Video: Historic Mining Structures of SW Colorado

The video was published in 4K UHD, so I recommend watching on the YouTube site (after you click the play arrow, click "YouTube" at the bottom of the player, or click the full-screen icon.

Give it a thumbs-up if you like it and/or leave a comment on YouTube (or here, but it's harder for me to reply to comments here than on YouTube.) Thanks.



The San Juan Mountains in southwestern Colorado are home to many historic mines. From the late 1800s until today this area has been a prime area for mining silver, gold, and other metals. This video shows just a few of the remanent structures to be found in this area. 

Video was taken in 2019 summer and fall; a few stills were taken in prior years. Aerial video taken using a Mavic 2 Pro.

Red Mountain Mining Area & Alpine Ridge

This is the second of five posts covering my trip to the San Juan Mountains of June 11 - 16, 2013. I figured smaller chunks would be more digestible.

June 13, 2013

I departed my camp along South Mineral Creek and headed north on US-550, the Million Dollar Highway. There are theories on the name, but I like to think it is because of the million dollar views from the twisting highway as it works its way up and over Red Mountain Pass. Again no photos as I have both hands on the wheel and there is sheer drop-off at the edge of the pavement with no place to pull off for photos.

My mission was to drive the "Red Mountain Mining Area" trail in the Colorado Backroads guide by Wells and Peterson.

I found the starting point as much by luck as anything. Not the authors' fault, but the junction was poorly marked. I carefully followed their directions, crossing a couple small bridges and drove by the Cora Bell Mine.

The Cora Bell Mine

I continued along the windy, narrow road. I honked my horn before going around a couple blind curves as the sight-lines were very restricted. I came around a bend and the famous Yankee Girl Mine and its "often photographed shaft house" was in sight.

From this area I could look west back across the valley and see the Idarado Mine.

View of the Idarado Mine along US-550.

The road climbs a few switchbacks and I'm carefully following the guidebook so I don't get on one of the many wrong roads. I then arrive as the Genessee Mine.

This photo actually taken from a scenic overlook on US-550 using a telephoto lens on my way to Ouray.

Another photo from the scenic overlook on US-550 with the Idarado Mine in the foreground. Look just above the left end of the trestle and you can see the Yankee Girl Mine across the valley.

From the Genessee Mine I got lost. I don't know if the road has changed since they wrote the book or their directions were poor or I didn't follow the directions properly. After a couple of dead-ends I did stumble upon the right route, but the road took a nasty dip and my hitch-receiver mounted steps got whacked.

However, I did find my way to the National Bell Mine - or what little is left of it. I had to ask a couple amateur geologists if that pile of rocks was that mine, which was important as the book uses that mine as a landmark to make a turn. The book also directs you to cross a bridge, which apparently no longer exists, but I did manage to get on the right path and made it to the Longfellow Mine.

Longfellow Mine

Still some equipment surviving at the Longfellow Mine.

From here you are almost back to US-550 where you turn left, then quickly left again back off the highway to begin the next leg of this trail.

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The road along this high ridge, what the book calls the U.S. Basin road, is truly breath-taking. The  top of the long ridge is above 12,000 feet in elevation. You can look across the deep valley and see the trails to Ophir Pass and Black Bear Pass (Telluride.)

This road leading up to the high ridge begins innocently enough, through lovely forest and meadows.

Lower section before the real climbing begins.

Then the road gets quite steep and narrow. I was fortunate the only truck I met on that stretch was at a switchback with barely room for two. Once it got up high, it widened out a bit... at least in sometimes.

I stopped here to take photos.

This panorama shows the road and view to the west from the POV of the photo above. Click here for larger version.

Then more climbing up the narrow road.

Climbing above the tree line, now.

A 180 degree view from the high ridge - the road is straight at this point, so use your imagination to unbend the five wide-angle images from which this panorama was created. Click here for a larger image.

Getting near the top. The view is in a northerly direction toward Red Mountain Pass.

Panorama at the crest of the road looking in a southerly direction. Click here for larger version.

The road dives steeply from here on, though the heavily forested Browns Gulch, and returns to US-550.

I turned north on the highway, retracing my track from earlier in the day. I stopped at a scenic overlook by the Idarado Mine and took the photos you saw earlier in this post.

The scenery coming into Ouray is very dramatic, but I didn't get any photos worth sharing. I need to return to this spectacular area on another trip. By the time I got to Ouray proper, it was hot, at least compared to what I was used to feeling. The town was filled to overflowing with tourists, so I drove on through. It was too hot to even think about camping in the area, so I quickly changed plans. I continued to Ridgeway where I turned west and headed for the Last Dollar Road - the subject of my next post.

Thanks for reading.

Silverton Colorado Area

This is the first of five posts covering my trip to the San Juan Mountains of June 11 - 16, 2013. I figured smaller chunks would be more digestible.

I was looking forward to a return trip to southwestern Colorado after my brief taste on my last trip at the end of May. Since my last trip, and based upon my experience of just how rocky some of the backroads could be, I replaced my OEM tires with the highly recommended BF Goodrich All-Terrain, E-rated tires. This time I would be ready!

June 11, 2013

I joined US-550 just north of Albuquerque and followed it through northwest New Mexico to  Durango, then toward the high country. First stop would be the area around Silverton. From there I planned to visit some old mines, then continue on the highway to Ouray in order to come over and around to the "top" of the Last Dollar Road. Now that I had good tires I'd traverse that road to the Telluride area and then explore that area before heading home in about a week.

