We return to the cactus-filled arroyos and find the secret to this hike: if you’re good enough to navigate to the mine cross-country, a trail appears! There’s actually small network of decaying roads that must once have been used to access the mine. As soon as we walk a ways up the correct arroyo, there it is.

Contact Mine Trail

The mine site has some nearly buried ruins including an old narrow gauge engine and rails, and a few mine shafts covered by grates. Of course you must peer down the hole through the grate.

Engine

I must look in

Mine Shaft

Ann isn’t ready to turn around yet, so she proposes some exploration up the ridge above the mine. We make our way slowly up to a good viewpoint, then down a different ridge before meeting the trail again.

Us on the ridge