kw: places, ghost towns
Look carefully near the upper-right corner of this image. Folks on the way from Southern California to Las Vegas, about seven miles after leaving Barstow, can look to the left and see "CALICO" near the top of a nearby, small mountain.
I've seldom gone as far as Las Vegas. I usually got no farther than Calico Ghost Town. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was a small cluster of old buildings containing a couple gift shops and the entrance to a "mine walk". For a couple dollars we'd be led through an underground exhibit of mining as it was in the 1890s.
These hills are visible from Lavic, one of my favorite collecting localities. There are probably a dozen interesting places to either collect agate and jasper, or to see desert wildlife, in the vicinity (a few miles in any direction you like).
This aerial view from Google Earth shows Calico as seen today, from a virtual altitude of a mile or so. The old place is quite built up now, with more buildings, the setting for a number of fun mini-dramas. Take a peek at some of it at Calico Town.
I haven't visited since the place was turned into a mini-theme park, but I ought to. Admission is still in the single digits. Those who have exemplary resistance to trinket shopping ought to find it an affordable, fun place. Now that I've gathered all the Mojave Desert rocks I can ever hope to grind and polish, I'll make my next trip a sightseeing one.
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