Our original plan was to attempt summiting Iron Mountain and then going on to find the Gold Dollar Mine, Eagle Mine, and Baldora/Widco mines, in that order. We knew that the plan was ambitious and we probably wouldn't make it to all the mines. Not to mention, this was our first visit to Iron Mountain, but we thought we were in good enough shape to make the hike.
We started out at 4:00 in the morning, and it was very cold, probably in the 30s. Even though it had rained the past couple of days, there wasn't any snow at any point during the hike and the rain actually helped the trail conditions. We hiked first 5 miles to Coldwater saddle and made fairly good time, arriving around 6:15. We stopped for a short break to hydrate and catch our breath. Next was the very steep 2.5-mile push to the summit. The sun was out without a cloud above us, warming things up considerably.
We only stopped once to eat a little bit on the final push to the summit. After about 5 hours and 15 minutes of hiking, we made it to the summit, at around 9:15. I would consider that an accomplishment, considering this was both of our first attempts at Iron mountain.
We stopped and ate on the summit and stayed about 15 minutes to eat and rest up for the next part - the San Antonio Ridge. The distinctive bump on the ridge above the Gold Dollar mine looks deceivingly close. From the vantage point of the summit, it looked like it would take much less than the 2-3 hours that other hikers had estimated the traverse of San Antonio ridge would take.
Boy was I wrong. It took us about 2 hours to get to our next goal, and the traverse of the ridge, though not extremely dangerous, was slow, technical, and at sometimes painful. (oh how I hate yucca) We mainly stayed on the south side of the ridge, since it was much less exposed. There was no trail to follow, and much of the route involved forcing our way through bushes and climbing up and down the 'notches' of the ridge.
- The 'Notches' of San Antonio Ridge.
It was about 11:30 when we left the ridge and started descending towards the Gold Dollar Mine. After a while of descending, relying on the GPS to bring us to the mine, we came to the cables described in other TRs. They are attached to the trees and run approximately 1000 feet or more down until they finally reach the ruins of the Gold Dollar Mine. The ruins I visited, pictured below, have some rails that seemingly come out of the slope and end above a large (10' x 15') wooden bin of some sort. From the bin, the cables continue down until they reach the ruins of another building several hundred feet down the slope. Right next to the bin are some artifacts, such as a wheelbarrow and a large metal box that I assumed was lowered down on the cables. (Unfortunately, I didn't take as many pictures as I would like, I was so gassed I didn't even really think about it much)
My guess would be that at least one mine shaft was higher up on the slope, and the ore was lowered down on the cables to the bin, and then to the building below? Does anyone know if there was a shaft right were the rails seemingly come out of the slope? I was also wondering if anyone knew of any Gold Dollar mine entrances still open, or are they all collapsed?
- Rails
After exploring a bit, we continued on. Instead of exploring the lower ruins of the Gold Dollar mine and continuing on to Dry Gulch, we followed a faint but noticeable trail that leads southeast away from the ruins towards the ridge that descends into Coldwater Canyon. Along the way, we came upon a small exploratory dig that went in about 5-10 feet.
After about a mile, the trail disappeared, and we were left to follow the ridge all the way down. The descent was brutal, and there were no signs that anyone had been there before. The descent was much steeper than the steepest parts of the Iron mountain ascent, and there was nowhere where we could stop and rest. Finally, after more than 2 hours of this brutal descent, we came out at the bottom of Dry Gulch, where we were finally able to stand without hanging on to trees and bushes.
A quick glance at my GPS told me that we were 0.18 miles down the gulch from the closest ruins of the Baldora/Widco mines. I let my Dad know, but he said he would wait for me where we were but I could go looking for the ruins while he rested. Leaving my backpack behind, I brought just my water bottle, GPS, and Camera with me. I walked up the gulch for about 10 minutes and started looking for metal, wooden boards, or other signs of human activity. I knew what I was looking for since I had seen pictures from previous posts of the Baldora and Widco mines.
Finally, up ahead, I saw a metal pipe sticking up out of the ground. I hurried towards it, only to find it was just a large branch sticking up out of the ground. Continuing on, I saw, not more than 50 feet ahead, a wooden wheel of some sort, but when I came closer, I saw that it was just a pile of wood from a fallen tree. Tired and confused, but not about to give up, I continued up the gulch. After a short while, up ahead, I thought I saw the remains of the rusted truck that had been abandoned here years before. But when I got closer, it just wasn't there. I stopped for a moment, worried that I was starting to see things. I was without water, I had left my bottle in the stream bed a distance back because it was slowing me down. I told myself that I would only continue walking for 50 yards more, and if I didn't find any ruins, I would turn around. Right as I was reaching my limit, I saw, to the left through some trees and past a small rise, what looked like a corrugated metal roof. Coming closer I could see, through the trees, wooden walls. I started walking up the rise, paying close attention to my footing, but when I got to the top, what I thought had been a building was just the side of a cliff. More than a little worried now, I turned around and headed back quickly, picked up my bottle, and found my dad. I had only been gone for a little over 20 minutes.
We made our way down dry gulch into Coldwater Canyon, and found the rope from the Coldwater Saddle trail, hanging from the slope of the canyon. We made it up the rope uneventfully and started up the trail out of Coldwater Canyon and towards the saddle. As others have said before, this trail is FULL of yucca. We hadn't brought a clipper and only some of the yuccas had been cut. (Thanks to whoever cut these back in November, I would have died without you) Every couple feet one of us would get stabbed as we tried to squeeze, jump, or do anything to avoid the painful needles of the yuccas. Coming at the end of such a brutal hike we weren't entirely prepared for, this was the most demoralizing part. The trail is really washed out in sections, but nothing extremely dangerous. The trail got especially bad as we neared the saddle, but finally, we pushed through some bushes and came out on the Coldwater Saddle.
The next 5 miles down to the parking lot were slow, but at least there was a trail and the yuccas were all cut back where they needed to be. We got back to the car at around 7:00, for a total of about 17 miles in 15 hours. We had missed getting both the Eagle Mine and the Baldora/Widco mines, but we'll be back.
Also, a couple questions: Does anyone think it's possible to get the summit and all three or four mines in one day? Would it have been better to descend from the Gold Dollar Mine through Dry Gulch instead of taking the ridge down to Coldwater Canyon? Let me know what you think!
