The
trail to Prospect Gulch is actually a county road, but not recommended unless
you have a 4-wheel. For some reason, it
seems to be less traveled than the other trails. We rarely encounter others which is a good thing
on some of the narrow, steep parts of the trail where passing would be impossible and I don't want to be the one to have to back-up. There are some old mines in this area built
in the early 1900s: The Lark Mine, the
Henrietta Mine, & Galena Queen Mine. We are frequently blocked by snowdrifts
or washouts on this trail, but were able to get thru today.
Good views of Red Mountain #3
The tramway was built in the early 1900s and ran from the Henrietta Mine to the base of the gulch 5300 feet below and parts are still standing. Once again, there is evidence of the old mining operations.
After
this trail, we traveled on to Minnehaha Basin to Hippie Town We actually get to over 13,000 feet elevation
on this ride. Got it's name because the legend is that hippies moved into the shacks to live off the land for free, but didn't last thru the first winter. Today, there were several
cars & men out pounding stakes at Hippie Town, so we didn't stop and take
pictures there of the old Lincoln, old buildings & mattress nailed to the
top of a tree. They said they were
moving in, so I am guessing they are building a house there. Here are a couple of old pictures:
The old Lincoln is now a Marmot Condo:
You can see the mattress on the old tree just left of the structure:
We
went on around the base of Bonita Peak and looked down on the Upper Gold King
Mine (where the Feds caused the mine blowout last year that contaminated the
rivers all the way to Lake Powell). I have
some interesting pictures of the blow-out in last year's blog if you are interested.
The
wildflowers were abundant in this area.
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