After poking around the remains of the mill near Skidoo, Jennifer and I headed up Lower Telephone Canyon. This canyon is accessed from Wildrose Road (or Emigrant Canyon Road), via a dirt road which is easy to miss between Skidoo Road and Emigrant Canyon. The goal was to find a little-known natural arch in Telephone Canyon. The weather was great, but a little on the warm side, maybe near 90F. The first six images below show the wash coming out of Telephone Canyon (with the wilderness sign), and a narrows area where the access road juts up against a cliff.
From the “wilderness restoration” sign we had to hike for maybe 20 minutes to reach the arch. It was along the left, or east side, of the relatively wide canyon. I must say that the arch was rather impressive! From some angles it looks a little like a telephone handset (1960s and 1970s version). I thought that maybe the canyon was named “Telephone Canyon” because of the look of this arch. But, no, that is not the case. Apparently some telephone poles lined the canyon to connect Skidoo with Rhyolite over 100 years ago.
Not too far from the arch are the remains of what might be an arrastra. If you don’t know what an “arrastra” is, then look it up!
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