Desert Queen Mine (northern mine shafts) - 2.14.2020
We parked at the Pine City Parking lot... a shared area for Pine City, Desert Queen Mine and Lucky Boy Loop... from the west entrance pay station of Joshua Tree National Park, drive Park Blvd for 15.8 miles and turn left on Desert Queen Mine Road... then drive 1.3 miles to the trailhead.
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I had not intended to take photos on this hike... however, after hiking 3.6 miles I found the north mine shafts (much less visited than the south shafts) and decided to take some photos.
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Looking over at the south mine shafts... a good trail travels through them... the Eagle Cliff area is out there on the left.
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Going uphill to see if I can find some more of the northern shafts.
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Several of the north shafts were basically filled with brush and rocks.
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This was the largest shaft... 80 to 100 feet deep... with Queen Mountain on the horizon.
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This looks like it will be a deep shaft.
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Uncovered and 60 feet deep... don't get too close.
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A different angle of the 60 foot shaft... with Ryan Mountain in the distance.
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Leaving the northern mine shaft area I will need to go down into the canyon and get back up on the other side.
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In the canyon... ready to go back up.
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Back up on the ridge... I can see a couple of tailing piles (light gray in color) of the northern mine shafts on the far left... the southern shafts are in the center of the photo in the distance.
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From the ridge I'm looking at Negro Hill in the foreground... with Ryan Mountain in the distance on the left... and Queen Mountain on the right.
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I can see several of the northern mine shaft tailing piles in the left foreground... with the Eagle Cliff area and southern mine shafts in the center of the photo.
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Almost back to the parking lot... the loop hike was 4.5 miles, gaining 1047 feet of elevation.
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