Natural Bridge & Spring

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This page last updated on 01/16/2020

(Fig. 01) Picture by Robert Croke

(Fig. 02)

Directions: From Las Vegas, drive south on Highway 95/93 towards Boulder City. Past Railroad Pass turn right onto Highway 95 towards Searchlight and drive south for about 10 miles to Nelson Road (Highway 165). Turn left onto Nelson Road and drive east for about 9.5 miles to the trailhead turnoff. At the trailhead turnoff, either park off the pavement or drive up the fairly rough road for 0.17 miles to the end of the road. There is a circle cleared, park here; this is the trailhead. Sorry, I had problems with my camera. I took pictures of the area, but they didn't get captured.

Description of the Natural Bridge and Hike: The natural bridge (Fig. 01) and spring trail makes for a great winter hike. Natural bridges are rarer than arches. What’s the difference between a natural bridge and a natural arch? Arches are formed by various geological processes, weathering processes but not flowing water. Over time, persistent winds and freeze-thaw action have slowly eroded openings through vertical sandstone blocks. All natural bridges are all formed by flowing water and either spanned a waterway or did so in their past, and hence are a less common feature than an arch.
The hike is a good, but due to the couple of up and down of ridges and the fact that the return is uphill all the way make it a moderately strenuous hike. It is about 2 miles round-trip and requires some rock scrambling, especially at the end near the bridge. The hike is marked by "RED" on the map in Fig. 02. At an elevation of 3,510 feet, it loses about 200 feet in elevation on the way down the wash to the bridge.

01/14/2020 Hike Notes: After leaving the pavement, drive up the fairly rough road for 0.17 miles to where the road ends at a cleared circle. Park here, this is the trailhead. Hike up the first small ridge directly in front of you. From the top of here, head toward the ridgeline on a faint but obvious trail. The trail gently undulates for the first quarter mile. Eventually you drop into a well-defined wash, which will serve as the trail for the rest of the hike. After you drop into the wash, you will go left or downstream. Hiking the the majority of the wash is relatively easy. The further downhill you hike, the more you begin to encounter larger rocks and vegetation closer to the spring (Figs.08& 09). After about one-half mile, you will come to a giant boulder that is about 25 feet tall and 15 feet wide (Fig.10). It seems very out of place and seems to defy gravity and looks like, if you pushed on it, the boulder might fall. In (Fig. 11) Jim and Ron are trying to prevent if from falling.

(Fig. 08)

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Notes Continued: Just after the big rock you begin to see signs of water and some more thick vegetation such as healthy and large scrub oak.  The wash gets rockier and the vegetation becomes quite dense as you approach the bridge. Directly before the bridge, you either have to crawl through the heavy brush and drop down about six feet off of some large boulders or slide down between two large boulders that required a drop of again six to seven feet. Neither Ron nor I attempted either of these. Getting down we could have done, but were quite nervous about how to get back up. In the center of (Fig. 12) is the only glimpse I got of the bridge (Its left side). Both Bob and Jim made it and got to the bridge and took some great pictures (Figs. 13 thru 17). Pictures 13 thru 17 were taken by Jim Herring. The bridge that spans over the wash/canyon is about 30 feet across and the opening about 15 to 20 feet high. The last three pictures show ice that we encountered on some boulders and shots of the trail. After we backtracked out of the spring, we drove down highway 165 past the Techatticup Mine site to the Eldorado Wilderness Road to have lunch. This road showed us nothing. We drove about seven miles until we began to see the water of the Lake Mead river (Fig. 21). Because the road ended in just another three miles and we decided to turnaround and return to highway 165. Refer to the yellow shaded road on the map in (Fig. 02)

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(Fig. 21) Pictures taken along the Eldorado Wilderness Road

Eldorado Valley TiltShift

TiltShift

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Techatticup Mining Camp - Trip Notes for 05/27/2017

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This page last updated on 06/17/2017

(Fig. 01)

