Mike's Garage
 

I'm pretty lucky in that it's only about an hour drive for me to any number of prime hunting spots in the southern California desert.  This past was a gorgeous weekend with temperatures right around 70*, bright sun, and clear skies.  The sun sits low on the horizon this time of year as it works its way toward the winter solstice and makes for a perfect light to hunt by in the late afternoon.  I grabbed my magnet stick, checked my maps, and headed out to do some hunting.

Rabbit Dry Lake

My meteorite hunting vehicle (and daily driver).  Having a high clearance 4x4 is a necessity to get to a lot of spots out in the Mojave.  My truck has never let me down (knock on wood), and has gotten me through some very tough terrain.  Luckily this spot is not one of them.  Highway 18 cuts right through the lake bed, you can literally pull off the road and start hunting.  Not all of the lake bed is public, however, so check your maps first and be sure you're on the BLM portions of the lake.

 

There's tire tracks all over the lake bed.  Personally I'm a Tread Lightly kind of person, so I try to park as near the traveled way as I can and try not to drive on dry lakes if I can avoid it.  They're really cool places and the tire tracks kinda ruin it for me.

 

There's a really neat mineral formation on the mountains across the valley.

 

Sunset, just about time to call it quits for the day.  About this time everything has a dark shadow and looks black from a distance.

 

Nothing but magnetic granite.  I know there's meteorites here waiting to be found, maybe next time.

 

Lucerne Valley Dry Lake

LVDL has been hunted extensively for the last 50 years or so, but people still occasionally pull small rocks off it.  Plus it's a big lake bed, there's bound to still be rocks hiding out there.

A November moon watches my truck while I go out to hunt.

 

It's really beautiful and peaceful out here, I really enjoy spending the day wandering around, listening to my ipod, and signing to myself like a lunatic.  Even when I don't find anything I never consider the day wasted.

I didn't find anything this time out besides magnetic granite similar to the stuff from Rabbit.  There wasn't a lot of evidence that many people had recently been to the area I was looking in, so I'll likely return again in the near future.

Or maybe I'll pick another spot... So many dry lake beds, so little time!