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INYO MOUNTAIN TRAILS
By Steve
Smith
Bureau of Land Management
Ridgecrest Resource Area Steve
Smith of the Ridgecrest BLM has been putting together information about various
remote hikes in his area in an effort to promote their use. He has a package
that he will send to you if you give him a ring at. 619-375-2430 (home) I have
picked a couple of these hikes to print in the SAGE, both of which I think
would make excellent DPS hikes.
BEVERIDGE CANYON
FROM SALINE
VALLEY Route: Snowflake Trail - 5 Mile Historic Mining Trail From
Snowflake Talc Mine In Saline Valley (3,300') to Beveridge Canyon Millsite
(5,600')
Trip Requirements: This is a difficult trail due to its
steepness. It has been used enough that it is fairly easy to follow.
The Snowflake Trail is one of the best known and most used trails in the
Inyo Mountains. It starts from the roadend at the Snowflake Talc Mine at
3,300', climbs up the Beveridge Ridge to 6,700' and then drops down to the
Beveridge millsite at 5,600'. Two-thirds of this trail is shown on the New York
Butte 7-1/2" topographic map. The roadend is reached by driving a steep 4-wd
road for 2.5 miles. In 1994, the 4-wd road up to the Snowflake Trail roadhead
at 3,300' is in as good a condition as it has ever been. A mining company has
reactivated the talc mine and has regraded the road. A short distance before
reaching the mine, the road branches and a 150 road heads northeast to the
trailhead. At this point, there is a prominent trail which leads directly
north. Apparently this trail leads up to the ridge and then ends.
The
initial trail heads directly west, it is steep and switchbacks directly up the
Beveridge Ridge to a broad lateral shoulder at 5,000'. This segment is well
ducked and marked regularly with small red circular paint marks. On the
prominent ridgeline shoulder are some old mining prospects. The trail continues
to climb steeply to 6,700' with great views of Keynot Canyon to the north and
Beveridge Canyon to the south. At about 6,700', the trail traverses western
around the south side of Beveridge Ridge. After about 2 miles, it then
switchbacks directly down to the Beveridge millsite at |
5,600'. At this point
is the lower terminus of a .25-mile long tramline, 5 stamp millsite. and
numerous historic mining artifacts. Down canyon about .5-mile is a sheet metal
cabin, aerial tram and more historic mining artifacts. The trip down canyon is
extremely difficult due to dense and thorny brush. From the millsite, the
Lonesome Miner trail leads north to the Beveridge cabin and west to Frenchy's
cabin.
On one trip, we left the trail at 6,700' and went directly up
the ridgeline to reach the Beveridge cabin at 8,200'. The ridge goes very
nicely with great views and passes 8 rock cabins - several with intact heavy
wood roof beams - in a .25 mile stretch around 8,100' about .75 mile before
reaching the cabin. A question is what the miners used to weatherproof the
cabin roofs. There is no evidence of any fabric material which might have been
used to cover the wooden roof beams or limbs still remaining on some cabins. We
also discovered a trail switchbacking up to the area of old prospects along the
ridge from Beveridge which we will map out on a future project.
FROM SALT TRAM
VIA DAISY CANYON
TO
SALINE VALLEY Route: DAISY CANYON TRAIL - Salt Tram Trail down
east side of Inyo Mountains
Trips: September 24-28, 1992 - Steve Smith,
Debra Smith, Doug Kari, Tom Budlong, Wendell Moyer, Morgan Irby and Gerry
Goss
May 5-7, 1986 - Bruce Albert and Steve Smith
Trip
Requirements: Carry water since their is only one small unreliable spring at
5,700'. Trail is difficult to find/follow in several areas, particularly where
it descends in the canyon for .5 mile below the drive station at 5,700'.
Daisy Canyon was descended by starting from the Inyo Crest where the
historic salt tram crosses the crest at 8,700'. On the first day, we were able
to follow the tram's access trail down along the tramline until 6,600'. At this
point, there was no obvious trail and we dropped down into the canyon bottom,
picked up the trail and followed it to a large drive station at 5,700' where we
camped for the night. There is a spring 200 yards above the drive station where
we located the only water we saw in the entire canyon. |