05/27/2017 Trip Notes: I came here with my cousin John for the expressed purpose of taking pictures. Over the years this was our second visit to this unique site. As they are always adding additional buildings, old cars, and hundreds of early 1900's era antiques, the photographing opportunities never disappoint. Trying not to duplicate pictured captured on previous visits, here is a sampling of pictures we captured today. Taken on a previous visit, the picture in (Fig. 01) is of the original general store and visitor center. The pictures in (Figs. 02 & 03) are of a 'restored" gas station and garage. As we toured the property, it seemed that he has added sever more old cars and vehicles (Fig. 04). As you can see from (Figs. 05 & 06), the entire property is surrounded by a Bajada filled with thousands of [Jumping Cholla (Cylindropuntia fulgida)] cacti. Look at the photo in (Fig. 05) and see what I did to it by turning it into a "tiltshift" picture and adding a "blue" sky to the washed out sky. [Eldorado Valley Tiltshift] The owner even erected a reconstructed "arch-way" that stands as an entry into the desert. (Fig. 07). Over behind the general store there is a "reconstructed" mine entrance that leads to nowhere (Fig. 08). Here is an old, 1878 Straube vintage piano built in Chicago, that has seen a better day (Figs. 10 &11). (con't below)
                         

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Visit Notes Continued: On the way home, we spotted a Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) sitting on a cliff on the side of the road. We got out and walked back to get some pictures. Finally he flew off the cliff and began to circle the area. It took us a while but eventually we finally figured out what he was after. There was a dead rattle snake in the middle of the road that had been run over by a car. See the collage below (Fig. 12).
                                       

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Eldorado and Cottonwood Valley - 01/14/16 Trip Notes

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This page last updated on 06/15/2017

(Fig. 01)

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Directions: Searchlight is situated in the Colorado River Basin in Clark County, Nevada on U.S. 95 and State Route 164, midway between Las Vegas and Laughlin (Fig. 02). From the Stratosphere Casino head northeast on Las Vegas Blvd about 3 miles and bear right to merge onto US-515/93/95 south towards Boulder City. Follow US-93/95 for 17 miles and then merge onto US-95 South (Veterans Memorial Hwy) for 36 miles to Searchlight. At the light, turn left onto NV-164 (Cottonwood Valley Rd.) and travel about a mile and then turn left onto 157 (Gas Pipeline Rd.). Travel on this dirt road about a half mile until you come to a large clearing (parking area). Park here and use this as a staging area.

Area Description: Even though I have visited here on several occasions, I always have a difficult time trying find the right label to describe this area. Some maps call the vast desert area due east of Searchlight, NV, nestled between the Eldorado Mountains to the north and the Newberry Mountains to the south, Cottonwood Valley. West to east, the area between Searchlight and Lake Mohave (Colorado River), is divided down the middle and managed by two agencies, the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) and the NRA (National Recreation Area). The northern portion of this large valley is bordered by the Ireteba Wilderness Areas and the Nellis Wash Wilderness and Spirit Mountain Wilderness areas to the south (Fig. 02).

01/14/2016 Trip Notes: Harvey Smith, my friend Jim Herring and I decided to do some four-wheeling around the Cottonwood Valley area, east of Searchlight. After reaching the staging area on Gas Pipeline Road, we unloaded the quad and Ranger (Fig. 01) and began our journey by heading out in a northeast direction toward the Oakland Mine site and then on to Lake Mohave. The "yellow" on the map on (Fig. 02) highlights the routes we traveled on this visit.  Even though Harvey and I had both been here before, we began by giving Jim an extensive tour of the mine sites around the Oakland Mine. With numerous adits and shafts, mine heads, water tanks, a 4 stamp battery mechanical crusher, and other numerous debris, this site offers much to explore (Fig. 03). The stamp battery crusher seen in the collage was probably quite noisy and somewhat awkward to operate. Its traditional use was for the processing of mineral extraction, whether it be copper, silver, gold, or any other metal contained within host rock. The stamps were heavy metal weights that were lifted and dropped on the ore by a crankshaft. The crushed ore would then be further refined, usually by a mercury or cyanide process. From what I have learned, there appears to be more than one mine claim located here. The remains of the mine located on the hill south of the Oakland Mine appears to be a separate claim (Fig. 04). When searching around this site, I found a mine claim (Fig. 05) located in a pipe that was buried in the ground indicating that this site was the Berkley Mine Claim. Located on the top of this hill is what appears to be a steam driven piston and belt system (Fig. 06) that was made by the Ingersoll Rand company of New York. It appears that it was used to drive the pulley at the hoist equipment. Looking into the barred off shaft, it is apparent that this shaft is quite deep. (refer to the bottom right picture in Fig. 03). (trip notes con't below)

