Author Archives: Rossi

Road trip ; Chloride, Az and an escape into the Hualapai mountain park!

Old gas pumps still standing in Chloride, Az. Old photo of Chloride in 1914 I was really excited to get out and go on a small road trip over the …

Road trip ; Chloride, Az and an escape into the Hualapai mountain park!

Road trip ; Chloride, Az and an escape into the Hualapai mountain park!

Old gas pumps still standing in Chloride, Az.
Old photo of Chloride in 1914

I was really excited to get out and go on a small road trip over the weekend! Nothing beats a nice long drive with your jams blasted on the radio! Well, needless to say we ended up in Chloride, Az.. This place was founded in 1862,where silver was discovered here and it had a whopping 75 mines! It is located 25 miles north of Kingman, Az and 80 miles South of Las Vegas. It is in Mohave county and is nestled in the Cerbat mountain range.

Chloride is the oldest mining town that still has a heartbeat here in Arizona! It is a cool place to check out . It is full of old buildings, a lot of artistic expressionism, and although some people call it a ghost town, it is inhibited by many people! probably around 400 or more people reside here. We noticed a lot of people sitting outside the resteraunt called “Yesterday’s.

The sheep miners Inn, this Includes the resteraunt called “Yesterday’s. Built in the 1800’s and was for miners and their families.
Chloride prides itself with a few historical buildings from this original jail building, the Post office and the volunteer fire department , the oldest in Arizona from 1939, a ford fire engine.
Old buildings including Chloride Post office still standing.
Chloride has a staging entertainment area consisting of old wooden prop buildings for a tourist attraction, but it was not in operation when we arrived!
Inside the saloon, tourist building looks like it is a fun place for photography and a great fake bar fight, no violence required!😂🤣🤣🤣

The murals that were painted by Roy Purcell are pretty cool, Called “The Journey” on 2,000 square feet and we saw many jeeps coming down the dirt road. It looks like many trails for off-roaders out there! Fun.

Chloride has had some movies filmed there as well. In Fact, Jack Nicholson Started in the 1970’s movie called Rebel Rousers! Also “Universal soldier 1992) “Serendepity (3) and anold western movie called “Old Nevada! Pretty awesome!

So after we left Chloride, we headed to The Hualapai Mountain Park!

Beautiful Pine trees are everywhere , just breathtaking scenery all around, this is a great place to escape the Arizona heat! They rent out cabins if your looking to get away! And you will find great arc off road trails about 5,000 feet above Kingman.

This was a fun roadtrip and if your looking for something new to go see, this is a nice trip!

Hope you enjoyed this article, next month we will be taking a trip up I-95 and up to Tonapah, to check out the most haunted hotel in Nevada, called The Mizpah hotel, and much more explorations!!!! Have a blessed week!

Owner of Desertexplorations.com

Vanessa Rossi-Sondgeroth

Pena Blanca on a spring Wednesday!

Pena Blanca is a reservoir 18 miles N.W. of Nogales and is in Santa Cruz county. Maintained by the Coronado Natl’ Forest division. This reservoir was…

Pena Blanca on a spring Wednesday!

Pena Blanca on a spring Wednesday!

Pena Blanca is a reservoir 18 miles N.W. of Nogales and is in Santa Cruz county. Maintained by the Coronado Natl’ Forest division. This reservoir was made in 1957 by the Arizona game and fish dept.. It used to have a resort but the water had such high mercury contamination from the old mines in the area, it was closed.
Going up Ruby rd!
For $15 bucks a night, you can spend the night at this really cool Ruby ghost towns, I did write an article on this ghost town awhile back!
Pena Blanca lake is a really great place to go walking, there is a path you can take where we saw bright red cardinals, and took our dog up the path that goes all around the lake.
Flowers are blooming next to the lake!
The walking path is pretty smooth and the landscape is gorgeous here!You can walk this path and enjoy the tranquility out there, away from all the craziness going on!!!!
I spotted a lot of turtles in the water, but we did not see deer just a lot of ducks, and birds of all kinds for all you birdwatchers!!!
You will notice the high algae in the lake, I would not swim in it at this time, but you can canoe! Today’s species of fish in this lake are yellow bullhead, black crappie, radeR sunfish. It gets stocked with Rainbow trout from October to March once a month unless water quality is poor and it looked very poor quality right now in April of 2021!
Their are a lot of cows roaming the area, so be careful when walking your dog or dogs!

Next on Desertexplorations, a trip up I-95 all the way into Oregon, lots of photos and adventure coming next week, hoping to check out Tonapah and Belmont ghost town! Wow! This will be exciting!We may be staying at the famous Clown Motel in Tonapah or the most haunted hotel “The Mitzah” I will be writing about and sharing video footage about this adventure and sharing next weekend!

Mt.Hopkins, a place to observe the stars and galaxies!#184 scenic drive

Warning:this road up is very steep, dangerous to drive on windy days with a lot of turns, people may come down this road as you are going up, not …

Mt.Hopkins, a place to observe the stars and galaxies!#184 scenic drive