The Owens Valley has some amazing trails and places to explore. Some of these trails are local secrets and some become less secret as people share trails online (guilty). One trail that has become pretty popular in the last couple years is, Reward Mine.
Reward Mine is located North of the Inyo County town of Independence, California. Reward Mine is east of the historic Manzanar National Monument. The history of the Reward mine is similar to many mines in the area, the search for Gold, Silver, Copper, and Lead. A great article about Reward Mine is found on California Gold Explorers blog.
The trail through the Inyo Mountains to Reward Mine
We started the trail to Reward mine at HWY 168 near the Owens River outside Big Pine California. We drove up HWY 168 to the Death Valley road, which will take you through Saline Valley to Death Valley. As you drive up Death Valley road you’ll start to climb into the Inyo Mountain range. The Inyo Mountains separate the Ownes Valley from Saline Valley and offers some amazing views of the Sierra Nevada Mountian Range. The awesome thing about the Inyo Mountain Range is almost all of it is BLM land, which means that dispersed camping can be setup in many different areas.
As you drive up Death Valley Road you’ll see a dirt road (36E405), you can follow the same route by downloading the gpx and loading it into your phone/gps device from the link below. There are so many beautiful scenes along this route, one of my favorites is drive to the top of Mazourka Peak.
After visiting Mazourka Peak, it’s time to go down the canyon and visit Reward Mine. Reward Mine is a mine you can drive into with your vehicle, there is a turn around within the mine, but I would suggest you walk the mine to make sure you vehicle doesn’t hit any rock outcroppings. There is a large area to park or set up camp near the entrance of the Reward Mine. There are some pretty nice views of the valley as well!
You can also find old mining equipment and buildings on the opposite side of the mountain form the Reward Mine entrance. The Reward Mine area can be very dangerous, so please be careful and take care of the site. By taking care of the Reward Mine area we can enjoy it for years to come. Once you done exploring Reward Mine head down the hill and check out Manzanar National Historic Site. Once your adventure is complete, head over to Copper Top in Big Pine and have some tasty BBQ.
Right Click and “Save As” to save the GPX File below.