Owens Valley, the Alabamas, Reward Mine, Cerro Gordo, Salt Tram, Inyo Mountains

[ElCaminoManT]

this report is WAY overdue i know, but better to get it up late than never they say...

we make the trip up to lone pine every year for thanksgiving with my wifes family and friends, it really is a trip i look forward to all year long. 2011 we were not able to make it up there due to recovering from my atv accident several months before. 2012 we decided to make a full week out of it for the first time. also, having 4wd vehicles along for the first time and not just ohvs really opened up the possibilities. we stay in our 5th wheel at the boulder creek rv resort and do day trips to surrounding destinations. some worked out, some did not but thats the way it goes, right? anyway, lets see if i can make this report make any sense at all...

arrived early evening on sunday and set up camp



jumped right in monday morning and decided to go for it straight away



my brother, his girlfriend and his lab checking out some cool rock formations.



we didnt get very far up swansea grade. just a little over a mile in while turning around from a wrong turn i heard the unfortunate sound of hissing air from a leaking tire. appeared the rocks were not going to be kind to my old and dry tires. swapped in the spare and decided not to chance it further without a spare and headed to town to locate a replacement



after checking in town and calling all the way to bishop, i was unable to locate any used 31" all terrains. the budget did not permit buying a new tire so we had to stay local until i could figure out another tire solution. in the meantime, we decided to go cruise the alabama hills

my brothers jimmy on the left and my at the time newly aquired ol flakey jeep zj on the right


we opted for the paths that cars could not take whenever possible


hard to beat this view


lunchtime!


more to come!

 

[ElCaminoManT]

i had heard of reward mine and did a little reading on it so had to go check it out



how cool is this?





people talked about driving in so we had to do it for ourselves. very interesting experience i must say. glad we had good flashlights too!







parked the jeep bout a 1/4 mile in where the mine opened up so i could easily turn around and went for a walk to check things out.







what an amazing experience it was! we did not spend too long in there due to ventilation and the SUPER fine dust in the air but looked around a little bit







time to head back out



the view back outside was very nice. i love owens valley, it is so beautiful there. the sierras to the west with their huge pines and the desert inyos to the east, just beautiful!



to be continued...

 

[Xterabl]

Yeah, Owens Valley rocks. Thanks for sharing; looking forward to the updates.

 

[Whitey]

Awesome adventure!

 

[mkitchen]

Great looking Scenery

Hope you got your tire issue worked out. Your trip looks great.
Mikey

 

[stolenheron]

driving into that mine looked awesome

 

[Nevada_Son]

Looks like you had a great trip, and I totally dig the pictures of the mine. That timber-slide/manway is pretty sweet. I see modern rock bolts and wire at the portal, which means someone has worked it in recent history. I'm guessing it was set up for some kind of narrow-vein technique..but I digress.

I wanna say one thing, without discouraging your adventuring, or trying to be a jerk, 'cause really, that's the last thing I wanna do. I just want you to be safe.

Please do not use gasoline engines in an underground setting. Gas engines generate Carbon Monoxide gas, which is deadly.

I work in underground mining, trust me on this.

Alright, sorry for sounding like a scolding parent. Your pics are awesome and have inspired me to go check out that part of the world again.

Cheers!

 

[ETAV8R]

Thanks for sharing. It is one of my favorite areas too. I've been to Reward but we walked it and it was still dusty. Quite a few people drive it. It is an interesting place.

 

[ElCaminoManT]

yea, the ventilation situation was on my mind the whole time. i was careful to not drive in very far and ran the engine as little as possible and also why we did not spend a whole lot of time in there. it did not help that there was a rather 'energetic' family that came running in while we were looking around and stirred up a LOT of fine dust. it was time to head out when they arrived.

 

[ElCaminoManT]

so the tire situation....

as i said before, a new tire was not in the budget which is why we tried desperately to find a used one. after coming up empty handed, i decided to at least stop by the service shop on the south end of lone pine by the airport to at minimum have my spare tire swapped to the wheel that had the flat tire. i have to run aftermarket wheels to keep the tires from rubbing the lower control arms and with the 1 stock wheel as spare up front, i had to be careful and constantly watch what i was doing with the wheels turned. i begged the guy there if he would at least put a patch on my flat tire but since the cut was in the sidewall, he could not do that. oh well, worth a shot. returned to camp with my spare tire on my regular wheel so at least i wasnt rubbing the control arm.

thought about and conversed with my brother and friends that were riding with us on what to do. we all wanted to get to the salt tram but i couldnt chance swansea grade without a spare tire. we decided we would go up in reverse thru cerro gordo and head north. tuesday we already had plans to go up to bishop so we headed out weds morning to the inyos once again....

now i just realized going thru my pictures that i did not take any while in cerro gordo. i suppose that i could blame that on that i took a crap load back in 2010 the first time we visited the town and did not feel the need to take more of the same. bad idea on my part as the memory card from that camera cannot be found now and i apologize for that.

the pictures start after making our way past cerro gordo, along the shelf road section and after boiler canyon. i must say, boiler canyon was something i did not expect. VERY rocky, the switch backs and climb out on the north end was something pretty serious giving both my jeep and my brothers jimmys 4wd a serious workout

stopped for lunch on the spine of the inyos after boiler canyon



some serious elevation up here, amazing!









a short time later saline valley came into view while driving



some light snow remained in shaded north facing areas



i will never forget this drive



crested a small rise and a turn in the road and there it was!!



we have arrived



looking opposite from the last picture down into saline valley



really is a neat experience to be looking down into 2 different valleys from atop a very large range of mountains. very steep slope eastward into saline. btw, it was COLD up there!



my buddy gregg in front of the tram station



checking out the tram station. my brother on the left and my friends amanda and gregg with their son, bodie are on the right



i saw this view many times in pictures i found online. finally able to take some myself! looking east into saline







looking west into owens



amazingly preserved structure



cables



the rebuilt tenders cabin



looking up at our trusty steeds that got us there

 

[ElCaminoManT]

time to head home with one last look down into saline valley. our original plans to go all the way to burgess mine will have to happen at a later date as we were running out of daylight. we will go there when we make it up swansea grade, hopefully this year



driving in the trees



this was probably the most nerve racking part of the trip. it did not bother me too much but my friend amanda wasnt too amused. my poor brother and his girlfriend behind me in the jimmy with the sway bar disco'd were sweating a bit on the way to the tram. on the way back, he connected the sway bar back up and said it was a much easier drive



we made it back to camp just after dark. was a great day, we all had a blast! time to warm up by the fire



more to come.....

 

[Borrego60]

Nice pictures I did that run last year a had a blast with about 7 vehicles from Swansea to Cerro gordo.