We headed back out the way we came and hit the pavement again. From there, we took Kelbaker road further southeast until we hit Aiken Mine Road, which took us to the Lava Tube:
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
From there, we continued along Aiken Mine Road to the old Aiken Cinder Mine:
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
This site was AMAZING! It began it's life as a massive corporate mining operation in 1948 and operated all the way until 1990, when the operators of the mine defaulted on their lease of the property. They abruptly shut down operations and completely walked away, leaving everything in place and intact. There are still over 500,000 tons of mined material at the site that was never sold off, and all kinds of heavy mining equipment that we explored:
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
By this time, we had used up most of our daylight and were still over an hour away from the location we originally planned to camp. Fortunately, Motorpig77 spotted a fire ring near the mine that turned out to be a very suitable camp spot. We weren't really sheltered from the elements, but it was a beautiful evening/night with only brief periods of minor wind, so we were golden!
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
I quietly explored the area around the camp and bumped into a massive jack rabbit. With his ears up, he stood about 2 and a half feet tall! He was dark gray with black tips on his ears and a long black tail. He actually looked kind of like a burro!
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
The sunset from the campsite was amazing, as always:
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
And the night scenery wasn't half bad, either. The orange glow is the lights of Las Vegas, about 150 miles to our north:
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Unfortunately, once the sun went down, the wildlife had nothing to do but check us out. Now I've heard horror stories of Camel Spiders from some of my buddies who are in the Marine Corps, but I never knew they lived in the Mojave Desert too. These suckers were UGLY! We had two that kept running around the camp fire, tormenting us and scaring all of the ladies. Motorpig77 was able to pull them up on his cell phone where we learned that they can run 10 miles per hour and jump 4 feet in the air. They are not deathly poisonous and are supposedly kind of friendly unless provoked. This particular guy used his front "arms" to scare the crap out of all of us, putting them up in the air and acting like he wanted to fight us. Since he's so "friendly" it's possible that he just wanted a hug:
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
The morning brought us a very beautiful sunrise over camp:
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Before cooking breakfast, I explored the area around the camp once more and shot a few photos with the morning light. There were some cool ruins of a stone building nearby. It once had a massive roof structure, so it's possible it was some sort of barn or workshop:
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Once everyone else woke up, it was breakfast time:
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Scott307 took a few moments to explore the area as we all broke camp:
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
We departed the camping location and continued north on Aiken Mine Road. We stopped briefly at an old cattle corral and checked out the site. The old windmill was impressive:
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
If you were a cow and you ended up in this thing, you were more than likely a very delicious cow:
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
We continued down the road and entered the Joshua Tree Forest area. This area is the most dense collection of Joshua Trees on the planet. We stopped to check out the old Mojave Phone Booth site. Nothing remains at this site except for a couple of metal bars on the ground that we believe held the phone booth at one point. For those of you unfamiliar with the Mojave Phone Booth, do a quick google search. It's an interesting story.
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
While continuing on down the road, we spotted a Golden Eagle atop a huge Joshua Tree. Myself and Scott took the opportunity to shoot some photos of him before we scared him off. It's pretty amazing that they can turn their heads all they way backwards while perched:
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
In flight, he was a BEAUTIFUL creature with a big wingspan of probably 4 feet or so:
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
After traveling a little further down the road, a really cool looking lizard ran out in front of my Xterra and sprinted ahead of us. I was going 30 mph according to my speedo and he was running faster than me, pulling away from us. He was up on the tips of his super long toes and looked like he was floating about 3 or 4 inches above the sand as he ran super fast. He finally ran off to the side of the road and let me snap this photo of him as we passed:
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
Eventually, Aiken Mine Road ends into a junction with several other roads. Right at this junction is a working private ranch known as the Valley View Ranch. It looked a lot like many of the ruins in the area, but is a fully functional site with a family that lives there. This ranch has been in operation since the homestead era, and continues to be allowed to operate inside of the bounaries of the preserve. Note that there are several other ranches like this throughout the preserve, but only one other one in this region west of the Ivanpah Mountains:
Mojave - May 16-17, 2015
