Rattlesnake Canyon & mine tour

[FishPOET]

Tracy and I woke up on Soggy Dry Lake to a cool, clear morning.



We headed for Rattlesnake Canyon. First stop was Two Hole Mine. It is in a canyon South of Rattlesnake Canyon about 1/2 mile.



Same structure looking straight down the rails. You cannot see the bottom.



Some ice in Rattlesnake Canyon



A cattle watering silo on Viscera Springs Rd.



Cap Rock



Charlie's Cabin



Water tanks circa 1900



Gold Crane



Barn/Equipment Shed



Bunkhouse



The whole complex from above

[FishPOET]

Farrington Observatory



1880 Gold Smelter & Flue



Round Valley



Rose Mine from Tip Top Mtn.



On the way out on 2N02 we slid into a rock at 20mph and sliced the sidewall on the rear tire. Changing a tire in 30° with the sun going down is no fun. Back to Soggy Dry lake at 6pm. We sat around the campfire until 8pm and called it a night.

[Black & Tan TJ]

WOW Doug. I need to do some runs with you, truly picturesque. And I bet I could have gotten RV out there too.

Cheers, Tom

[Mitch]

Doug,

Awesome photo's! Rattlesnake is one of my favorites. We need to wheel again soon.

Mitch

[Jeepster89YJ]

Great Pics

I've been through Rattlesnake canyon a couple of times but have never seen some of the areas you have photos of. Any chance you could share the waypoints of some of these sites? Is Two hole mine near Two Hole Spring? I've seen some of the old shacks near the water tower and pond but where is charlies Cabin, Gold Crane and the Barn? Thanks for sharing these pics with everyone.

Mike

[Mitch]

Here's the GPS coordinates for Fishpoet's trip.

*Two Hole Mine: N 34 18.529 W 116 38.896

*Charlies Cabin: N 34 16.318 W 116 40.776

*Water Tanks: N 34 15.402 W 116 40.241

*Gold Crane/Barn/Shed: N 34 14.616 W 116 39.616

*Farmington Observatory: N 34 14.194 W 116 38.201

*Gold Smelter: N 34 13.590 W 116 40.371

Lat/Lon format is hddd' mm.mmm and WGS84 datum

I can't wait to check these spots out next time!

Thanks Doug!

Mitch

[Materdaddy]

I've been through Rattlesnake canyon a couple of times but have never seen some of the areas you have photos of. Any chance you could share the waypoints of some of these sites? Is Two hole mine near Two Hole Spring? I've seen some of the old shacks near the water tower and pond but where is charlies Cabin, Gold Crane and the Barn? Thanks for sharing these pics with everyone.

Mike

That was going to be my exact post! I've been through Rattlesnake Canyon and didn't see anything like that! Doug, you should lead more runs here and I should participate in them instead of keep posting about it

Here's the GPS coordinates for Fishpoet's trip.

*Two Hole Mine: N 34 18.529 W 116 38.896

*Charlies Cabin: N 34 16.318 W 116 40.776

*Water Tanks: N 34 15.402 W 116 40.241

*Gold Crane/Barn/Shed: N 34 14.616 W 116 39.616

*Farmington Observatory: N 34 14.194 W 116 38.201

*Gold Smelter: N 34 13.590 W 116 40.371

Lat/Lon format is hddd' mm.mmm and WGS84 datum

I can't wait to check these spots out next time!

Thanks Doug!

Mitch

Thanks Mitch! Were you on the run?

[Jeepster89YJ]

Thanks Mitch

Can't wait for the weather to clear up so I can go out and visit these sites. I have an open Jeep so I'm more of a warm weather kind of wheeler.

[FishPOET]

That was going to be my exact post! I've been through Rattlesnake Canyon and didn't see anything like that!

I am easily fascinated with anything Americana. Tracy and I try to plan trips with time built in for exploring those little used spur roads. For us exploring is like a box of chocolates....

I probably spent close to 50 hours planning the 9 days we were on the road over the winter break. geocaching.com is my best resource. I google everything. I have a bunch of books on offroad trails, hiking trails, ghost towns, aircraft wrecks, history of the local mountains and deserts, travel books etc. I made topo maps of all the areas we were headed.

[Mitch]

Much to my dismay, I didn't know about this run. I forwarded GPS coordinates from Doug's response to my email about these sites. This is a perfect example as to why research is so important to those of us that have a historical interest along with going out wheeling. I have a dozen trail books and a topo program on 14 CD's for the whole state of California and still I've driven right by these cool sites. Thanks again Doug for the info.

[dirtman13]

That was going to be my exact post! I've been through Rattlesnake Canyon and didn't see anything like that!

x2...I almost just hit quote on his post. Thanks for the waypoints.....who wants to run Rattlesnake.

[JJsKJ]

Great pics. Not that I needed an excuse to go back to wheel RS but now I have an excuse.
BTW, That Ben guy sure gets around. I will have to get him back out there to share those spots. I know he was out there w/ us before but I guess we hurried by the cool spots. Thanks for sharing the info, I'm heading back in the near future for sure.

[Mitch]

Chuck,

I'm ready, just say when. I'll do Heartbreak if there is no snow! An up and back Rattlesnake would be fun too!