February 2002 - Belmont Mountains
Trail Rating - 2.0+
Trip Leader: Chris Villarreal
Photos submitted by Chris Villarreal
Aerial View
My friend Ron and I headed out on Sunday to scout out some of the mountains North of Tonopah. The maps showed quite a few mines which means old roads.
(Click for larger images)
The area South of the Belmont Mountains but north of the Aqueduct would be a good place to introduce someone in a stock rig to offroading. There are a lot of old trails leading to small mines, some of them are really hard to see and most of them dead end. We stopped to fix a broken steering joint on Ron's rig in the above pictures. The trail ended just ahead.
We followed a really old and overgrown road up this mountain. The road was washed out just below the summit so we parked and walked to the top to get a look around. You'll notice a lot of these rock pyramids which were used to signify a mining claim. Usually there is a glass bottle or other container nearby that used to hold the claim.
A view from the top looking southwest, you can just make out some of the roads.
We found this drainage tunnel under the Aqueduct, made for a good picture and the then we walked to the other side.
There are a lot of tracks leading into the tunnel, possibly the locals using it for a quick way to get under the aqueduct.
Here's one of the roads we followed north until the road just disappeared.