The Spring Mountains ECHO

Meet The Mountain Tour-Las Vegas Silver Mines

Bobbye Fitzgibbons

The Meet the Mountain Tour of Sunday, February 9, 1997, was lead as usual by our master guide, historian, anthropologist and explorer, Bob Maichle. We met at 9:30 a.m. at the West Charleston Library. After parking their cars in the spacious lot, those guests and members not possessing a four-wheel drive vehicle joined with those that did.

The MTM caravan entered the Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area and made a stop to talk over plans for the new camping facility in the Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area. We then turned off onto a dirt-gravel road to the left (south) conversing several miles of desert, where we noted a number of good sized barrel cactus growing out of the rocks on a small hill. We drove part of the old Spanish Trail, the Fremont Trail and the Mormon Road. Here was a rest stop to talk about these historic trails. After the road forked, we took a left fork to State Route 159 and stopped by an obelisk marking the old Spanish Trail and we talked here about Gibraltar.

Moving onward we crossed the pipeline of the Kern River right-of-way. We crossed the Blue Diamond wash and turned right (west) on the Pahrump Hwy., State Route 160. We did see parts of the James Hardy Gypsum Mine at the southern base of the Blue Diamond Hill. We re-entered the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, and made a stop at Potosi Springs, where we drank the delicious water. Then down the wash to an old Indian agave pit where we stopped for lunch and listened to our leader's tales of the Indians, John C. Fremont's route to California in 1844, the old Spanish Trail, and Fremont Trail.

Meet The Mountain tours are held every six to eight weeks and are free to all members, their guest, visitors and potential members. Always bring suitable walking or hiking shoes, appropriate clothing, a lunch and water or something else to drink. A camera and binoculars are also good things to take along.