Mastodon Mine Hike

This weekend was a boy's trip, with me taking Andy and his buddies, Orlando and Kyle on a trip to Cottonwood Springs in Joshua Tree National Park. We had an absolute blast with lots of coarse language, bodily noises, root beer chugging and other rites of passage.

The Cottonwood Springs Campground is certainly a winter-only destination. There isn't enough shade for anything bigger than a desert tortoise. The bathrooms have flush toilets, but no showers. I probably wouldn't want to stay more than a night or two, and if you forget something, it is at least 50 miles back to the store - each way. The boys decided on three tents for the rating, but Sherry might slide it down to two.

The highlight of the trip was a three-mile hike to the abandoned Mastodon Mine. In this photo, we're standing over one of the vertical shafts, with our campsite in the valley below. The gold mine was worked from 1919 through 1932. On the way to the mine, we hiked past the Winona Mill, which processed the ore.

I took my new video camera with us and put together this three minute video of our adventure. If you watch closely, you can see the Salton Sea from the top of Mastodon Peak.