Hidden in the remote Inyo Mountains is the ghost town of Cerro Gordo, (Spanish for “Fat Hill”). Although isolated by the barren Death Valley to the east and the formidable Sierra Nevada to the west, Cerro Gordo was once one of the busiest mining districts in California. These mines produced the largest amount of silver and other minerals in the state.
Believe it or not, Mexican prospectors discovered silver there in 1865, but it took two years before anyone staked a claim. Miners from the Comstock Lode in Virginia City, Nevada, flocked to the region when they got wind of the strike. Cerro Gordo was born and boomed.
Numerous mining ventures sprung up. The largest investors built the steep Old Yellow Grade Toll Road. They charged exorbitant passage fees that bankrupt smaller claims. Although hard to envision today, the large mining companies even developed a ferry system to freight silver over Owens Lake. A violent 1872 earthquake altered the bed of Owens Lake, which is completely dry today.
Cerro Gordo is accessible today along a well-graded, steep dirt road, which follows the route of the old toll road from the town of Keeler on California Highway 136. More 4-wheeling excitement can be found by accessing the remote town site from another ghost town, Swansea, also located on Highway 136.
Swansea was once the site of three smelters that processed the huge amounts of ore extracted from Cerro Gordo mines. Little remains at the town site except some foundations and a crumbled stone building that was once a stagecoach stop. The thrilling single-lane trail leaves Swansea and heads toward the Inyo Mountains.
This remote, rugged trail climbs into a canyon and follows a moguled, loose, gravelly wash into a corridor through the Inyo Mountains Wilderness. Use caution navigating steep sections of loose shale and narrow, rough segments of shelf road you will encounter climbing to the ridge tops. Summitting the Inyo Range, you are rewarded for your 4-wheeling skills with spectacular views of the Owens Valley, Sierra Nevada, and surrounding landscape.
Following the rim of Craig Canyon presents a dizzyingly sheer drop-off and overlook into Saline Valley. Old aerial tramway towers also come into view, standing out starkly on the crests of the hills. They are the well-preserved remains of an ambitious salt works at Saline Lake.
During its time, the 14-mile tramway was the longest in the world. Twenty tons of salt per hour in 300 buckets ran from the salt works in Saline Valley, up 7,000 feet over the Inyo Mountains and down 5,000 feet to Swansea. The salt was reportedly so pure that it was sold at market in an unrefined state.
The trail winds down off the mountain range and ends at Cerro Gordo ghost town. The town is private property but tours can be arranged by calling ahead.