Silver Bell & Golden Bell Mines, Hexie Mountains, Joshua Tree

[CrazyHermit]

Two Depression era mines in the middle of nowhere, inside Joshua Tree's Colorado Desert.
Check out the video to see some wild animal surprises inside these mines

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[Gene]

The video was fantastic!

[JerryN]

nice video, thanks

[dima]

Have you gone into these tunnels before? How deep do they go? Anything interesting inside?

[CrazyHermit]

The first incline shaft (with the fox inside) I won't go into because it's caving in at the bottom. The "unidentified" mine with the small opening I'll go back to in the future, that one looks interesting. All of the adits at the third mine are shallow, less than 30 feet. Joshua Tree's policy is not to gate those ones. I'm not equipped to do vertical shafts but I know people have found unexploded dynamite and even bottles of cyanide powder in some of the really remote mines. Once in awhile they'll find a body some murderer tried to hide at the bottom. But you need a four wheel drive to reach those. The harder they are to get to the more likely they'll be ungated.

[tekewin]

Great! I like the opening logo. Kinda freaky running into a lion in a mine, and lucky you end up cornering it in there. I've wondered about the lion population in Joshua Tree and whether there is enough wildlife there to support them. At least that question is answered.

[CrazyHermit]

Joshua Tree rangers keep the lion population low key, and they're only in certain parts of the park, but they're out there. There are bighorn sheep and deer out here too, and a whole lotta rabbits, so they've got plenty to eat. First time I've ever seen one in the desert.

[Girl Hiker]

cool video