Careys Castle and Careys Mine - 3.24.2020
From Palm Springs... drive east on I-10 for ~50 miles and take Exit 177... turn left onto Hayfield Road... then drive 1.2 miles and bear left onto a dirt road... then drive 1.9 miles and park at a cement block with the number 128.16 on it.
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Wild Canterbury-bell.
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Brittlebush.
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A Barrel cactus in bloom.
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Hedgehog Cactus in bloom.
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Yellow Throat Monkey Flower.
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Ghost Flower.
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Chia flower.
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Desert Bluebell... maybe.
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Hiking NW in the open desert from where we parked.
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After hiking a total of 1.4 miles we have left the open desert and headed NE into a much more narrow wash.
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Some scrambling is necessary to continue up the wash.
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Denali Girl coming up the wash... impressive rock formations in the Eagle Mountains on the horizon.
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Heading north now in the wash.
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Gaining elevation in the wash.
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It was easier to get through these boulders than it might appear.
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Gaining elevation in the wash... here Denali Girl looks at the rock formations in the Eagle Mountains.
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After hiking a total of 3.4 miles the wash splits... it wasn't really clear whether we should go to the right or left... the left route seemed the easiest... so we went to the left.
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After taking the left fork from the previous photo it only took 10 minutes to realize that we took the wrong fork... so we decided to leave the wash and cross over the ridge.
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Gaining elevation up to the ridge that will get us back on track.
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On top of the ridge... now we will give up a little elevation and get back down to the correct wash that runs across the middle of the photo.
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I'm back in the correct wash watching Denali Girl come down from the ridge that we crossed over.
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A Beavertail Cactus in bloom.
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Continuing north in the wash... things are opening up a bit.
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After hiking a total of 4.5 miles we have reached Careys Castle... Denali Girl is sitting on a bench at the castle's door.
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Standing at the doorway to the castle and looking inside.
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Denali Girl at the head of the bed in the castle.
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Inside the castle... looking at some shelfs and the doorway.
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I'm going to take the very short hike over to Careys Mine.
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The mine is over on top of the hill in the foreground.
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The mine shaft is covered... but there is a small rectangle in the center of the cover that will let me get a good photo looking directly down into the mine shaft.
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Looking down into the mine shaft... I can see two 20 foot ladders in the photo, but can't really tell how far down the shaft goes.
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We have left Careys Castle and Mine... and are tracing our steps back down the wash.
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Tracing our steps back down the wash.
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Watching Denali Girl come back down the wash.
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Continuing down the wash and admiring the rock formations on the horizon.
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Continuing down the wash and admiring the rock formations on the horizon.
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Watching Denali Girl come back down the wash.
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Watching Denali Girl go back down the wash.
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Wild Canterbury-bell... this one shows a lot of determination.
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Continuing back down the wash... and finally we can see the light at the end of the tunnel out there in the distance.
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After hiking a total of 7.2 miles we are almost out of the wash and back to the open desert.
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Desert Mallow.
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Rock Daisy.
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Desert Lavender.
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Purple Mat.
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Bladderpod.
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Back into the open desert... a 1.4 mile hike will get us back to the car.
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Back in the open desert... we can see the Orocopia Mountains on the horizon.
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Back at the car... our hike was 8.7 miles, gaining 1488 feet of elevation.
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