A pioneer cemetery, high desert wildflowers, two mines, two geocaches and a bunch of bench marks. Yep, never a dull moment on this trip!

We started the day with a look at the historic Daggett Pioneer Cemetery. There are lots of poignant stories written in the weathered wood and between the lines of the markers. Then it was off on Camp Rock Road to the Azucar Mine ruins. We also broke in our new GPS there by locating an old benchmark that was originally placed in 1917. Further east brought us another opportunity to hike into the desert guided by those satellites overhead which took us unerringly to another pair of old benchmarks in the middle of nowhere.

Our next stop was an odd one. We had found a geocache near the beach that had a "travel bug" in it. The idea is that you then place the "bug" in another cache to move it along. The owner of the "bug" can track its progress on the Geocaching.com website. So we had Bud the frog with us. He was about to become a desert frog 'cause we placed him in a cache high on a knoll overlooking Camp Rock Road. Hopefully some other geocacher will happen along and move him to a more temperate climate! Geocaching is an enjoyable way to hone your GPS skills.

After carefully passing small groups of range cattle and picking up a few more bench marks, we turned north on Troy Road. This is an old road, and is no longer maintained. Aside from a few more bench marks, the find here was a mine complex with an old stone cabin. Although the exterior of the cabin is in good shape, the interior is a shambles. We hiked around to look at the numerous rock foundations, the shaft on the hill, and of course the tunnel. Lots of copper mineral stained rock can be found in the area.

As the afternoon grew late, we drove through fields of glowing yellow wildflowers. We would head to a camping spot that would be our jumping off point tomorrow for another foray into the Rodman Mountains in search of Indian petroglyphs. As usual, we had no idea what was there, if anything.

To check out the varied sights of our trip from Dagget to Old Troy Road click on the link below.