Hello! I hope that everyone has had a great week! We’re back with episode 2 of 3 in our mini series! Here is the episode, enjoy!

As always there are so many photos associated with these episodes. So many that we never can fit them all in the video so let’s take a peak behind the scenes!

As soon as we solidified our plans to borrow these rigs we knew this is was our opportunity to go in search of something that Chase, Aimee, Owen and myself had been talking about finding for a while. A few years back Chase and Aimee were hiking in Death Valley when someone on the trail mentioned a special mine in passing. They said that it was greatly untouched and was somewhere in the park.

That was about all we had to go off of, but it was enough to stick with Chase and Aimee ever since. Being that Chase and Aimee are usually in a 2WD van we knew that this was our chance to dive deep into the backcountry of Death Valley to go looking for this mythical spot. For weeks leading up to the trip we poured over maps (both paper and digital) as well as satellite footage trying to zero in on where it might be.

By the time we left the sand dunes we had a pretty good idea of “roughly” where it might be. So we pressed deeper into the park and before long we turned off of pavement and onto a 4x4 road to head into the mountains. We had no idea what the road ahead looked like but I don’t think we ever imagined a view like this.

This was one of the better views from camp we’ve had, maybe ever. You know what that means?!

Fancy Feast time!

As soon as we parked and popped the top I got to work on setting up a fancy feast to we could enjoy the view in style.

As we enjoyed our meal we talked about our plans for the following day. We knew we’d gotten ourselves close to the mine, but we’d need to go off on foot exploring the different drainages that branched off of this summit. Just moments after this cheers photo was taken, the weather took a sudden turn.

A stiff wind pushed up the mountain. We were unaware it was coming due to our lack of service for the days leading up to this evening. We all agreed that we’d worked really hard to get here, we should hold tight for the night and still try to stick to our plan.

That night ended up being the worst wind storm we’ve ever experienced. The campers performed beautifully but still it was an incredibly loud storm. Little sleep was had that night. At day break we moved off the summit and tucked ourselves into a small valley that gave us a little break before we went out on foot to brave the winds all day.

We requested a weather report using our Garmin inReach and learned were 60mph sustained with gusts well over that! We’ve never experienced anything like it! On a few occasions Aimee and I were knocked to the ground trying to walk around.

We ventured out that day not knowing if we’d find what we were looking for. The hills were filled with mine openings. Though none of them were the one we were looking for. None the less, we enjoyed hours of exploring and poking around different mines.

I do feel the need to say that this is a pretty dangerous activity. These mine shafts were unstable then, and even more so now that they’ve been left unmonitored for decades. We are pretty picky about the ones that we choose to enter but we know full well that we’re doing something risky. So maybe don’t try this at home… you know, if you casually have an old mine opening laying around ;)

After hours of searching we finally found the one we were looking for. A few thousand feet (2000 ft I think it ended up being) below us we found the mine. There were no real roads or trails that went down to it, but we’d come this far and we felt comfortable with this type of terrain, so we decided to head down hill to check it out.

What we found was even better than we imagined it would be. It was like time stopped for this little mine, leaving everything just as it was left. We spent a few hours taking our time looking over the place and taking nothing. These old mines are a fascinating glimpse into life in this unforgiving place for miners all those years ago. How anyone managed to survive on that hill side in the heat, cold and wind is beyond me.

We felt victorious as we made our way back to up camp at the end of the day. We had an idea, we figured out where it was, and then we actually made it there. These are the kinds of adventures we live for.

As we crested the hill, one of the most miraculous sunsets we’ve ever laid eyes on lit up the valley below. That fog you see is actually a sand storm. After leaving the next morning to go into that valley we found a public bathroom filled with sand on ever surface.

After the wind cleared we went out for a hike in the valley to see a different part of the park that none of us had been to. What we found was an incredible slot canyon formed by the rare flash flood waters that come through here.

The scale of these rocks was incredible. We really enjoyed running through these slot canyons and having an afternoon without driving wind!

Back at the truck we were met by a little bat friend! It was so friendly that it stopped to lick salt off of me before continuing on its way.

That makes the end of episode 2! Until next week my friends!

MAK