Tecopa
to Shoshone
Having driven the segment through Amargosa Canyon and Sperry Wash
several
times before, I decided instead to explore the areas around Tecopa and
Shoshone. South from Shoshone there is a muddy and somewhat dicey 4WD
road
alongside the berm for quite a way, and some nice scenery amongst the
badlands.
The view is especially good at the first cut. Not many ties left here
but
an occasional few. A little later, returning to the main road, we went
a little further south to explore the dumps of tin cans that constitute
the remains of Zabriskie. We walked south along the grade to the spot
where
the Amargosa Crossing was -- quite impressive earth and concrete works
remain, and the amount of berm washed out there is evidence, if any
were
needed, that the Amargosa is not always a tame little trickle.
 |
 |
| The grade cuts through the badlands heading north towards
Shoshone |
View of badlands looking west from T&T grade towards Hwy
127 |
We then explored the Tecopa RR. This section of railroad has been
superbly
covered by John McCulloch on the T&T
website, so is treated only briefly here. Briefly, we first
followed
the branch up to the Noonday Mine. This segment was actually paved but
there was a serious washout half way up that took very high clearance
4WD
to get around. (Regular vehicles can backtrack to the main road, go
east
to the "block house" just over the peak, and turn north up a passenger
car route up to the Noonday site). Continuing on to the Noonday mine,
we
had lunch while looking over its remains. We then went back to the
highway
and turned off again to explore the Gunsight branch. This is certainly
not paved -- many bypasses being needed. Up at the Gunsight itself the
view was outstanding.
 |
|
| Bypassing a washout (center, right) on the grade from the
Noonday Mine.
After the rails were torn up, the grade was paved and used as a road
for
later mining operations. The transition to and from the grade at middle
left requires very high clearance. |
View from the Gunsight Mine towards Tecopa. Upper ore bin in
foreground,
lower bin in background, formerly connected by a dual car funicular.
The
Tecopa RR grade leaves the lower bin and skirts the hillside diagonally
across the middle of the image. |
We returned to the "Y" where the two branches of the Tecopa RR split
off (one branch going to the Gunsight and one to the Noonday) and
followed
the bottom leg of the Y for some way towards Tecopa on foot. (There is
no consistent road alongside this leg, other than a few ATV tracks). On
this section there were still was still quite a number of ties left on
the grade in places, but the berm was washed out every few yards.
 |
| Tecopa Railroad Grade heading from the "Y" towards
Tecopa |
This brought the first phase of the scouting expeditions to a close;
it was time to adjourn to Stovepipe and look forward to returning on
another
occasion to explore more of the T&T.
