I'll second Joshua Tree N.P. and add the adjacent Dale Mining District. It will take a little hiking, but where else are you going to find an old hit or miss engine out in the wild that hasn't grown legs (Wall Street Mill in the N.P.), plus there are several other mines in the park and surrounding area?
There are some mining areas that have interesting artifacts. Most of those artifacts have already been removed but there are some still around, and they can be interesting. However, there are many places that are pretty trashed. The land is trashed and what is left behind is hardly that interesting. There are mining claims that are now being used to simply claim the area for vacation use and not mining. I think about what the land looked like before the mining, which was usually gold and silver, and how beautiful it actually was. To compare the pyramids to a bunch of water cannoned creek is apples and oranges. Like I said, there are interesting areas that are preserved and areas that just look like a bomb went off and was left that way. Think of it this way. If I took a backhoe into the forest and dug a bunch of huge holes looking for minerals and left it that way what would anyone think of that? Have you seen strip mining tailings?
I guess petroglyphs are just defacing graffiti on otherwise beautiful rocks?
I'll be there in 2 weeks! We are towing a 3K lb. trailer to boondock.
The difference in graffiti and historical markings is only time. Someone finds a dick on a wall drawn this year its a crime, find one drawn by a dude in Pompeii before the eruption, great historical significance
So, the real question is: How much time? Apparently, only certain people get to decide. Mining from a century ago is still ugly to them and the sewers from 3000 years ago in Egypt are ... fascinating.
Somewhere close to the line between graverobbing and archeology.
True. Who decides how much time has to pass before it's archeology and not grave robbing?
