Jan 21st - American Girl Mine Boondocking

My Chocolate Ripple Mountain (Really American Girl Mine)

Looking south toward our camper from the summit of the mountain

Looking north near the summit of the mountain

Watching dune buggies travel east from atop the  mine

A view south of summit

Sand storm picking up after I left the mountain

15 min after sand storm started

Safely inside camper looking east during storm

                                                
We left Desert Paradise RV Park (certainly not what I would name it) and headed to the desert as soon  as we stocked up on necessary items such as food, water. We traveled west,  just across the Arizona border into California.  We knew there was Bureau of Land Management Land for camping up one of the roads heading north off Interstate 8 and we found it this year.  Last year we had a bit of difficulty and I do believe we blogged about it.  We still chuckle when we think of that episode in boondocking history.  (We were "relocated" by the Reservation Police)
Touche!!

We are in the American Girl Mine area near the old Ogilby Mine off Sidewinder Road.  This BLM land goes on for miles and miles and there are pretty well established dirt roads leading off into several directions across the desert.  We passed several campers spaced  together in "family" units and  others isolated from each other.  We drove within about 2 miles from what I hungrily  named Chocolate Ripple Mountain and parked the camper and set up house keeping.  There wasn't a another camper for at least a mile in any direction.  There are several washes with loads of fun rocks to pick up, check out and some to keep.  There is also a huge amount of quartz here in this area which means there may be gold in the surrounding mountains.  I researched the area and discovered that the Chocolate Ripple Mountain that I named is really the American Girl Mine and was mined for gold even up to the 1980's.  Richard road his bike up to the base of the mountain yesterday and walked to the top and I decided that I would walk it today. 

When I reached the mine shaft area I discovered 6 other people and dune buggies and other  off road vehicles parked at the mine entrance.   I said hello to them and asked if they might know what mineral had been mined at this location.  They all looked at each other and then shrugged their shoulders and commented "Ah..... don't know".  This made me think that they definitely did know but didn't want to "share" the information.   I certainly wasn't on a gold expedition, just curious and as always, looking for interesting rocks.    They also had wanted to summit the mountain on the narrow mine road that winds up to the top with one of their vehicles.  One of them did make it almost to the summit  but turned around (how I can't imagine) and made it safely back down.  After they took off into the desert I continued my trek to the summit.  Just as I reached the top a wind started picking up and as I looked off into the distance I realized that a dust or sand storm was in the making.  I quickly made my way down with high winds pushing me around on my way down the mountain.  I quickly walked  the 2 mile  distance back to the camper. As I reached the camper I saw that one of the bikes was missing and that Richard had gone for a  ride and was out in the sand storm also.  I gave him a call on the phone and he said "hold down the awning until I get there"! I discovered that the wind was about to rip off our awning and I struggled  to hold it down until he returned and  we managed to salvage the awning and our arms.  Sand storms come up quickly and pick up momentum in the desert and it feels like you are being sandpapered to a fine patina.  Your skin actually feels burned from the wind and sand.  Regardless, even a wild sand storm is beautiful  out here.  We will mark this as one of our favorite boondocking places. 

No sunset pictures tonight.  It was hidden from view by the sand and dust in the air.  We are still gritting it in our teeth too!!