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[COLOR="Blue"]A few weeks ago Ryan and I did a day tour in search of some 1860 mining towns in the southern Sierra's. The towns have were abandoned decades's ago, but we thought we would check out the sites and see if anything might be left.
We started at Jawbone station just off of Hwy 14 north of Mojave. Jawbone is a designated OHV area and is well worth roaming around in.
We took Jawbone Canyon road into Kelso Valley, which is still inhabited by cattle ranchers and sits at about 4000 ft. Very nice.
From there we stayed on Jawbon Cyn Rd on up into the Sequoia NF and headed towards Piute Mt Rd. There are at least two old mining townsites before reaching Piute Mt Rd.
Somehow it slipped passed me that there was still snow in the Sierra's. At the 7000 ft level we hit untracked virgin snow, and went as far as we could.
We backtracked back to Kelso Vly Rd passing the old townsite of Sageland, then went up Piute Mt Rd thinking the snow might be broken through, being a more traveled route.
Well the tracks eventually ended when the drifts got too deep.....but we proceeded on pushing through the drifts for several miles till we finally reached the townsite of Claraville. The area was totally deserted.
Claraville was once an old mining town, but today is private property with summer cabins built on the old townsite.
The other townsites of Shady Rest and Inmans were much furthere in and the snow kept getting deeper. So maybe another time.
From there we backtracted down Piute Mt Rd to Kelso vly then took Dove Springs road back through the Jawbone OHV area to Red Rock State Park. From there we visited the Walsh cabin, perched high up on a ridge overlooking the California City area desert.
This makes for a great run for most any stock 4x4. Route finding is easy to follow and well marked.
Link to Slideshow[/COLOR]
http://s304.photobucket.com/albums/n...view=slideshow
We started at Jawbone station just off of Hwy 14 north of Mojave. Jawbone is a designated OHV area and is well worth roaming around in.
We took Jawbone Canyon road into Kelso Valley, which is still inhabited by cattle ranchers and sits at about 4000 ft. Very nice.
From there we stayed on Jawbon Cyn Rd on up into the Sequoia NF and headed towards Piute Mt Rd. There are at least two old mining townsites before reaching Piute Mt Rd.
Somehow it slipped passed me that there was still snow in the Sierra's. At the 7000 ft level we hit untracked virgin snow, and went as far as we could.
We backtracked back to Kelso Vly Rd passing the old townsite of Sageland, then went up Piute Mt Rd thinking the snow might be broken through, being a more traveled route.
Well the tracks eventually ended when the drifts got too deep.....but we proceeded on pushing through the drifts for several miles till we finally reached the townsite of Claraville. The area was totally deserted.
Claraville was once an old mining town, but today is private property with summer cabins built on the old townsite.
The other townsites of Shady Rest and Inmans were much furthere in and the snow kept getting deeper. So maybe another time.
From there we backtracted down Piute Mt Rd to Kelso vly then took Dove Springs road back through the Jawbone OHV area to Red Rock State Park. From there we visited the Walsh cabin, perched high up on a ridge overlooking the California City area desert.
This makes for a great run for most any stock 4x4. Route finding is easy to follow and well marked.
Link to Slideshow[/COLOR]
http://s304.photobucket.com/albums/n...view=slideshow
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