. I saw him a few hundred feet up canyon from me, taking my picture. I continued on up and never could catch up to him. As a matter of fact, I never saw him again. The route up was very interesting and challenging and I was enjoying myself a little too much to stop. I figured out that he wasn't ahead of me when I entered a narrow sandy section with no footprints.
Rocky and steep terrain
After working my way up through house sized boulders, steep little headwalls and narrow slots in the bedrock, I came out into a flat section of the wash. The wash was wider and had lots of large clumps of mesquite growing in it.
Wide flat section of the wash, mesquite growing along the sides
At about this time I came upon the bones of a bighorn. At least most of the bones were there, animals had carried of some parts. I followed the wash until it again became narrow and rocky and I decided that since I hadn't seen Roy in over an hour, I should head back.
Horn from the dead bighorn
I was surprised that on the way back down the route hadn't gotten any easier. I did get a message from Roy, he was back at the car and waiting. He mentioned that he had seen some petroglyphs by the dam and followed the wash out. I checked out the rock art, it consisted of a few faint markings in one small place. I then started out the old trail that we had seen on the other side of the wash, when we had been hiking to the mine.
Old trail along the hillside, leading to the "spring"
This trail turned out to be only a little better than what we had been on going to the mine. Once down at the car, we decided to drive along the powerline road just to look around. While driving we did see some much more significant rock art. We stopped and checked out several dozen petroglyphs.
Petroglyphs
Since it was getting late, we headed back down the road and while driving and talking about what a good day it had turned out to be, I saw a tarantula crossing the road. I yelled to Roy to stop, but he kept driving and I kept yelling at him to stop. Finally I told him we had probably run over a tarantula and then he stops and says, "Why didn't you tell me?". We then got out and walked back and much to our furry friends luck, we had just missed him, by less than a quarter of an inch.
A very lucky tarantula
Seeing the spider was a great ending to a very enjoyable day.
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