Silver Creek - Mineral City — Saturday, Mar. 9, 2024

My last visit to the Sunset copper mine was back in 2018. Repairs to the Index Galena road were just beginning to take shape then and are now completed with the road higher up on the hillside and erosion control being placed between it and the river. The old road leading to the mill foundation site is now gated close to the road. Room for a few vehicles to not block access to the gate. We hiked up in a few inches of intermittent snow that was deeper and thicker as we ascended. Gaiters were nice to have. Giant moss covered boulders on the slope above are pretty amazing to see.  We hiked along the road bed for a while till we came across fresh flagging tape indicating the trail to the mine shafts. I found it easier to follow in the snow than later in the season and the frequent tape kept us going in the correct direction.. that and a very accurate trail map on the GPSr. As we ascended in the forest canopy, I noticed a split in the trail I hadn't known about before, and some led to other adits along the way. All of which are appropriately labeled KEEP OUT. The last section of the trail is rather steep, but short and soon we were facing the Gaping Maw opening of the mine shaft. Its quite impressive to see. I didn't explore inside the shaft at all but you can feel a bit of a breeze flowing here. I figured the other trail I saw below likely led up around the area to the south so we meandered over and sure enough, an equally large opening presented itself. A couple more adits were spotted which my dog really wanted to explore. The rain and cold were starting to get to me at this point so we made our way down following the flagging til we intersected our original path up.