Hexahedron Mine Hike: Joshua Tree National Park

This hike is to a mine in the Hexie Mountains.  The mine was active in the early 1900s.  Beyond that, like for most mines in the Southwest, there is not much information about it.

The hike begins at the Back Country Board along Geology Trail Road.  Four wheel drive is recommended for the road, but if one is careful almost any vehicle could travel on it unless it was quite wet.

The first part of the hike is a very beautiful 2 1/2-3.0  mile walk across Pleasant Valley.  One passes beneath the Gold Coin Mine within the first 1/2 mile of the trail. 

There is an old mining road across this area, and it is pretty easy to follow (and pretty easy to find yourself off of it if you pay too much attention to footprints instead of to the road).

And, like everywhere (sigh) a few people have broken the law and driven their vehicles off road in the area.

At mile 2.6 the road trail crosses a small wash.  If you are alert (we weren't) you will see a cairn on the other side marking the continuation of the road trail.  Instead, being the experienced hikers we are, we followed the foot prints into the wash and then had to backtrack.

The road trail continues east up a small hill and down it.  Off to your left you will see a road trail climbing up the hill, and you will say to yourself:  "I have to climb that?"  Fortunately, you don't know at this point that what you are looking at is only a fraction of the climb or you might reconsider your hike.

At that point you are at mile 2.9.  There is a small switchback after you get down from the small hill.  From that point to the mine is 1.7 miles, with an elevation gain of 750 feet.

However, this doesn't tell the entire story, because for the first part of the climb you go up 500 feet in .7 miles.  It is very steep.  You keep rounding the corners of the mountain, thinking that now it is going to be flat, and instead see that it keeps going straight up. 

There are several terrific features of this hike.  And the mine is the least of them.  The road trail, though, is a marvel.  It is still in great shape 100 years later.  We are frequently in awe of the skill that it required to make these roads.  All of it done by hand, in the heat.  Who were these tough buggers?

If someone brought in gravel, started at the bottom of the road and dumped it 10 feet at a time, the road could be usable in a week.  That's how good it still is. 

 

 

 

At the top, near the mine (which is blocked off or caved in), is a small stone cabin.  In contrast to many of the stone structures we fine near mines, this one seemed to actually be a home.

 The stone cabin from the mine:

 And of course the ubiquitous trash pile next to the home.  Guys just threw their cans out the window when they had eaten out of them.  They needed their mothers there to clean up for them, I guess.

 

Views from the road trail were spectacular.

 

The trail using our GPS.  The hike was 9.3 miles with an elevation gain of 1200 feet.  We encountered no other hikers the day we went.