Red Rock State Park featuring Last Chance Canyon, Burron Schmidt Tunnel, and Mesquite Canyon
By Jerry Sanfilippo and Dennis Yard
Our Last Chance Canyon Run was well attended with 7 LRCSD members; Larry & Carol Samons, Dennis & Liz Yard, Rick Peterson, Dr. Joe Aiello, and myself. We had 2 SCLR members Scott Horsley and Tawfik Benabdeljalil, and one new member Kevin Tagle, and of course Nathan Woods who would lead us on our journey
through Last Chance Canyon. We ended up with 9 Land Rovers and one Jeep Rubicon. There were three LR3, one RR Sport, one Disco 1, one Disco II, one D90, and one offroad trailer towed and Dennis and Liz Yard.
We all met up in the Old town of Randsburg at a 100+ year old Market which just happened to be a pretty good diner as well. This little town is just a couple of miles off US 395 on the northern side of the gold mining towns of Atolia, Red Mountain and Johannesburg. This whole area was the site of mineral mining for most of the 1900’s. Some areas are still active today. The Randsburg town is home to about 130 people with much of the area decaying back to wilderness. The area is littered with mining artifacts and decaying buildings, where once it was very prosperous with saloons, hotels and supporting services.
The group enjoyed a hearty breakfast and afterwards enjoyed some of the town’s museums and antique shops. This gave us a taste of the mining history in the area we were about to explore. After a quick driver’s meeting we gathered up and headed to the trailhead.
The weekend’s trail guide was our friend, Nathan Wood, well known to So Cal LR folks from Rover Rendezvous events and Mojave Desert trails. Nathan guided us through the trails and expertly navigated us through the more challenging obstacles. His expansive knowledge of the area gave us all a complete experience, putting the scenery into context of the life and times of the people, the mining activities and even local flora and fauna.
The first part of the trail was wide sand washes with the occasional small rock pile. As the trail went on it became quite narrow, and the rocks got bigger with some fun optional obstacles. Most of these obstacles were do-able by everyone until we hit the big V-notch. While most of us opted for the moderate bypass, Nathan, Larry & Carol, Dr. Joe and Rick went through the V-notch with little trouble. As we moved on we went over 2 or 3 more fun rock piles then the trail seemed to open up a bit and was pretty smooth for a while. The last obstacle of the day was a nice hill climb out of the canyon to a nice overlook. We viewed Bickel Camp and numerous hilltop viewpoints in the area. The weather was great; clear and just warm enough to be comfortable. From here we dropped down to EP15 and started heading towards our campsite. After a couple of attempts to find a vacant site we found a really cool one. It had a stone cabin and plenty of room to park and put up tents. The stone cabin at the site had no roof or windows and had a fire ring right in the middle of it, a perfect place to gather. After cooking our meals we met inside the
cabin for a warm fire, some cold beverages and great conversations. About 11:30 the last of us finally turned in.
On day two we packed things up, had breakfast and were back on the trail around 8:30. Our first stop of the day was a place called Dutch Cleanser Mine. According to Nathan this mine was used to produce an abrasive powder which is used in household cleaning products such as Bon Ami, Comet, and Old Dutch Cleanser. The first thing you notice about this mine was it’s white marble palace appearance, gleaming and glowing from the sunlight with a thick layer of fine white powder on the ground. It seemed to have the consistency of chalk. A very cool place with large openings, and wide open caves. Our second stop of the day would take us to a talc mine similar to the first but with different colored dirt, not quite as big as the Dutch Cleanser Mine but fun to walk into anyway. 
Our third stop of the day was to Burro Schmidt tunnel. Supposedly William Henry Schmidt dug all 2087 feet of this tunnel through Copper Mountain himself. This tunnel looked to be solid rock throughout taking Schmidt 38 years to dig. We had a nice walk from one end of the tunnel to the other. While at the far end we enjoyed a nice view of the valley and some conversation as to why this guy spent his whole life digging a tunnel that was never used. After a few more interesting facts from Nathan, we headed back into the tunnel and back to our vehicles.
Our fourth and final stop would take us to an abandoned cabin high up on a hill, which looked to be well maintained compared to the others we had seen. It was equipped with a stove heater, a couch, chairs and an end table. It had old pictures hung on the walls and historical artifacts were displayed on the shelves. 
A great place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there. After leaving a club business card on the table, we left the lonely cabin and were on our way down towards the main road into the Garlock Valley where we would air up and head home.
Thanks to Nathan Woods for being our trail leader. All in all, a very fun trip, we covered a lot in less than 24 hrs. and thanks to all who participated.
Link to photos: http://www.lrcsd.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=1929
