Wickenburg Trip, Tuesday.

 

Taking Off.

We met the group at the Arco station at 9:00. There were 5 Jeeps in the group.

A little after 9:00 we took off and headed east on I-10.

We followed I-10 11 miles from Quartzsite where we took the AZ  Highway 60. turnoff.

The Sunshine Mine.

We continued east for 43 miles to just past mile marker 77 where we turned right and went through a gate onto a dirt road where we stopped to air down the tires.

After airing down we continued south on this trail going through a forest of large healthy Saguaro’s.

Most of this trail was pretty easy with only a couple of washes to cross.

Eventually we turned right onto a smaller trail that went to the Sunshine Mine.

The sunshine mine had a pretty deep tunnel that went down at about a 45° It didn’t look very safe so we didn’t go into it very far.

The Linda Mine.

After walking around the Sunshine Mine for a while we headed back down the trail. When we got to the main track we turned south heading for the Linda Mine.
We passed a windmill that was working but we couldn’t figure out where the water was being pumped to.

This trail was a little more challenging but as it went into a wilderness area, we couldn’t follow it all the way to the Linda Mine.

We turned around and followed the trail back toward the Highway.

Lunch.

At a large flat area we stopped to have lunch.

The Trail to the Bullard Mine.

We got back to the highway and turned east.  When we got to the town of Aguila we turned north on Eagle Eye Mine Road.

We followed this road for a couple of miles and turned left onto a road that had some pretty muddy spots.

Both Dennis’s tried to go around the first muddy spot and sunk in the soft stuff on the side of the road.

As a result their jeeps got muddier than the rest of us.

After the mud holes we turned north on another trail.

The Bullard Mine.

We followed this trail for a couple of miles and could see some mines from a distance.

We turned onto a smaller trail,

and eventually we came to an area that had a bunch of tunnels high on the mountain.

We worked our way up the hill until we got within walking distance of the tunnels.

We checked out several of these tunnels.

Most of them didn’t go very deep into the mountain but there was a lot of Crisocola everywhere.

Inside, these two tunnels were connected.

Some of the tunnels looked a little shaky so we stayed out of them.

After checking this area out for a while we continued around the mountain.
The Bullard Mine is on both sides of the mountain. We got on a narrow trail going up the north side.

Eventually we got to the end of the trail and came to the mine.

There are a couple of tunnels on this side of the mountain. They were a bit steep going in so we stayed out.

We walked around this area for a while checking out some of the other digs.

HUD Housing or Dynamite Safe?

We left the Bullard Mine and drove back down to the flats to check out this hole in the side of a wash. You can see the hole above the jeep as we drive down the hill.

When we got into the wash we found a door way into the bank.

On entering we found what looked like two bunks and a stove pipe.

What we initially thought were bunks looked a little short…

and what we thought was a stove pipe was made of galvanized metal and didn’t have any smoke residue inside.

I am thinking this might be a powder magazine and the bunks might be shelves and the “stove pipe” might be a vent..

A Hand Dug Well.

We walked a little further down the wash and noticed several collapsed stone walls. Passed these walls we came to a large well.

The well even had water in it.

Off to Wickenburg.

We left the wash and headed back to Wickenburg where we checked into the Super 8 Motel and went to dinner at the Rancho 7 Restaurant. The food was good and service was also good.

Okay that was the first day of our Wickenburg trip. More to come.