Joshua Tree: The Lost Horse Mine Loop Trail

Today was our first opportunity to explore Joshua Tree National Park.  We've been waiting six years to do this, ever since our daughter Katie raved about the area after having visited it on a cross-country trip.

After a short visit to the Oasis Visitor Center, we chose to drive out to Keys View, which, at 5,185 feet above sea level, offered a spectacular view of 10,834-foot Mt. San Jacinto (on the left in the photo below) and 11,503-foot San Gorgonio Mountain (also known as "Old Greyback") (on the right below), both in the San Bernardino Mountains south of the Sierra Nevada Range and west of the San Andreas Fault which can be seen in this photo as a dark line running in the midground in Coachella Valley below our vista:

We were disappointed to see so much smog, which the ranger at the viewpoint related is funneled down into the Coachella Valley from Los Angeles.

We drove a short way down from Keys View to the trailhead for the Lost Horse Mine Loop Trail, which is a 7-mile trail featuring the Lost Horse Mine.

Between 1894 and 1931, the mine produced 10,000 ounces of gold and 16,000 ounces of silver.  It was developed by one Johnny Lang, who, in 1890 had lost his horse when his brother and other cattlemen were gunned down by a cattle rustler. Lang tracked the horses to this area, which at that time was believed to be occupied by cattle rustlers, but did not find the horses. He claimed he then met someone who had discovered a rich gold claim but was afraid to develop it because he had been threatened by the cattle rustlers. Lang and his father bought the rights to the mine and named it "Lost Horse" in memory of the lost horses that were the original cause of the discovery. He and three other men filed the claim, set up a two-stamp mill and began to produce substantial amounts of gold. Lang's claim and mill were then sold to a Montana rancher named J.D. Ryan, who continued to mine the property.

Whether this history is a true story or a tall tale, the mine did operate on the property, and we set out to investigate it.  Here is Kathy at the trailhead:

The trail winds up and down over hills through the valley, and, as we climbed the two miles to the mine, we could see San Gorgonio Mountain behind us down the trail:

The desert seems desolate, but it is filled with life.  We saw expanses of joshua trees, juniper, Mormon tea, fan palms, jojoba plants, varieties of sage, and some plants we couldn't identify.  Here was a particularly majestic yucca plant we spotted on a hillside:

Scattered throughout these hills are the ruins and foundations of miners' cabins.  We stumbled on one, which David explores in the photo below:

We eventually reached the Lost Horse Mine, which was a marvelous construction, considering how far out in the desert it was built.  We had trouble imagining how much work and expense had been involved in hauling the machinery and materials to build the mine complex in this remote location. We took a selfie along with the main mine machinery:

Many of the original mine structures still stand on the site, although the mine has been sealed and the major machinery has been fenced off for visitors' safety.  Below is a view of some of the machinery and one of the cisterns that held water for sluicing the ore and dirt dug up from the mine:

We ate lunch at the mine site and pondered all the questions that we could think of about the mine and its construction and operation.  After resting and eating, we continued on the loop trail to a dramatic vista over Malapai Hill, an extinct volcano, behind jagged basalt rocks lying along our trail:

Here, Kathy cozies up to some of the jagged basalt:

Further on the west side of the loop, we found an old stone chimney, remnant presumably of some miner's cabin, along with bedsprings and other materials that we surmised also were left by the miner, although the broken glass that littered the site testified to innumerable parties and overnight camps on this ground:

On the northwest part of the loop, toward the end of our hike, we found ourselves in a great sandy wash or basin, with an immense forest of Joshua trees around us.  Kathy posed with her favorite:

While the blossom season for Joshua trees does not occur until February-April, we found one tree that bore blossoms.  We couldn't tell whether these were early blossoms this year, or remnants from last year:

Another interesting desert plant is the beavertail cactus, a member of the prickly pear cactus family. We encountered perhaps half a dozen of these cute little plants, three of which that had grown too close to the hiking trail had been protected by NPS rangers by stone rings the rangers built up around the little fellers.

Animal wildlife was scarce the day we hiked.  Our campground near the park has a large grove of trees where turkey vultures roost in great flocks at sunset.  On the trail we saw several lizards, and in the sandy washes we spotted several kangaroo rats.  But, beyond these, the desert seemed devoid of animal life, despite the fact that it is not overly hot this time of year.  A ranger told us that these mountains do harbor mountain goats, but we saw none on today's outing.

Maybe later.