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Well, today I decided I needed to spend a little time with my son before he ships out for the Marines on July 25th, so my father-son time is a bit limited now.
We headed south out of Tooele, and before we went to Dry Canyon, I wanted to check the integrity of the grating over a vertical shaft south of Mercur Canyon, the culvert under U-73 where Mercur Canyon drains down, as well as a prospect shaft near the "Snowstorm No. 9 Shaft Prospect" that doesn't have a grating over it. All three areas fairly easy to access, and you never know where Susan Powell could be. The grating over the vertical shaft was still intact, the culvert under the highway was clear, and unfortunately I can't really see the bottom of the prospect shaft - even though I attached my camera to my hiking staff so I could hold it out over the shaft (there were deep shadows that makes it hard to see the bottom in the video that I shot).
After checking those areas, we headed up to the bottom area of Dry Canyon. We drove up to a mine I'd been to before (no, I've never been in it - it's been gated off), and the plan was to hike approximately 1/4 mile up the steep scree-covered hillside to some mines that I've seen from a distance w/ my spotting scope, but that's as close as I've ever been.
Here's the area where we were headed:
Our goal was the mines marked by the upper-right placemark. The "unexpected" mine is near the middle placemark, and the mine/tailings where we parked the truck is at the bottom-left placemark.
You can see the staining from the tailings above the cliff on the face of the cliff, and there's another tailings pile below the cliff. We were headed to the mines above the cliff:
First off, I'm overweight and out of shape, so I knew this hike was going to be tough - especially considering I tweaked my knee about a week ago. Anyway, we parked on the tailings at the bottom-left place marker, and then began hiking up, paralleling the cliff on our way up, and much to our surprise, we encountered several small prospects, as well as this mine that we weren't expecting. It looks like the miners were just dumping their tailings over the edge of the cliff. The mine didn't go in very far - and the only reason I went in was because there was a vertical shaft about halfway in that was lighting up the interior of the tunnel quite nicely. There's even a small amount of water seeping into the tunnel... Here are a couple pics from that unexpected mine:
The adit - there's a tunnel that goes straight into the hillside, and a small excavation down to the left:
Looking into the tunnel - you can see how the vertical shaft illuminates the tunnel:
Near the end of the tunnel... My son said it went down and to the left a bit, as well as appearing to go up and to the right:
After resting and allowing me to catch my breath, we continued hiking upward toward the mines that were our goal. At one point, I had a bird come flying almost directly below my feet - and yes, it startled me. The bird didn't fly too far away, and when it landed on the ground, it immediately began acting like it was wounded, so I looked down and saw this:
I didn't stay near the nest for too long, because I didn't want to stress out the mother or the chicks...
Finally, we made it up to the area we were looking for, and the tunnels didn't seem to be all that impressive. There were a few good crystal samples that I packed out, but that was about it.
So, the next time I try to make this hike, I'm going to go up along the base of the cliff to get to the mine that's below the cliffs in the second photo above.
One thing to note: The mine tunnel where we parked the truck - someone has cut out a couple of the bars in the gate and bent one of the bars so that people can now access the tunnel. We didn't go in, but here's a pic from years ago that I took through the bars:
Judging by the size of the tailings pile, this mine has quite a bit to it, so MU members who have the appropriate gear may want to check it out... I still don't have the appropriate gear, so I'll hold off from entering until I've got the gear.
We headed south out of Tooele, and before we went to Dry Canyon, I wanted to check the integrity of the grating over a vertical shaft south of Mercur Canyon, the culvert under U-73 where Mercur Canyon drains down, as well as a prospect shaft near the "Snowstorm No. 9 Shaft Prospect" that doesn't have a grating over it. All three areas fairly easy to access, and you never know where Susan Powell could be. The grating over the vertical shaft was still intact, the culvert under the highway was clear, and unfortunately I can't really see the bottom of the prospect shaft - even though I attached my camera to my hiking staff so I could hold it out over the shaft (there were deep shadows that makes it hard to see the bottom in the video that I shot).
After checking those areas, we headed up to the bottom area of Dry Canyon. We drove up to a mine I'd been to before (no, I've never been in it - it's been gated off), and the plan was to hike approximately 1/4 mile up the steep scree-covered hillside to some mines that I've seen from a distance w/ my spotting scope, but that's as close as I've ever been.
Here's the area where we were headed:
Our goal was the mines marked by the upper-right placemark. The "unexpected" mine is near the middle placemark, and the mine/tailings where we parked the truck is at the bottom-left placemark.
You can see the staining from the tailings above the cliff on the face of the cliff, and there's another tailings pile below the cliff. We were headed to the mines above the cliff:
First off, I'm overweight and out of shape, so I knew this hike was going to be tough - especially considering I tweaked my knee about a week ago. Anyway, we parked on the tailings at the bottom-left place marker, and then began hiking up, paralleling the cliff on our way up, and much to our surprise, we encountered several small prospects, as well as this mine that we weren't expecting. It looks like the miners were just dumping their tailings over the edge of the cliff. The mine didn't go in very far - and the only reason I went in was because there was a vertical shaft about halfway in that was lighting up the interior of the tunnel quite nicely. There's even a small amount of water seeping into the tunnel... Here are a couple pics from that unexpected mine:
The adit - there's a tunnel that goes straight into the hillside, and a small excavation down to the left:
Looking into the tunnel - you can see how the vertical shaft illuminates the tunnel:
Near the end of the tunnel... My son said it went down and to the left a bit, as well as appearing to go up and to the right:
After resting and allowing me to catch my breath, we continued hiking upward toward the mines that were our goal. At one point, I had a bird come flying almost directly below my feet - and yes, it startled me. The bird didn't fly too far away, and when it landed on the ground, it immediately began acting like it was wounded, so I looked down and saw this:
I didn't stay near the nest for too long, because I didn't want to stress out the mother or the chicks...
Finally, we made it up to the area we were looking for, and the tunnels didn't seem to be all that impressive. There were a few good crystal samples that I packed out, but that was about it.
So, the next time I try to make this hike, I'm going to go up along the base of the cliff to get to the mine that's below the cliffs in the second photo above.
One thing to note: The mine tunnel where we parked the truck - someone has cut out a couple of the bars in the gate and bent one of the bars so that people can now access the tunnel. We didn't go in, but here's a pic from years ago that I took through the bars:
Judging by the size of the tailings pile, this mine has quite a bit to it, so MU members who have the appropriate gear may want to check it out... I still don't have the appropriate gear, so I'll hold off from entering until I've got the gear.
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