Keane Wonder Springs and Cyty’s Mill

April 1, 2019 tarannosaurus

Epic Travel → North America → The West Coast → Northern California → Death Valley → Keane Wonder Springs and Cyty’s Mill

Location: Beatty Junction area, Death Valley

Time Required: 2-4 hours (including time for exploring; time also depends on whether you continue to the Big Bell Extension)

Distance: ~2.4 miles roundtrip (to Cyty’s Mill), 6.8 miles to the Big Bell Extension

Elevation Gain/Loss: nearly flat to Cyty’s Mill, 1800 feet to the Big Bell Extension

Red Tape/Notes: Access to Death Valley is $25/vehicle for a 7 day pass. Trailhead access is at the Keane Wonder Mill parking area, at the end of a 3 mile dirt road, which (as of early 2019) was quite reasonable, even for low clearance vehicles; the site is clearly marked on the Death Valley visitor maps. If you’re interested in more history on the area and adding color to your hikes, I highly recommend Michel Digonnet’s Hiking Death Valley.

What’s Nearby?: Keane Wonder Mill, Keane Wonder Mine, Keane Canyon, Titus Canyon, Leadfield Ghost Town, Rhyolite

Virtually everyone coming to this area will visit the Keane Wonder Mill. A small portion of those people will make the effort to hike (2 miles and 1500 feet of elevation) up to the Keane Mine. Almost no one will go to the Wonder Springs and Cyty’s Mill. Heck, they probably don’t even know they’re there. I did a google search and could barely find anything on them. Does no one else wonder where those pipes next to the Wonder Mill parking lot are going? If you’re a weirdo like us, follow them to find out! Seriously, just park your car, grab some water, and follow the pipes off into the desert. You’ll quickly find a trail, and less than a mile in, you’ll come across a section of travertine rock that’s shining with water. You can follow the water uphill to the source, where water spills from a fissure along the Keane Wonder Fault. A shallow well has been dug to collect water from the springs, but an NPS warning of hydrogen sulfide fumes should be a sufficient warning not to inhale deeply for long. The springs were much larger in ancient times, and the travertine benches extending below are evidence of how large they once were.

Continuing on the trail, you’ll come across some additional springs and wells before arriving at Cyty’s Mill less than half a mile from the main spring site (the ruins will have been visible for some time). There are two large structures at the mill site – Johnnie Cyty’s three-stamp mill, and the cabin where he lived. There’s also a neat rock shelter on a rise across from the ruins. Johnnie Cyty was quite a Wild West character – from shoot-outs to losing his mining operation in a gambling hall, his life was classic fiction material. If you’re up for a longer day, find the trail running behind Cyty’s Mill which heads into the mountains. The trail climbs steadily upwards for around 1.5 miles, offering beautiful views before traversing along the edge of a cliff above a canyon to arrive at the Big Bell Extension, where there are numerous adits and some tunnels to explore (bring a flashlight and use care).