Strozzi Ranch Trail, et al

Story & Photos by Denis & Sandi Inman

Our group consisted of 3 Jeep Wranglers and 4 adventurers; myself, Jeremy & Deanna and Jim acting as the Tail Gunner. We met at Eddie World in Beatty at 8:00 on Thursday morning, topped off our tanks and proceeded to the Rhyolite where we aired down at the end of the pavement in front of the Goldwell Open Air Museum office.

Heading West, we stopped first at Cave Rock Spring where we found numerous ruins, pieces of cars, household items and mining equipment strewn about. On our way out of that trail, we took a side trip to the Happy Hooligan Mine. Continuing East, our group turned North and eventually West to find McDonald Spring. The galvanized steel tank was dry, but there was water at the surface close by. An abundance of burro and mule deer signs all around the spring indicated it was well used.

Leaving that spot, we proceeded East again until we found a trail heading North towards the Old Railroad Grade, first crossing it and then eventually following it past Currie Well until we turned West towards Strozzi Ranch and Brier Spring. We had lunch at the corral Northeast of the ranch and then headed up the canyon for more exploring.

When we had completed our scrutineering, the procession of Wranglers retraced our path until we could turn North to find Phinney Canyon. Driving West up the valley, we climbed in elevation quite rapidly until we were soon driving in snow too deep to progress any further. The trail up to Phinney Mine didn’t look like it was in very good shape and it was time to start heading for the barn anyway. We took Strozzi Ranch Road East Northeast through the bottom of Sarcobatus Flat to the 95 where we aired back up at about 2:30.

On the way back to Pahrump, our little quartet stopped at the Happy Burro Chili & Beer in Beatty for a drink and to reminisce about the good time we had.