Lost Horse Mine Loop

For the next two weeks we’re boondocking by Joshua Tree National Park. We found a big spot down a gravel road on the south side and are happy to look out on mountains. On our first day here Derek and I hiked the Lost Horse Mine Loop deep in Joshua Tree National Park. Our loop was 7.3 miles with roughly 1,000 of climbing.

This is our first time here and the park is amazing! The park itself is huge at 1,235 square miles and the landscape is quite diverse. Joshua Trees are actually part of the agave family and can be seen all over in the park. Legend has it that Mormon pioneers named the tree after the biblical figure, Joshua, seeing the limbs of the tree as outstretched in supplication, guiding the travelers westward. What I found interesting is that they don’t have rings like trees to be able to tell their age. For these trees, age is mostly calculated based on height.

We hiked the Lost Horse Mine loop clockwise and the first part of the hike climbs gently to Lost Horse Mine. Legend has is that cowboy Johnny Lang discovered the gold mine whole looking for a lost horse. That first gold claim was filled in 1893 and the mine operated full time until 1908 and produced over 9,000 ounces of gold. After taking pictures and looking around, we continued on the loop.

Wrapping around, we hiked deeper into the mountains and wow, what gorgeous views. The trail gets a bit rugged in places but nothing we couldn’t handle. The last section was a bit of a slog through the wash and I was wishing they had instead routed the trail up into the rocky mountains we followed below. It was pretty quiet on the trail the day we hiked it. We saw a couple people, but that’s it.