The parking area is located near this Wilderness Restoration sign at the mouth of Telephone Canyon where it joins the canyon containing Tucki Mine Road:
This was where I parked, just slightly off of Tucki Mine Road so other vehicles could get by if necessary:
Lower Telephone Canyon is fairly wide open with sloping hillsides dropping into the wash:
These raised rock formations on the left side stand out greatly while approaching them:
Notice how the backside of this formation is undercut and also how a wash flows behind it and drains into Telephone Canyon in the foreground:
The entire hillside on the left gets taken over by a long row of these raised formations:
First view of the Telephone Arch when approaching from down canyon:
The Telephone Arch looks like an antique telephone handset:
The blue sky helps the arch to stand out from this angle:
Looking straight up at the Telephone Arch from underneath it:
Looking back down through the arch and into the canyon:
Another angle of the Telephone Arch from slightly farther up canyon:
This was a picture of me at the Telephone Arch taken in 2009:
Panoramic of the Telephone Arch taken from Telephone Canyon:
View looking up canyon from below the Telephone Arch:
Upon reaching the area of Telephone Dry Spring, the two rock walls seen in the next two pictures are blocking the wash of a small drainage:
These small rock walls are also known as tailing dams, built for blocking off water which once flowed through this area:
First view of the ruins of the arrastre of Telephone Canyon:
This small water trough is still visible leading away from the arrastre:
Part of the arrastre wall has collapsed on this side. Some of the giant boulders in the bottom may have been used for crushing ore as part of the machinery operation:
This side of the arrastre is much more intact and looks much as it would have in the 1930's:
This is the highest section of the rock wall, which may have had something to do with supporting the machinery:
A closer look at some of the stones which have been cemented together:
Foundation walls made of rock supporting a leveled terrace:
Concrete blocks (or pilings) which are rising up from the ground:
Visitors have collected some of the artifacts from the washes around the area and placed them here for viewing:
This is possibly a stone foundation for an old miner's tent site:
Full view of the arrastre as seen from above near the mill site:
Getting a picture inside the arrastre basin. This is the final picture taken in Telephone Canyon:
The next few pictures show the difficult crossover route into Jalopy Canyon. Here I have started climbing the northern ridge and am looking back toward the main canyon containing Tucki Mine Road and the side fork which is Telephone Canyon. Notice the vehicle is parked down below in the same location for both hikes:
Having climbed the first ridge, this is the view down into the middle wash between the two major canyons. I needed to find a safe way down into the middle wash:
After finding a way, I passed by these neat red mud drips in the middle wash:
I then had to climb out of the middle wash and up to the second ridge, which is pictured here:
The final route-finding challenge was to drop into the major canyon seen below. This is what ended up being informally called Jalopy Canyon:
Upon reaching the canyon wash, I immediately began seeing large metal pieces on the ground:
Looking up canyon, I was surprised to see an old car in the wash. I then realized these pieces were slowly washing downstream during flash floods:
As seen in the next two pictures, the metal car pieces are slowly being buried by gravel:
First view of the old car (or jalopy, which means a dilapidated old vehicle):
With some help from antique car experts, this car has been identified as a 1918 Briscoe Touring Car Model B424:
1914-1915 Briscoes still only had one single headlight in the radiator shell. But as you can see here, by 1918 there were lights on both front sides:
Portions of the Briscoe are being fully buried by gravel in the wash:
The next three pictures show close-ups of the engine, flywheel with starter gear, and part of the clutch mechanism:
These stamped numbers were able to be matched up with a 1917 Briscoe (as seen about 14 pictures after this one) in order to confirm the identity of car:
More stamped numbers that possibly identify the chassis number, although I'm not totally sure:
These casting numbers were found on the top of the engine:
The next five pictures show close-ups of various car parts:
This shows the shifter and hand brake mechanism:
Note how the rear tub for the touring car body has been smashed in from the back, as seen in the next three pictures:
Getting a picture with the abandoned 1918 Briscoe:
I put together this collage to show you what a 1917 Briscoe Touring Car Model B424 looks like. The Briscoe shown here was recently sold at auction. Notice that the ID number of the auction car (27183 / R216 P122) is nearly identical to the Briscoe that I found as shown in an earlier picture (27213 / R212 P122). Incredibly, only 30 production units separate the auction car and the 1918 Death Valley car!:
After making the discovery of the abandoned old car, it was time to see what other interesting things would be found up canyon:
The hillsides were colorful and shallow to start out. Keep in mind that I was starting out nearly 3 miles above the canyon mouth:
One notable aspect of the early canyon was the towering rock formations high above on the hillsides. Notice one such formation in the distance:
This rock formation had a strange shape to it and also several caves:
The geology of this area was quite fascinating to check out:
Here I had to turn left into this narrow passage to stay in the main canyon:
Up ahead, it looked like I was headed into some true canyon narrows:
The canyon walls were fully enclosed with solid rock for a short stretch:
This dry fall had to be climbed. Fortunately, there is a flat part about halfway up which helped:
Looking back down the dry fall from the top, it does have a fairly steep angle so caution is in order:
The canyon walls above the dry fall were made of very pretty rock, as seen in the next two pictures:
There are quite a few major Tucki Mountain canyons which drain to the west like this one. All of them are worth exploring but most are not fully passable:
A small boulder blockade in the canyon wash:
Passing through a fairly open section of canyon with high hillsides all around:
Looking back down canyon after climbing up a small pour-over:
Entering another section of narrows, this time with jagged rock rather than smooth walls:
The second minor dry fall was up ahead, which also had to be climbed:
Some really interesting towering rock formations were visible up ahead in the canyon:
The canyon came to an abrupt end at twin dry falls. Here I am approaching the dry fall on the left side:
Looking up at the pour-over of the left dry fall:
Backtracking and circling around to the right side to see if there was a way through:
This shows the right side dry fall. This area looked too treacherous to climb, although I did watch as a Kit fox scrambled out of the area:
On the hike back, I spotted this white patch of soil along one of the ridges:
A close-up of the white soil, which is a stark contrast to the dark soil and rock all around:
View looking down canyon toward the mouth and Hwy 190. I did not explore this portion of the lower canyon:
Full panoramic of lower Jalopy Canyon as seen from the ridge above:
Dropping back down into the canyon which contains Tucki Mine Road:
