01-18-12

We took a ride yesterday with Becky, Dennis, Shirley and Bill.

Patti’s back is still hurting so Dave road with me. Becky and Dennis drove Dave’s jeep instead of their Rhino.

We drove east on I-10 and took the highway 60 exit. We continued east to Ramsey Mine road where we turned south, crossed the freeway and continued to the Ramsey mine.

The Ramsey Mine is a patented claim and is private property. We stopped there for a short time to let everyone look around.

From there we drove over the mountain to the south of the mine and followed several roads to (What else?) Col-de-sac’s. We climbed a steep rocky trail to a peak with a view.

As always the scenery was spectacular.

We continued southeast following washes and rough trails. We stopped in one wash for lunch.

From there we traveled along more washes and trails stopping to walk up an interesting side canyon.

and visited another mine with a deep vertical shaft.

From there we continued along a wash until we came to a steep rough trail on the left. We climbed the hill and came into a high valley with another mine.

We stopped there and wandered around checking out the old mining equipment.

To the right of the mining stuff is another steep rutted trail that we climbed.

At the top of this trail is an area that we have visited a few times before. There is a wall of Crisocola, a blue stone that is associated with copper ore.

We have always taken a group picture here and this time was no exception.

From there we followed a very bumpy trail back to a frontage road along I-10 where we turned west and got back to the Ramset Mine Road.

Shirley and Bill were in their Jeep Cherokee wagon. I was impressed by where the Cherokee could go. They followed us over and around some difficult places with no problem.

Go Jeep! I think Becky and Dennis enjoyed their day in Dave’s jeep and were also impressed with it.