Some
of the historic information provided in this blog is from "Backcountry
Adventures Colorado" by Peter Massey, Jeanne Wilson, and Angela
Titus. And, as always, Click on the
pictures to view a larger size - highly recommended for bear pictures!
What a great day. We took the Eureka Gulch Trail to the
Sunnyside Mine with Larry & Cathy.
Their friend, Roy rode along with them.
While I do not think this area is as "scenic" as some of the
other trails, its interesting history makes up for the lack of beauty. And there was snow for Jingles. After Sunnyside, we traveled across Minnie Trail to
look for Moose. We didn't spot any moose
today, but were entertained by two bear.
The trail to the Sunnyside Mine starts
just above the old town site of Eureka.
In its heyday, the population reached 2,000 and boasted stores, bars,
restaurants, a post office & newspaper. Now it is an outlying area for camper
parking. Remains of one of the two mills
is still in evidence in the town site:
The trail up to the mine starts off on a
ledge road, climbs thru a piney forest and ends up at the old mine site. The mine was established in 1873 and was one
of the best producers in the area. It
shut down for a few years in 1931 and re-opened in 1937. Just two years later, the miners went on
strike and the mine shut down again. The
mine continued to operate on and off until 1991 - yes, those are 9s! As recently as the 1960s, the mine was still
producing 600 tons of ore per day.
What could have been a real tragedy
struck on June 4, 1978. Because it was a
Sunday, no miners were working and there were no injuries or fatalities. Mine buildings had been built along the shore
of Lake Emma near the mining operations.
A tunnel that was being excavated about 70 feet under the lake collapsed
and completely drained the lake.
Thousands of gallons of water and MILLIONS of tons of mud & rock
drained in to the American tunnel before gushing out at Gladstone (same area as
the recent Gold King Mine blow out), two miles away and 1,500 feet lower. The cleanup took more than two years.
Here we go up. A lone tree in mine tailings:
Some leftovers of the old tram system that carried the ore:
Dirty Snow = Dirty Dog
Looking on down where Lake Emma "was"
Approaching the "Pink Wall"
The "Pink Wall"
Lighting not so good in the picture.
The pink stone is Rhodonite. It is made into jewelry and sold in area jewelry stores:
Larry's Jeep on the edge:
Larry & Roy:
This old Tram House is on lots of postcards:
See the waterfall just to the left of the opening:
Hole in the cloud:
First bear was all black;
Saw it on the way up Minnie:
Saw second bear in the same area when we were coming back down.
It had a cinnamon color neck:
Decided to take a twilight ride down Hwy 550 to see if we could spot any more critters.
We did see a lot of deer on the way home, but too dark to photograph.
Here's some twilight photos; mostly shot thru the windshield:
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