Contact Mine, Joshua Tree National Park

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
1/2/2018	3.9 miles				14.3

Map: National Geographic Joshua Tree Map
Guide book: Hiking Joshua Tree National Park, a Falcon Guide
Directions: Hike #26 in guide book, Contact Mine

Contact Mine is near the north entrance of the park. We noticed that parking is always good here when we've driven by. We chose this as our first hike of the day. The trail starts out on a sandy wash. It is very well marked with red signs always within view. Eventually the trail leaves the wash, and then is unmarked. The trail ascends on to dirt/rocky trail. We arrived at the mine which has closed off entrances. We saw some scattered engine parts close by. There were bees and flies near the mine, so we didn't stay long. They followed us for a while. We researched bees later on, and read that they rarely sting, but are attracted to moisture, so they may annoy hikers (landing on them due to their sweat). We saw no other hikers on this trip. The hike was marked as strenuous, but we just took our time. It was cloudy out, which really helps.

Next up.....sand dunes.

We didn't see many flowers in bloom. From what we've read, they typically bloom in March. That would be amazing to see the desert in bloom.

Lots of barrel cacti on this hike.

I didn't take many photos near the mine, as there were a bunch of bees in the area that were attracted to us whenever we stood still