If you are a
hiker, Joshua Tree National Park is one of the nation’s paradises. The park offers trails that are clearly
marked, trails that are established but are not well marked, and oodles of
opportunities to create your own off-trail hikes.
Today’s was one of those that is an established, but not
well marked trail—to the site of the former Ruby Lee Mill.
Last year we failed in our attempt to find this site. We followed the directions in a hiking book
we had, but made some type of mistake. Or
mistakes. Or the book was unclear…… Or, we made some mistakes. I know what my vote is.
We couldn’t wait to try it again.
If you want to find this site, I think we can provide some
directions that may help to supplement any hiking guides you might have. The map below shows both of our attempts—this
year’s and last year’s.
This year’s trail is drawn with the little bubbles, and is
the trail on the top of the map. It goes
almost horizontally, east to west, in the photo.
The hiking book we had said we should head off from the
backcountry board in a southwest direction, which we did, but it turned south
after about a mile, and so didn’t feel right.
We kept going because we didn’t know how far south we were actually
going. It turned out to be a very nice
hike, anyway.
The book we have indicated that we should see some blue
stakes, which would get us headed in the right direction. We didn’t see them last year or this year. They still could be there, as the desert can
hide things in ways that will surprise you.
If you want to find Ruby Lee Mill, here is our advice: Less than a quarter mile from the backcountry
board, in a westerly direction, you will find some petroglyphs on a large sized
boulder.
When you have found this
boulder, easily locatable, then just go in the most westerly direction that you
can, hugging the rock hills on your right, until you get into a wash that goes
west. There will be lots of footprints
in that wash, although be careful because there are several canyons in that
area and there are footprints in all of them.
Follow that wash until you can see an old road coming out of it on the
right, about a mile and a half into the hike, and then follow that road that
goes as straight as an interstate in the midwest. At the spot where the trail leaves the wash
and goes onto the road is marked with a big arrow in the sand, and it will
probably still be there.
Between the backcountry board and the petroglyph rock there
isn’t a trail—people have wandered all around in this area, and you won’t be
able to find footprints that can help you.
Find the rock. That’s the
key.
On the trail map shown above one can see that as you get
closer to the site, the trail becomes a straight line. That’s where the old mining road was.
After a mile or maybe a bit more, almost exactly three miles
from the backcountry board, you will see the site off to your right and up on
the hill. Footprints will guide you to
the site. Someone has drawn a big arrow
in the sand where you need to turn a sharp right, and it will probably still be
there too.
When you return, the non-straight section of the mining road
is much easier to pick up, and you can follow it quite easily instead of hiking
back in the wash if you want to. It was
fun to locate and follow, and we could tell that not many other hikers had done
this because there were far fewer footprints.
The site itself is interesting. The mill was in operation for about 60
years. We could visualize some guy
carving the name into this rock, feeling such pride and hope. The energy and noise and just plain life that
was there a hundred years ago is fun to imagine.
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