Spring time at the Vulture mine

We took a trip in april 2010 to the Vulture mine to explore area north of the tourist section of the mine.

We found several fun things along the way..

A desert Tortoise. He was huge. Munching on all the green spring plant growth.

Quite a site in the middle of no where in a desert.

We left him some tasty foods and moved on.

We spotted a maiting pair of HUGE ( 2 foot long ) owls in a mine shaft sitting on a ledge down in a vertical shaft.

lts SO EASY to get there. 2 mile walk in the desert...

We clocked 8.2 miles of walking mostly up/down hill

There were mine claims EVERYWHERE.. There were also signs of gold bearing rock everywhere.

I wish I had brought my metal detector..

We found ALOT of mine shafts circa 1800's with tons of tailings. No doubt deep and extensive.

We believe these are all connected to the Vulture Mine system.

We were 2 miles north of the Vulture Mine. It was quite the walk through desert brush, jumping cactus and lots of hilly terrian

Nice view, 1000 feet about the normal level.

We located what we think was either the other end of the Vulture Mine, maybe the orginal Vulture or a complete different mine.

It was very substantial with a large amount of machery at one time

Shaft.. Concrete, huge and very very deep with water at the bottom.

Rocks drop about 6 seconds before hitting anything, then bounce around on wood and fall another 4-5 seconds..

The equipment bolted to the 3 foot thick foundation must have been huge.

Also down the road, off a dirt road we discovered the grave yard used by the minues in the 1800's.

No names, just crosses and piles of rocks.. It was actually very peaceful and nice.

Most of the graves were in fairly neat rows. However there were some placed almost randomly.

This was a VERY peaceful and pleasant place to be. The only grave stone was for a 9 year old child born in 1874 and died in 1885.

No trip the the VUlture Mine would be complete with dropping some stuff into the fabled mile deep air shaft..

The GPS track of our trip.. The red markers are shaft holes we found.