NORTHEASTERN CALIFORNIA

Summary

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Hike through an old gold mining region in Death Valley. The hiker has the choice of a brief walk around the relics along the base of the mountain or continuing uphill for more mining ruins and views back into the valley.

Trail Stats

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Trail Details

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Never originally on our radar, we were convinced by fellow campers to visit Keane Wonder Mine. Their descriptions of views, endless options for exploration and solitude sold us on the hike. We were not disappointed.

Being off the beaten path reduces the overall quantity of visitors to the area. Signs at the base remind the visitor that there are mining contaminants and hazards in the area and to stick to the trails. Apparently this was one of the more successful mines in Death Valley, extracting a significant amount of gold from the surrounding hills.

Just off the parking lot, a wide trail immediately took us uphill to the lower mining area. Here one can wander around a variety of mining relics and the aerial tramway base. For the most part I had no idea what I was looking at. I’m no expert on old mining techniques and in general it looked like odd bits of rubbish and defunct water or oil drums.

The area is under general restoration, especially the tramway posts. Nice to see the parks attempts at maintaining its history. There are numerous mine shafts in the area, many are covered. Best to steer clear of those that aren’t. I’m not certain you’d ever be found if you fell in one.

Once we had seen the lower section it was time to head uphill. And I do mean uphill. The trail marches you straight up to the ridge line and had us huffing and puffing in no time at all. Nothing quite like the sound of wheezing and gasping to remind you that you’re doing this for fun. There’s no shade by the way. It is all open. Unless the hillside shades you, be prepared. Doug sucks through water like a dehydrated camel at a spring. So, lots of water for us. Or at least for him, I’m not so great at hydrating on the trail. A large part due to being female and it’s a pain to find a place to pee. Guys have it much easier on that one.

We passed a restored tramway post early on in the ascent. There were neat piles of equipment left behind from the restoration program. Not sure if they plan to continue or if they haven’t gotten around to picking up. These towers dot the hillside and are mostly still connected with cables. Does give you a good hint at where you’re headed. Looking back out, the valley opens up behind you. Quite lovely in a very dry and brown kind of way.

Amongst the rocks we saw movement from a rather large reptile. There were small lizards scurrying all over the place as we walked through. But this guy was big. I thought it might be a desert iguana. Doug did not think so. Being as he is from California and I am very much from a (better, though completely personal opinion here) different area I took his opinion into consideration. Later we looked at the park brochure and think it might have been a chuckwalla. Which look like big lizard iguana things. So there you have it.

Besides our reptilian friends, we saw birds and bugs up there. And two parks personnel as we were heading on our way out. They were checking trail conditions and were delighted to find people using the trail. Though, in classic me form, I did not notice they were parks personnel, despite them being in clearly marked outfits. And I happily pointed out a mining tunnel, complete with door. Which I’m certain they were quite familiar with. Amazingly, no one laughed at me. I laughed at me. Unobservant ding bat. At least I was still enthused with the hike.

Continuing up the trail we eventually hit the main attraction. More dilapidated building sites and cable wheels. The latter were quite fun to inspect. Scattered around were left behind tools, metal buckets and even a wheelbarrow. All coated in layers of rust. Below one of the buildings, presumably the mess hall, there were about million rusted out tin cans that had been tossed out. Litter bugs. Tsk tsk. Can’t imagine how delicious dinner from a can was. For some reason I always imagine it was beans. No idea why. Maybe from too many old western movies with my dad when I was a kid. Seems like they were always eating beans from a can. Bleh.

There’s a path leading up the hill from here, to what I presume is a mining shaft. However, part of the trail is washed out and the rest quickly resembles an uneven goat path. We made it partially up and then turned around. We had seen plenty of mine entrances along the way.

Instead, we headed further down the trail, along a path most likely blasted out of the rocky hillside. From here it’s mostly flat as you skirt around the mountainside, heading inward. Views of the valley begin to fade. Parts of this path had clearly eroded, leaving a narrow passage in some places. It lead to, essentially nothing. It apparently used to connect mines. That being said, it did dump us out at a cut or dry river bed of sorts. Which, naturally I HAD to go up. From here it’s a choose your own way kind of deal. Easy enough, we just followed the cut up. Climbing over rocks and poking our noses into everything. Though we did keep an eye out for snakes. Yeah for exploring without a real trail!

We were told that one could just keep going and check out all sorts of cool things up there. However, we turned around after a bit as there were other things we wanted to check out in the park as well. This is one hike I’d love to do again, with a whole day and a lot more snacks.

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