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Trip Notes Continued: After touring these sites, we began our journey through the hills and out across the valley by going though an area that was populated with hundreds of Pencil Cactus and Joshua Trees (Figs. 07 & 08).  We then followed a wash that paralleled Cottonwood Cove Road, east towards Lake Mohave (Fig. 09).  Refer to (Fig. 02). Driving down this wash along the road we encountered a car graveyard (Fig. 10). After reaching Rockefeller Road, we headed northeast toward the Irebeta Peaks, across a section of the valley that is covered with thousands of Jumping Cholla Cactus (Fig. 11). We then turned right onto Copper Mountain Cove Road and followed it down to Copper Mountain Cove (refer to Fig. 02) along the edge of Lake Mohave (Fig. 12). This peaceful spot was full of cat-n-tails, thick tamarisk salt cedar, an was a great spot to grab bite. While here we even spotted a fisherman that was boating out on the lake (Fig. 13). From here he drove back up Copper Mountain Road to Rockefeller Road and to the intersection of Solicitor Mine Road. This road travels northwest up the side of a mountain and a power-line at the top. The view in (Fig. 14) was looking back toward Lake Mohave. When we reached the power-line we weren't sure which way we needed to go. We decided to turn left and head down, following the power-line. Unfortunately, we should have followed the route (noted in red on the map in (Fig. 02), across the power-line road. Even though the route we chose took us somewhat out of our way, it provided some really great scenery and views (Fig. 15). All-in-all, it was another great day exploring abandoned gold mines and roaming around Cottonwood Valley.

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Nelson NV Mines

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(Fig. 01)

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Directions: Take I-93 from Las Vegas towards Boulder City. Take the exit for I-95 south and continue for approximately 10 miles and turn left (east) onto NV SR-165. Follow this road until you get to the town of Nelson on the right.

(Fig. 03) (Fig. 04)

09/19/2015 Trip Notes: I decided to rent a jeep (Fig. 06) and drive to Eldorado Canyon in search of old gold and silver mines. After driving several miles down Eldorado Canyon Road (165) the town of Nelson came into view at the bottom of a steep hill (Fig. 01). Turning off the main road we drove through town, past some of its residents (Fig. 03) and several of the town’s old “mining shacks” (Fig. 04). Up the hill behind town (Fig. 02) there are literally dozens of old mines dotting the surrounding hills. Driving around this area (Fig. 05) definitely requires a high clearance 4WD vehicle (Fig. 06). As you can see from the map in (Fig. 02), we visited the Black Hawk and Carnation Mines. As you can see from the pictures in the collage below (Fig. 09), we spent the good part of the morning exploring the varying mines and prospects scattered around this area. After touring the area around the Carnation Mine we tried to drive down Gracy Wash back to the main road (Fig. 02). Unfortunately one area was washed out, that we had to turn back about three quarters of the way down. We stopped here and had lunch before we continued on. From here we did some more exploring a road on the other side of Nelson (Figs. 07 & 08) before heading down to Nelson’s Landing and Place Cove and the Techatticup Mining Camp at Eldorado Canyon See more below.

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Of all the dozens of mines I have visited over the past several years, I have never encountered a mine that was as secured as the one in Fig. 01 in the collage. The sign welded on the door (Fig. 05) read “NO TRESPASSING - UNDER PENALTY OF THE LAW” The picture in Fig. 04 shows a cement footing for a water tank that supported the operation of the ore separating process and structure located behind it. The the metal water tank was dismantled and shoved into the large mine opening in the foreground. You can tell from some of the other pictures that we were able to venture several hundred feet into some of these mine. The picture in Fig. 08 is a shot showing the remains of a vein of ore that they appeared to be following into the side of the mountain.

(Fig. 10)

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