Dry Canyon (lower area) - Part II

Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 1:59 pm

Yesterday I made up my mind that I was going to drag my soon-to-be-gone-to-the-Marines son out to Dry Canyon again. This time I wanted to make sure we made it to the mine that was at the base of the cliffs we paralleled last time when we hiked to the mines at the top of the cliffs. Once again, the way was steep and rocky, but this fat old guy wasn't punished as hard as he was last week...

To start things off, we left the house at about 0800 hrs and headed for Stockton. I wanted to grab some munchies, and I was sure my son wanted some munchies as well. After that short stop, we cruised around to the lower entrance to Dry Canyon and crept up the rocky road to the tailings where we parked last week...

Here's a view back down the canyon from the tailings pile:

After getting our gear on, we began the hike, and within a few minutes, I was huffing and puffing like the rhino in the stampede in the movie Jumanji. Ah well, I knew it was going to be tough and that my pulse was going to be racing. The morning progressed, and the view out across Rush Valley was beautiful! By now we'd gained a bit of elevation...

To our surprise - and delight - we found a mine that we weren't expecting, and there appeared to be an old "anvil stump" out on the flat space along the top of the tailings. The miners had even built it up with some extra lumber...

The adit of this inclined shaft has had some material slough off from above it and partially close it off - but when you climb up, you can still see down into the shaft.

The tailings pile isn't all that big, so the shaft probably doesn't go down too far.

After a bit more climbing and scrambling through the scree, we finally made it to the mine that was our goal. The tunnel runs fairly level back into the mountain, with a curve to the left... We didn't go in far, but it appears to be quite sound. I am fairly curious as to whether this mine intersects with the tunnels we scoped out at the top of the cliffs.

Here's a view down the canyon from the tops of the tailings... The big cliffs down on the left by the road are near the area where we parked the truck.

Here I am - the overweight old guy who'd made it up the ~49% slope to the mine... I dropped the backpack for a bit while I cooled down. Yeah, I was hot and sweating. LOL

When we got ready to head back down, I decided that because I was close enough, I wanted to hike the last 25 yards or so up to a rock formation so I could look over the ridge into the upper part of the canyon. The area leveled off a bit, and if the miners had a small encampment near the mine, it was probably at that location. This was interesting to me - it's a metal spike pounded into the cliff face, with a metal plate of some sort hanging on it.

Also, we found another inclined shaft prospect, as well as another area where they started to dig, but then stopped. I tossed a rock down into this one, and it did bounce for a few seconds.

The perspective of the middle/upper part of Dry Canyon is a little different from up on one of the canyon walls...

Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 9:21 pm

Nice photos! I'm glad that you got to spend time with your son before he heads out to the service. My son is planning the same thing after he graduates next year.

This past spring we had a tough hike up to a mine south of Vegas. He went up the hills like it was no problem. It probably wasn't for HIM, but it was for ME! You can see the mine just to the left of his head.

Oh to be young again.....

Joanne

Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2010 10:16 pm

Wow, great job with the pictures and report. That is an area of the canyon that I have never been ambitions enough to visit, thanks!

Its good to see those mines are still open and accessible. Definitely need to get up there and check them out. The metal plate on the cliff wall appears to be the lid off a can of carbide.

Posted: Fri Jul 30, 2010 7:21 pm

Stuart wrote:

Wow, great job with the pictures and report. That is an area of the canyon that I have never been ambitions enough to visit, thanks!

Its good to see those mines are still open and accessible. Definitely need to get up there and check them out. The metal plate on the cliff wall appears to be the lid off a can of carbide.

The mines down in the lower part of Dry Canyon may not be big, but they're definitely interesting... I'm quite curious as to whether the one we hiked up to on Tuesday intersects with the two mines that are above the cliffs. Then again, I'm also interested in the mine down at the bottom where we parked the truck, because it looks like the tunnel goes up but because I don't have the experience, I'm not going to go through the hole in the grating at the mouth of the mine and explore it. I will say this though: Judging by the size of the tailings pile, it appears that the mine was fairly extensive...

There's another adit down in the bottom part that I've peered through the grating into, but I haven't been over to it recently to see if someone has cut through the grating to make it accessible.

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 7:27 pm

Dry Canyon Mine
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42048178@N04/4847570737/
At the top if u click on "ALL SIZES" above each pic it will plow up to the original size.

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 7:40 pm

KDT1970 wrote:

Dry Canyon Mine
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42048178@N04/4847570737/
At the top if u click on "ALL SIZES" above each pic it will plow up to the original size.

So which pics in that album are from that particular mine?

Posted: Sat Jul 31, 2010 7:52 pm

I labeled the 2 from there. I will be going back when time is available. but for know I only have those two. the others are from Honerine and some mines down by Salina, UT.