Lucky Boy Loop (Part 2)

I'm continuing my hike that loosely follows the Lucky Boy Loop trail (I say loosely because I've added a number of detours and side excursions). You can read Part 1 here. As I round a sandy wash, I notice what appears to be poles sticking out of the ground. That's strange. Let's go take a look!

 

A small dam! I'm surprised because I don't recall anyone ever posting pics of it. Back in the day, I'll bet this captured a lot of water for whatever livestock they were running back here. An interesting find!

 

A little past the dam, there's a nice arch. An elephant, perhaps??

California Juniper with its blueish berries.

 

As I follow the wash, I notice an area of obvious digging (red arrow). Mine tailings would be my guess, but let's go check it out.

 

Wow, this is interesting! Not a mine at all, but a well. The park Service has caged it off so no one can fall in, but it makes it tough to get a good photo.

It looks like the well used to be fenced off. The cage probably came later because a fence would be too easy to climb. The park service never bothered to remove the old fence.

 

This is the best I could do sticking my camera lens through the lower part of the cage. You can see the outline of the well, but not down into it. The rectangular shadows in the foreground are made by the sun shining through the top of the cage. Can you even imagine how hard it must have been to dig this well using pick and shovel?

 

Ah, that's better! For this photo, I climbed up on top of the cage and shot straight down using my cell phone. The cage seemed plenty strong and secure, but I did notice the openings in the cage were just large enough to swallow my iPhone mini. Hang on tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!

 

This is the only thing I could find out about this well. Just a brief mention in the JTNP archives. It's called the Morgan Kimball Well, and it's 85' deep. It's proximity to the Desert Queen Mine means it very likely supplied water to the mining operations in the area. An interesting piece of history!

 

It's time to start heading south back to the car. Not far... may be a mile or two. The actual Lucky Boy Loop trail continues west over to the Desert Queen Mine Road, and then follows the road south. But walking along a dirt road isn't much of a challenge, and your not likely to see much of interest, so I'll take an open desert route that goes by some interesting rock formations. 

 

I notice that the skies are really getting pretty, with big fluffy clouds sailing in overhead. I'm in no hurry, and I end up taking a lot of photos along the way.
 

A nice shady spot to stop and rest.

It turned out to be a beautiful day for a desert hike. The modified Lucky Boy Loop trail provided some great scenery and interesting discoveries!

Thanks for joining me on this adventure.

Stay safe and stay healthy!

  

Linking with Skywatch Friday.