Gold Basin 
No,
this isn't the Gold Basin north of Kingman that's famous
for its meteorites and gold nuggets. But stick around
anyway, 'cause this small mining area near Midway Well is still
interesting! Again, we used the Glamis area as our base
camp. April is a great month to do this trip, as the
whole desert seems to be in bloom. We drove north on
Highway 78 to pick up BLM route M183 just south of Buzzards
Peak. Here we turned east into Vinagre Wash for a little
exploring before entering Gold Basin. Vinagre
Wash is quite sandy and the route is only passable in a four
wheel drive vehicle. In addition to numerous varieties
of cacti in bloom, we made a discovery! High on the west
side of the wash there is an area of what appears to be petrified
sea bed material along with petrified palm. Apparently
much of this area was once seabed and later marsh. There
is an identified outcrop of Paleozoic coral to the east of
our hilltop find. It's near Midway Well and is
described as containing examples of Chaetetes, or tabulate
corals. They are described as being grey and white, which
fits with the coloration of what we found. Of course
we could be completely wrong, but we had lots of fun prowling
around!
From
there we worked back to Buzzards Peak and launched an assault
on its summit. On the way up we found lots of interesting
plants and got some great shots from near the top. Then
it was back to Highway 78 for another two miles or so before
once again turning east, this time into the Gold Basin area. Here
we found some old shafts and tunnels and evidence of a primitive
arrastre for processing ore. There are several quartz
veins in the area and it looks as if gold was indeed the lure here. We
continued further east to the end of the trail and found other
prospect pits, some having rocks stained with copper minerals
and containing quartz crystals.
You
never know what you'll find in the desert, and as we returned
to Highway 78 to start back to Glamis we encountered two bicycle
riders that were about to finish their journey from Florida
to San Diego! We stopped to chat and gave them some of
our water and snacks. Their trek was a fund raiser for
the seriously ill brother of one of the riders. Our last
stop before returning to Glamis was to take BLM route M185,
which corkscrews its way to the very top of Black Mountain. From
this lofty perch amidst the radio antennas we had some spectacular
views out across the surrounding desert.After
a sound sleep in our tent that night, we began the trek home. As
we left the Glamis dunes we were treated to vistas of wildflowers
stretching into the distance. What a great spot! Check
it out for yourself by clicking on the photo link below.