Mailbag

Have you ever heard of the Pushawalla Canyon Trail? It was an old freight/mining route out of Joshua Tree national Monument. It has been closed for severeal years. I first heard about it in the now defunct Desert Magazine. It is a beautiful trail, in relatively good shape when I last had the privilege of traveling over it. The story I read said that in the steep areas of the trail, the heavily loaded ore wagons had to use a log under the wagon wheels. They slowly drug the log down to let the wagon advance. Near the top of the trail was a forest of scrub pines with several ideal camp sites. There was a lookout point where you could look down upon the vast Coachella Valley. It was a much prettier spot than the present day lookout point, with it's paved road and gillions of tourists!