Sierra Nevada Adventures Multi Day Rides

DEATH VALLEY MOJAVE ADVENTURE 2-Days  

Here’s your opportunity to EXPLORE the remote corners of Death Valley National Park, Jawbone Canyon, and the Mojave Desert. You will explore an amazing OFF-ROAD route through Goler Canyon to the notorious Manson Family hideout, including historic ghost towns, abandoned mining camps, the unique Burro Schmidt Tunnel, and the historic Jawbone Canyon on your two-day ADVENTURE.

Death Valley Mojave Adventure ride explores the historic Jawbone Canyon and remote corners of the Mojave Desert to historic ghost towns such as Darwin, Ballarat, Randsburg, and the abandoned mining camp known as Bickel Camp including the historic Burro Schmidt tunnel. Your off-road adventure explores the Mojave Desert to the historic Burro Schmidt Tunnel where you will have the opportunity to explore on foot through this historic gold mine “dug entirely by hand” by the eccentric miner known as “Burro Schmidt”. You will also explore off-road through the amazing Goler Canyon past abandoned mining camps to the notorious Manson Family hideout.

Europeans first settled in Jawbone Canyon around 1860—naming it Jawbone Canyon because its shape resembled a mandible (lower Jawbone) and the trail was used as a trade route from Keyesville into the Piute Mountains. During the Kern River gold rush, several gold mines operated in the canyon; the most successful of these, the St. John mine, yielded nearly $700,000 worth of gold between 1860 and 1875. The Gwynn mine, on the Geringer Grade, ran six claims yielding a total of $770,000 worth of gold and quartz before ceasing operations in 1942. Several mining operations were reactivated throughout the Great Depression and since World War II, there has been minor prospecting in the Mojave Desert.

Your off-road adventure explores mining routes to the historic Bickel Camp, which is dedicated to the memory of Walter Bickel, and to sharing the enterprising spirit of a true "old-timer" prospector. Bickel Camp is a historic 1930's era mining camp located in Last Chance Canyon of the El Paso Mountains in the Mojave Desert of California. The El Paso Mountains are a picturesque, colorful, and mineralized mountain range at just over 5000 feet elevation. Early miners were attracted by gold-bearing ancient river channels that lie exposed in this desert mountain range. Walter Bickel prospected and came to stay in the early 1930s, at what is now known as Bickel Camp. His mining camp is covered with unique tools and equipment that testify to the inventiveness and capability of a man living with the land and nature. Like the thousands of people before him, Walter Bickel came to the El Paso Mountains in the 1930s in search of gold. His diggings became known as Bickel Camp. While he didn’t make much money mining gold, he did scratch out a living and called the place home until 1987 when the BLM came to evict the elderly Bickel considering him a squatter. Hours before their arrival, Walter suffered a stroke and was taken to an area hospital. Outraged friends and family rallied to save Walt’s home of over 50 years, plus his impressive accumulation of equipment. A settlement was reached allowing the camp to remain as a museum for the benefit of the public. Today the camp is cared for by the Friends of Last Chance Canyon. The cabin and grounds have been left pretty much the same way Bickel left them in 1987 and are considered to be a true representation of a depression-era mining camp. Items at the site include antique tractors, mining equipment, vintage travel trailers, antique appliances, rock samples, and Rube Goldberg contraptions that only Walt himself knew what they were designed to do.

Beyond Bickel Camp, you will have the opportunity to explore off-road to one of the most unique and historic gold mines in the Mojave Desert. High atop the El Paso Mountains, above Last Chance Canyon, exists today a monument to one man's determination and perseverance to create what is known as the Burro Schmidt Tunnel. William Henry Schmidt, better known as "Burro" Schmidt, spent 38 years digging a half-mile-long tunnel “dug entirely by hand” through the El Paso Mountains. Burro Schmidt, who was mining gold, was faced with a dangerous ridge between his mining area and the smelter at Mojave, California. Burro Schmidt said that he would "never haul his ore to the smelter in Mojave down that back trail" using his two burros. Thus, he began his tunnel in 1906 and continued digging for the next 38 years. During the years he worked on his tunnel, Burro Schmidt ran into many dangerous circumstances where he was trapped by a falling rock and nearly died many times while digging his tunnel and injured often but continued on. In 1920 a road was completed from Last Chance Canyon to Mojave, eliminating the need for the tunnel, but Burro Schmidt claimed to be obsessed with completing his tunnel and dug on.

