Return to the Golden Bell Mine - Joshua Tree National Park — Abandoned Places, Gold Rush & Route 66 Travel Photography

It had been eight years since my first visit to the Golden Bell Mine, so I figured a second trip might be in order as I also wanted to make a quick video about the sights along the way. I’ll add a link for that at the end of this post, hope you check it out. By the bye, here’s a link to a post about that first trip, click this THINGY.

Not much had changed since my first trip, except for the total demise of the last standing structure from the mining days (which was sad to see, I observed a brief moment of silence for the fallen bin).

It was a great morning for a hike in the lower portion of the park, early April and the sun was shining, the wind was blowing and thankfully, the snakes were doing whatever snakes do when they’re not out chasing me. I pretty much retraced my path from my first visit, unfortunately, it was a tad early for any wildflowers. But in any case, the conditions were perfect, there was no one around and it felt like I had the place to myself. So what follows are some of the sights from a great morning’s hike.

A benchmark caught my eye as I started hiking. It’s fun to spot these things out in the middle of nowhere. Just goes to show you that someone else has usually been where you sometimes think no one has gone before. Close by were the first two pieces of desert gold to be seen along this trek.

The first diggings didn’t take too long to get to, basically an open shaft that went down quite a ways. Thankfully, it has a sturdy protective fence around it so nothing could happen here…..

There were quite a few interesting pieces of ore/rock scattered about the shaft opening, and there was a small waste rock pile. It’s hard to tell in this picture, but this rock was sparkly! Off and across the way, there were two distinct waste rock piles, so that’s were I was heading next.

On my first trip out this way, I looked up at these two waste rock piles from the trail I was following below and said, “I didn't go up the slope to check these out, as they are both most likely either caved in, grated or meshed close.” This trip, however, I decided to check them out just to make sure I wasn’t missing anything interesting. As it turns out, both were shallow shafts that either didn’t go down very far or were caved in. My guess is, they were failed exploratory digs. Ah well, onwards.

Upon reaching the saddle at the top of the ravine, the sight of the site of the Golden Bell Mine appeared. There’s a large tailings pile at the left, the two vertical shafts of the mine are up to the right and way off in the distance atop the peak at the right are some of the workings of the Silver Bell Mine.

This photo shows the upper shaft and a short adit heading into the hillside. The shaft is grated, but the “dropping a rock” test proved that it’s pretty deep.

Outside looking in and inside looking out.

And here’s a look down at the tailings pile and out into the valley beyond. There’s lots of mines out there.

In the foreground, is the gated opening of the lower shaft, and beyond it another adit leading into the depths of the desert.

On my trip back in 2016, this ore bin/shoot was still standing, somewhat anyways. But still obvious as to what it was.

Sadly, in 2025 it looks like this:

A reader of my post from back in 2016 sent me a photo of the same spot, taken on a family trip back in 1973.

Not a bathtub. Pretty sure it was used to process ore somehow.

I think the light colored smushy stuff is waste from whatever processing may have gone on in that tub. But I could be totally wrong. If you follow the “pointing” line of the tub, off in the distance a bit you can see the ruins of what was probably a bunkhouse/living area for those working at the mine.

Several mattress remains give evidence to this being somewhere that housed the miners.

A little ways down the ravine, not too far from the cabin ruins, are several rock-lined spaces. Maybe tent sites?

And that was about all I could find on this trip to share with you all, ya’ll, you guys. So heading back up towards the shafts, here are a couple shots of the large tailing pile.

Heading back to the truck, I could just barely spot the outlines of the Tacoma. A great morning hike. Just need to NOT forget the long-sleeve shirt and chapstick in the future.

Back down the the flat lands, it’s fun to imagine all the traffic this abandoned road once felt. Thanks for coming along on this revisit, hope you enjoyed the trip.

Please check out the accompanying video of the trip! Would really appreciate a like, subscribe and comment on my YouTube channel, link below:

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