On a long and lonesome highway....: hiking off of American Girl Mine Road

Our Location: Near American Girl Mine Road, BLM, CA

A nice night, a bit on the cool side and I once again used my duvet to keep me warm and toasty. I didn't get up to greet the sun this morning, although I was wide awake, I enjoyed a few more chapters of my book instead.

One could still drive on this part of the road but we left the Dogsled and stepped onto the road way when I took this photo.

A mine opening. We climbed up to it, not a far or hard climb but it was still a fair distance from the roadway. Easy to reach though.

I didn't go inside but turned on the flash and pointed the camera. It took me a few tries to get this photo, I kept pointing the camera too far to one side or the other, or too high and getting mostly ceiling. It doesn't appear to go any further than that pile of rocks off to the side but I can't say for sure.

We decided we take a bit of a walk/hike this morning starting out near American Girl Mine Road. For those that know the area, we were back beyond where the road splits, right goes back to the current mine, and left goes back to the open pit mine no longer in use. We chose the left road of course, parked the Dogsled before the road narrowed to an off road vehicle type of road.

You can't see the Dogsled from this photo but it is behind that small rise in the middle of the photo. A 5th wheel is off to the left and a small truck with camper is also a bit left and south of the Dogsled. We are standing atop of the hill over the mine photos above.

Pretty awesome view. Those tan hills are the Imperial Dunes to the south. We are camped to off on the right of the photo but you can't see us. You can of course if you look to the middle right see the Dogsled waiting for us.

We are camped off in this direction, toward the middle left in this photo.

We do a lot of walking in that area that looks so flat with the line of green growth through it.

The Dogsled is down there but you can see it behind that pile of darker rocks to the left of center.

I have climbed and walked along a great deal of the area in this photo over the past couple of years.

Pale rock is of course tailings from that hole in the rock you can see above the pile.

We are heading back toward the old open pit mine and the blue/green tailing pile but I turned to snap this photo. That would be to the southwest of us, those tan dunes show up pretty well.

Shale like rock here, I would be afraid to hit with a hammer as I'm sure lots of chunks would splinter and fall. Not stable for mining for certain.

The camera doesn't show the blue green of these tailings and the tailings themselves are now sliding down the sides with a great deal more brown showing through now.

We are still heading toward the old open pit mine back in these hills but I turned around to snap this photo. We came through on the road that winds between the hills here. I love the edge of brown hill, looks the top of a tiki hut, don't ya think?

We have reached the open pit mine now. You can see some of the sides are starting to fall now. Water, wind and time has started to erode them and they are less defined. Along the middle bottom of the photo is narrow roadway which ends in a deep pool of water.

This is the end point of the mine, you can still see the shelves here.

A bit better view, the end of the pit in the photo above is directly to the right of this photo. The water as you can see has hollowed out under some of that side wall in the bottom middle of the photo. These photos are not the best as the sun is shining at us over those hills. It is too far a walk to do later in the heat of the day when the photos would be of better quality so we will make do with what I have.

I would guess that is some kind of mineral leaching from the tailings but I don't know that for certain. You can see this hillside for a long way and it certainly draws your eye, catching your attention with the colour so evenly running down the hillside.

Again, the sun interferes but it is what it is. You can see roads along the top of the mountains there but also see where the sides are starting to erode due to water, wind and time.

Down on the old road to the bottom of the mine but I think it has now become more of a wash than a roadway. You can see it is not easy walking down here, lots of course rock, stones and sand. Uneven footing and fairly steep high sides that you could not climb down or climb up.

Turning around from the photo above, this is what lies behind me.

It looks pretty rough down there doesn't it? The path to the bottom of the mine is off to the right out view of the photo.

I think that is the side of a wash that comes off the multi coloured hillside. I think the wash is pretty deep there but I didn't walk far enough to check it out. Riley was having a rest back the path a short distance and I didn't want to keep her waiting too long.

This leads to the area that is pictured in the photo above. I would have had to walk down this wash past those green Palo Verde trees to even begin to see the wash above. This was the farthest point for me, I turned here and headed back to join Riley at her seat on a large rock while she rested. Can you see the 'spine' or white line in the brown rock, keep that in mind as you continue on.

Once damp dust now curling into mud curls as it continues to dry out.

Looking behind us, we walked on this gravel roadway all the way to the wash I showed in the upper photos. It was a lot rougher than it looks. The open pit mine is a fair distance off to the right of this photo. Once again you can see the 'spines' or white line in the hills back there.

I believe it is this kind of formation that causes the 'spine' look in these hills. It thrusts upward breaking the surface and looks like a spine or a serpentine chain against the dark of the hills.