A while back we followed Junior into the desert northeast of Bouse in search of the Glory Hole. (See blog for 01-09-12) On that ride we climbed a steep trail, from the top of which we could see what appeared to be a large mine in the bottom of a canyon. It looked like the trail continued around the mountain and wound its way down to that mine. Since we were looking for the Glory Hole and that wasn’t it, we decided to turn around and leave that trail for another time.
Yesterday we decided to find that road and see where follow it. We left the park at 9:00 and following Junior headed for Bouse and Mc Vey Rd. We followed Mc Vey Rd for a short distance and turned right at a Jojoba farm and crossed the canal. On the other side we stopped to let Dennis unload the Rhino and for the jeeps to air down.
We followed Junior into the mountains from there,
taking some side roads along the way.
One trail took us by a deep shaft.
Of course we had to drop a some rocks in to see how deep it was.
This one was interesting as it had water in the bottom.
After a few turnarounds we got to the steep trail and drove to the top.
We stopped for a few minutes to enjoy the view and could see the mine we were interested in below us.
we continued along the trail but it only went a couple of hundred yards and ended in a shear drop off.
We had to back up to turn around and retraced out path back down the mountain.
We went looking for another way to get to the mine. we could see a road coming into it.
Eventually we found the mine and spent some time wandering around. The road stopped on a big flat where we parked.
There was a tunnel in the mountain but it was closed off with a steel door.
Bill used his metal detector a little but only found some nails and .22 shells.
A few of us walked along a foot path
to another road and followed it up hill until we got to the shaft that we could see from up above. The shaft had a grate and some timbers over it.
I figured that this mine was still occasionally active and the owners didn’t want to get sued if some one fell into it. There were several short tunnels in the area but nothing very extensive. On the walk back to the vehicles I found an interesting piece of rock and tried the Microscope feature on my camera to check it out.
We had lunch on the flat in front of the steel door.
From there we traveled around the hills
and came to another area that showed extensive mining activity
with several deep shafts and tunnels. One short tunnel went clear through a section of the mountain.
Another had a shaft that went down at about a 45 degree angle. You could see where the tracks for an ore car had been attached to beam runners.
We could see other tunnels across the valley so we drove around and found one that was particularly interesting.
It looked as if the miners had been following a vein of some kind of ore as it was all carved out horizontally.
Dennis and I went in to check it out.
The mine continued down into the mountain for what appeared to be a long way but the grade was very steep so we didn’t go down.
We discussed getting some climbing rope for such occasions but on reflection I’m not sure that is a good idea. We take enough chances as it is. We’ll see.
From there we followed a wash past another tunnel but it didn’t go very far in. After that we wandered around the hills for a while and eventually got down to the flats. Along the way we saw an old rusted vehicle body in a wash.
Dennis and I decided that it must have been a Hummer.
Bill took the lead and in a short time we were back at Dennis’s truck.
The weather was beautiful and we had another fun ride.
To day it is a bit overcast and cool. Patti went with Bill and Shirley to the casino in Parker.
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