The Reward Mine
This was the Sunday ride from the Cerro Gordo trip that Lori led for our Meetup group Valley Dirt RIders. She also posted it on the Southern California RZR / UTV Meetup. I rated this as an average adventure only because the the ride to the mine is pretty flat with not much to see. The real interesting part was the ride into the mine. That was very cool and well worth the time it takes to get there. The return ride through the Alabama Hills was also cool. We stayed at the Boulder Creek RV Resort just South of Lone Pine California which is very OHV friendly and a great staging spot for trips to the Reward Mine, Cerro Godo, and the Alabama Hills. Be sure to check out my trip reports for those adventures. I posted all the GPS files in the Maps & GPS Tracks section of this website.
This was the Sunday ride from the Cerro Gordo trip that Lori led for our Meetup group Valley Dirt RIders. She also posted it on the Southern California RZR / UTV Meetup. I rated this as an average adventure only because the the ride to the mine is pretty flat with not much to see. The real interesting part was the ride into the mine. That was very cool and well worth the time it takes to get there. The return ride through the Alabama Hills was also cool. We stayed at the Boulder Creek RV Resort just South of Lone Pine California which is very OHV friendly and a great staging spot for trips to the Reward Mine, Cerro Godo, and the Alabama Hills. Be sure to check out my trip reports for those adventures. I posted all the GPS files in the Maps & GPS Tracks section of this website.
We left the staging area a little after 9:00am and headed out across the Owens Dry Lake Mitigation Project towards the base of the Inyo Mountains. Unless you have a guide like Lori who was familiar with the route, I suggest you load my GPS route because navigating across the dry lake can be difficult. We took a couple of paved country roads which are part of the Lone Pine Combined Use Roads and allow both OHV and licensed vehicles to share the road. We then headed up into the foothills and Lori took us over to the rear exit of the mine. We then circled back down to the desert floor and then took the trail up into the mountains to the entrance of the mine. This was a rocky trail that was easy to navigate but required some skill to get over or around several large rocks. After about 15 minutes we arrived at the entrance to the mine.
Entering the mine is a little intimidating but even Paul's wide 4 seat RZR had no problem with width or height. I think we traveled 3/4 of a mile into the mine and stopped at Graffiti Wall. It is possible to travel further back with your vehicle but this spot provides an easy place to turn around. You can explore the many levels of the mine by foot and walk all the way through to the rear exit but we did not feel that adventurous so we stayed pretty close to the vehicles and did a little exploring with our flashlights. We spent about 40 minutes in the mine then made our way out and back onto the trail.
The return trip took us across Highway 395 and past the Manzanar War Relocation Center. We then headed West toward the base of the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains then South towards the Alabama Hills. This route was more interesting then the ride up to the Reward Mine. We crossed a creek and soon we were on Movie Rd. We did some more exploring here which you can see in my video on the Alabama Hills adventure page. I linked my video of this adventure below. Be sure to check out my YouTube Channel Barrys ATV Adventures for more videos of my riding adventures in California and Utah.
The return trip took us across Highway 395 and past the Manzanar War Relocation Center. We then headed West toward the base of the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains then South towards the Alabama Hills. This route was more interesting then the ride up to the Reward Mine. We crossed a creek and soon we were on Movie Rd. We did some more exploring here which you can see in my video on the Alabama Hills adventure page. I linked my video of this adventure below. Be sure to check out my YouTube Channel Barrys ATV Adventures for more videos of my riding adventures in California and Utah.