After exploring some of the most dramatic desert landscapes imaginable, your adventure ride ventures to the lonely ghost town of Darwin. Located on the western outskirts of Death Valley in Inyo County, tiny Darwin, a semi-ghost town today, was once the largest city in the county. The settlement got its start in early 1860 when a prospecting expedition led by Darwin French set out from Visalia, California in search of the Lost Gunsight Mine and a place that had long been referred to as “Silver Mountain.” While exploring the rocky, dry landscape southeast of Owens Lake, French’s party never found the Lost Gunsight Mine or Silver Mountain, but they did discover rich silver outcroppings and staked several claims before heading back to Visalia. When they returned, they were followed by hundreds of others, and soon mines developed and the rugged mining town of Coso Junction was born. Around 1870 more gold, silver, and lead deposits were again discovered in the Coso Range, resulting in the formation of the New Coso Mining District in 1874. The settlement of Darwin was soon established and named for early explorer and prospector, Darwin French. The town quickly developed into the main commercial center in the area, by the end of 1875, Darwin boasted two smelters, some 20 operating mines, a post office, graded streets, a drug store, a hotel, three restaurants, the ever-present saloons, a newspaper, 200 frame houses, and more than 700 residents.

The Defiance Mine was the principal producer in the district, but, other profitable mines included the Argus-Sterling, Christmas Gift, Lucky Jim, Custer, Independence, Keystone, Thompson, and the Wonder Mine. The next year, the town continued to grow, supporting over 1,000 people, at which time, it was the largest town in Inyo County. Its Centennial Celebration on July 4, 1876, was the second largest in the county. Though the settlement had taken on an air of permanence, it was also gaining another reputation, that of a rowdy and violent town. Because of its isolation, and distance from the county seat of Independence, gunplay, assaults, and stage robberies were common. Still, the town continued to grow, peaking at a population of about 3,500 in 1877. However, it would not continue. The following year a smallpox epidemic swept the community and a national economic slowdown hit Darwin hard. Production slowed, and mine owners scaled back wages, creating more violence in the community. In September 1878, the newspaper office closed its doors, and the publisher, T. S. Harris, packed up the presses and headed north toward the boomtown of Bodie. He was followed by many of the miners. However, the following month, it was reported in the Independence newspaper that the town still had 200-300 people, four stores, three restaurants, five saloons, and a drug store. Six months later, on April 30, 1879, a suspected arson fire began in the Darwin Hotel, which resulted in the loss of 14 businesses, including several stores, offices, the hotel, saloons, and the post office. Today, the semi-ghost town of Darwin has a population of about 40 people that live amongst the ruins of the past. Northwest of the abandoned downtown on the side of Mt. Ophir, the remains of the once-booming mining camp can still be seen, including decaying rows of mining shacks and the old mill buildings. Its downtown area still contains several buildings, once housing businesses but, now closed. Back in its heyday, Darwin was a rowdy and violent townhome to hundreds of miners that dreamed of striking it rich but nowadays all that is left are, scattered and rusted mining machinery, rusted-out vehicles, and abandoned buildings that make up the last remains of this lonely ghost town.

Your off-road adventure explores back in time to the historic ghost town of Ballarat located at the base of the Panamint Mountain Range. Ballarat sprang to life in 1897 as a supply town for the nearby mines in the canyons of the Panamint Range. The main mine supporting the town was the Radcliff gold mine in Pleasant Canyon just east of town. Between the years of 1898 and 1903, the Radcliff produced 15,000 tons of ore. Ballarat was named after an Australian gold camp by one of its first residents, an Australian immigrant named George Riggins. It was in the original Australian town of Ballarat that the first gold was discovered in that country in 1851. In its heyday from 1897 to 1905, Ballarat had 400 to 500 residents. It hosted seven saloons, three hotels, a Wells Fargo station, a post office (that opened in 1897) school, a jail, and a morgue, but no churches. Today, Ballarat has only one full-time resident known as Rocky who lives in this remote ghost town. Rocky runs the general store on afternoons and weekends to supply cold drinks to visitors passing through town. The town still has a few historic adobe buildings, foundations, a jailhouse, a morgue, and mining equipment scattered about including the Manson Family's forgotten army surplus Power Wagon Truck.

Beyond Ballarat, your off-road adventure explores the amazing Goler Canyon. This narrow scenic canyon also known as Goler Wash twists and turns its way through steep rocky cliffs, past abandoned mining sites, and beyond to the notorious Manson Family hideout. This eerie hideout known as Barker Ranch sits isolated in the middle of nowhere slowly crumbling away in a small valley surrounded by desert mountains. Charles Manson former cult leader and mass murderer led what became known as the Manson Family, a quasi-commune that arose in California in the late 1960s. Manson's followers committed a series of nine murders at four locations in July and August 1969. In 1971 he was found guilty of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the deaths of seven people – most notably of the actress Sharon Tate – all of which were carried out by members of the group at his instruction. The Manson Family was hiding out at the Barker Ranch when the Inyo County sheriff's department, California Highway Patrol, and National Park Service law enforcement captured the group in a raid leading to their incarceration. At the time of Manson’s arrest, the officers were unaware of the magnitude of their findings. They wanted to prosecute the persons responsible for vandalism within Death Valley National Monument further north, unaware that they had a mass murder suspect and his followers.