The new adventures of Patti and Marty: Checking out Trails NW of Blythe, CA

Getting Started.

We met at the Carl’s Jr. There were 5 jeeps this time.

Jo Ann’s nephew, Johnny and his wife Diane, are here from
N Carolina.

Once we were all there, we headed west on I-10 to Blythe, CA.

We took the Lovekin Blvd. exit and continued north on Lovekin.

Once out of town Lovekin Blvd. changes its name to Midland Rd.

Midland Rd makes a sweeping turn to the left and heads west.

The road goes down the middle of a broad flat plane with beautiful mountains on each side.

Eventually we got closer to the mountains.

Need a ball cap?

We stopped to take a picture of this ‘hat tree’.

No Trespassing.

A little ways past the hat tree we came to a road going south toward some mountains but after seeing this sign we decided to go a little further down the highway to find another trail.

We continued down the road.

Where Are We.

We stopped to check out this map kiosk.

It looks like all the mountains are designated as wilderness with only a few vehicle trails going between the wilderness’.

Midland is dead?

Patti took a picture of this cross sitting on a small hill.

I enlarged the picture and it has ‘Midland Calif’ printed on the cross. I guess that means that Midland is dead.

A Trail With Big Trucks.

As we drove along we saw this sign.

We turned left onto a wide flat dirt road going southwest. We stopped here to air down the tires.

While we were airing down a couple of large trucks came down the road.

We wondered what these trucks were hauling.

A Large Hopper.

We headed down this road and saw this large hopper and what looks like a loading ramp of some kind. We stopped to check it out.

Denis and I drove up the ramp to see what was there. This is what we saw.

From here we continued along the road. It was pretty dusty.

Playing on a Hill Side.

As we were going down the road we saw this trail going along the side of a hill.
Frank decided that he wanted to drive it.

When he got to this spot Dave and I decided to follow him. It was no big deal and looks a lot worse than it is.

A Gypsum Mine.

We continued along the road toward these white piles in the distance and met some more of the big trucks.

Eventually we came to a gate entering the mine.

While we were there a water truck came out of the gate; we asked the driver and he told us they were hauling Gypsum.

A Smaller Trail.

We left the Gypsum mine and got onto a smaller trail heading toward the mountains.

We drove up to a mining area and went through this neat man made canyon.

Lunch.

We stopped on a flat after going through the canyon…

and had lunch.

An Interesting Shaft

After lunch we followed the trail farther up the hill to see what we could find.
We came to this interesting mine.

I climbed up the rubble in front of the tunnel and noticed that there were shafts under the rubble.

I continued to climb but being more aware of the dangers, I watched my step.

This is as close as I got to the shafts. none of them went very far but I stayed out and just took pictures.

I looked up and saw these two big rocks hanging above my head only held back by a couple of pieces of wood and a pipe. I decided that it was time to head back.