Contact Mine Trail is a 4.2 mile moderately trafficked out and back trail located near Twentynine Palms, California that offers scenic views and is rated as moderate. The trail is primarily used for hiking, nature trips, and bird watching and is accessible year-round.
Joshua Tree National Park charges a fee to enter. Fees are $30 per vehicle or $25 per motorcycle. If you are entering on foot or bike the fee is $15 per person. You can also purchase a park specific annual pass for $55.
This trail wasn't as scenic as other hikes in Joshua Tree. The mine was interesting though.
first half is pretty sandy, but easy to follow signs. second half has a nice low grade incline that leads right to a few covered mine shafts. would be pretty easy to go another half mile up a not too climb to summit a hill and get a nice view, but didn't attempt today
Nice trail with pretty scenery. Was a little underwhelmed at the end of it before turning back around but was still quite nice. Very hot if you’re not going early morning or later in the day.
Trail was easy to follow for the most part, with some sections that overlapped with the riverbed. Lots of nice plants and wildlife. We saw baby quails, jackrabbits, white lizards, tarantula wasps. The end of the trail was marked by an old mine which was cool. Definitely bring a lot of water & wear long pants because the brush is sharp in some areas.
Wash out on first half mile then transitions to quickly elevating gravely terrain. The last tenth mile of the trail is sketchy but the endpoint is the mine shaft at the top of a grave hill. Signage was great
Great trail, super scenic. Completed on 3/8/20 and the weather was amazing
Beautiful trail! Although it is marked, it is easy to lose the trail in some places. We went off trail for a bit following dried creek beds that looked very much like trails! We had one very brief big horn sheep sighting.
Not for family. Bring trekking poles. Download maps. Gets busy after 10 am on weekends. No shade. Washed out Path caused confusion.
Decent hike very close to the north entrance. Much of the park was snowy/icy while I was there, however this trail was totally snow-free! Lightly trafficked with some good altitude. There’s very clear signage for the first third and then it was easy to follow the footsteps of others. At the mine (basically just a collection of rusty mining equipment) you can challenge yourself to climb up a bit more for beautiful views.
1st pic Evelyn named “tulip rocks”, viewed on way back from Anaconda mine.