Our good friend, Legend, has it that the Button brothers, Charlie and Willie, discovered the valley back in the late 1800s. At the time, there was only one narrow passage that led into the grassy, sheltered valley. Charlie had recently been released from prison, after serving 16 years for a double murder. Somewhere along the line he had become acquainted with local cattle thief, Bill McHaney. When the Buttons told McHaney about the valley, they came up with a plan to steal cattle in Arizona, bring them to Hidden Valley to be held and rebranded, and then sold to unsuspecting ranchers in California. Now, Legend doesn't always make sense, but he does tell some good stories. Odd are good that the valley was used at some point for unlawful activity.

I recently had the opportunity to practice my trail guide skills, as my uncle Phil and aunt Margaret were staying in 29 Palms for a few days, while on a road trip far from home. They were looking forward to exploring J Tree, so after a nice brunch at the 29 Palms Inn, we headed out on a windy Sunday morning to see what we could find.

You never know what you'll find in the Desert Queen Wash. And when you find something there, odds are that you'll wonder "How did this get here? Who built that? What else is there out here that I'm missing?" Such was the case when Murbachi and I found ourselves in an exemplary little valley crossed by the Desert Queen Wash. We'd heard about the ruins of an old stone cabin, and the rumor of a ghost Model-T truck nearby, and that was all that was needed to see if we could find them.