Charcoal Kilns — Wildrose Canyon Historic Beehive Ovens

Standing ten in a row at roughly 7,000 feet in Wildrose Canyon, these kilns are about as photogenic as Death Valley gets. Each one is 25 feet tall, built from locally quarried stone by Chinese laborers in 1877, and used Pinyon pine from the surrounding hills to produce charcoal for the Modoc Mine smelters down in the Panamint Valley. They only operated two years before the mine played out, but they’re still standing nearly perfect. That kind of preservation at this altitude — open to the weather, no fence, no shelter — is remarkable.

The kilns sit right off the Wildrose Canyon Road, so even a two-wheel-drive vehicle can get here in decent conditions. Road conditions into Wildrose Canyon can deteriorate with flash flooding or winter snow — check with the Death Valley visitor center before committing to the route. No water, no services. Cell signal is essentially zero this deep in the range.

Ten 1877 beehive kilns still standing at 7,000 ft.