US-550 between Durango and Silverton, CO

From Durango, this highway is part of the San Juan Scenic Skyway. Some of the best views were in sections where there was a steep drop-off down to the Animas River and no place to pull over, so I can't show you photos of that.

180 degree panorama of Molas Pass. Click here for larger image.

Back in 1973 I'd travelled this way in my '68 VW Campmobile. I remembered camping along a river just north of Silverton and how beautiful it was. I found the area, South Mineral Road, on Google Maps and wanted to see if I could find my exact campsite, plus explore farther up this valley.

Surprisingly enough, I did find the exact spot I'd camped all those years ago. I also remembered that it did not get much sun and the morning was very cold even in summer. Even though my new rig has a great furnace, I thought I'd explore up the road as it was still plenty early and see if I could find another campsite.

Turns out there are quite a few dispersed camping areas all along South Mineral Creek, in case anyone is interested. At the end of the maintained section of the road is the South Mineral Campground, run by the NFS. It is very nice, but so are the other sites and they're free. In fact in some of the dispersed camping areas near the river the forest service has provided very nice vault toilets.

I decided I try heading even farther up the road and check out the Bandora Mine. This route is part of a trail in the Colorado Backroads guide by Wells and Peterson.

Just past the South Mineral Campground on the way to Bandora Mine.

After passing the campground, the road enters the deep woods and passes this little waterfall.

Ice Lake Creek. Ice Lake is a popular hiking destination.

But very soon the road emerges from the forest and hangs onto the side of the canyon.

The road & creek had been going west, but then both turn south.

And then the road gets very rocky. I stopped to reconnoiter. It appeared easily passible, just very, very bumpy.

Rocky road.

 From here I drove through a minor brook and saw the mine. The road cuts through the mine tailings then down close to the creek where I looked back to take the photo below.

Bandora Mine. Like most in this area, long abandoned.

The road continued on, fording the creek a couple more times. There are supposed to be nice camp sites not much farther where the road ends, but I chose instead to drive back down the road and look for a camp site in one of the pretty areas along the river that I'd seen on my drive in.

There were many sites to chose from. I ended up here.

First night's camp site with a wonderful view.

June 12, 2013

The next morning after coffee and breakfast I took a nice walk up the creek. There were lots of flowers, butterflies, and great views. With one exception I'm not including my flower photos in this posting as I took better ones later which I'll include in future installments. I found this macro photo interesting...

When I took this photo of a small cinquefoil flower I did know that there was an ant in the picture. It wasn't until I was post-processing the image that I realized the ant was eating another ant! Look closely.

Reflection in a beaver pond.

I'd been keeping an eye out for dragonflies and damselflies, but had seen none on my walk up the river. On my way back to camp I walked along the road and found this one guy on the shoulder. The only Odonate I saw the entire trip.

A Northern Bluet damselfly.

South Mineral Creek, which I keep referring to as a river, because I'm from New Mexico.
The road runs parallel and along the river though the valley.

There were lots of butterflies all along the river.

Common Alpine butterfly

Field Crescent butterfly

A Greenish Blue butterfly - that's the common name, not just a description.

When I'd stopped at the federal lands information center in Durango the previous day, the helpful lady highly recommended that I visit the old mining town of Animas Forks. What was left of the town has been "stabilized" by volunteers to preserve as much of the history as possible. To get there one drives through Silverton.

Silverton, CO. View from US-550 south.

Silverton is a tourist destination and the terminus of the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad. It is not as polished or as pretty as Telluride. It is a smaller town which gives off more of a working-class vibe. There is no popular ski resort here and though the area is lovely, it is not as spectacular as around Telluride. Consequently, there are not the crowds of tourists either, which some may appreciate.

When I stopped at the Silverton Tourist Bureau for info, the excursion train backed into a siding nearby for maintenance after dropping its passengers at the station in town. I took many photos, but it was not a scenic spot for really nice photographs. The two photos I include here of the engine, I converted to B/W to provide a bit of historical flavor.

To get to Animas Forks you take the road past the Mayflower Mine, up along the Animas River.

Above the old Eureka Mine site the road is recommended only for high-clearance, 4WD vehicles, though I soon discovered that Colorado folk are not afraid to take their passenger cars up roads that give me pause.

An old mine above Eureka.

I was surprised just how many other folks were headed up this same road. As I was a slow poke, I kept pulling over to let the Jeeps and SUVs go past. Then arrived at the ghost town.

Two houses in Animas Forks

The foundation of an old mine workers' bunkhouse with the mine itself in the background.

Another of the stabilized houses.

I wonder if the miners had time to admire the view? Probably not.
Perhaps whoever owned this fine house had time to look out the window.

There was a small flock of Gray Jays in the woods behind the town.

Took this out of my window on my drive back down the mountain.

After returning down the mountain, I stopped in Silverton for an early dinner on my way back to find a camping spot again along South Mineral Creek.

Camping along South Mineral Creek.

There were sites in the trees with grass if one wanted to pitch a tent, but with the camper I chose to get closer to the river. I enjoyed sitting there admiring the mountain peaks in the evening light and listening to the river lullaby when I went to bed.

Here you can see my camp chair and the lovely view.

This concludes the first post covering my first two days in Colorado. Thanks for reading.

My next post will cover the old mines of Red Mountain and an extremely scenic drive along a high ridge overlooking the Million Dollar Highway. I've already processed the photos for all the following posts, so hopefully I will get them written very soon.