Calipidder

Minietta Cabin

After Saturday’s visit to Fossil Falls, Cerro Gordo, and the U2 tree we didn’t have a lot of light to find our campsite outside of Death Valley. We like to primitive backcountry car camp in the BLM lands outside the park since there are fewer restrictions (i.e. we can cook over a campfire with the wood we bring along), so we headed south out of Panamint Springs and found a nice spot along Nadeau Road. There is a lot of space to camp out there and we found many spots, some of which were occupied. The roads are rough so if you’re heading this way make sure you’re in a 4×4 with adequate clearance.

We camped near Minietta Mine and Lookout City amid the ruins of the old silver mining operations. We would have liked to have camped up by the Minietta Cabin, but didn’t want to take our Trailblazer (which has been acting up) up the rough road. Instead, we took a short morning hike up the road to the old cabin and mining operations. The cabin has been renovated and well cared for by a group of committed individuals and we were happy to see it in pretty good condition. Far too often these historic locations have been vandalized and looted.

After exploring the cabin and the ruins of the old mining operations (including an old tramway), we headed out to Death Valley to explore some canyons. Report and pictures of the canyons in the next post.

Links

• Photos: Minietta Mine

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