One of the mines near me explored. Options

[Forestwalker]

I've been staying with an aunt and uncle in the Colorado foothills going to school in fort collins and there happen to be tons of little mines and prospects near me. I doubt any were for gold since this area is not known for it and I sampled the river in the drainage below with no luck for gold (although many weird metamorphics and sulfides.

I went to a really cool pair of pits yesterday about 4 miles away in the national forest nearby. There was a surprising amount of metal in the rock, and some were black from staining but mostly rusty red. Other rocks were schistose, others massive. Large ammounts of pyroxene, vein quartz, and metamorphics littered the hillside. A few rocks from the tailings had visible crystals of a dark silvery metallic mineral forming in the cracks.

Here's a very mineralized rock.


Here's another my aunt found that's got what looks like some copper stuff collecting where there was a crack.


A small vein of quartz running up through the schisty stuff in the small pit.


Here's a strange rock, it seems to be a hodgepodge of many of the rocks in the hillside like Precambrian pink granite and pyroxene etc all mashed up.



Then there was a fairly deep mineshaft blasted out going back about 130' into an area that looked a whole lot less mineralized. The rock was safe and not crumbling, hard stuff and it did not dip down so I figured CO2 or radon etc would not pool inside.. so I went inside. It was tall enough to stand and the air smelled good all the way back to the holes they had drilled but not blasted. There was mineralization but not as much, the rock was harder than the pit about 200' away and there were voids filled with small quartz crystals like the ones you can find anywhere on that hill eroding out.

Here is the mineralized ceiling.


Here's a shot of the tunnel, they must have found something that interested them here since they used a lot of explosives and effort to make this hole.

[Forestwalker]

Here's another mine about a mile away. Its all ash and sulfur so I don't know what they were mining here. We stunk for a day after going in this one.

There were a lot of places people had obviously scooped out the rock/ash, a few seem to be visible in the upper left side of the pic.

[Denise]

Sure looks like a fun adventure. Safety first though......I dont see a hard hat on the person in the pic.

You know the old saying... "Stay out and stay alive"!! Especially if you are unfamiliar with the area or unsure of its land status. There are alot of unseen dangers going into old mines. Just wanting to see you safe to post another day Forestwalker.

[Forestwalker]

We're pretty safe, we have hard hats but did not use them in that mine, we should have since that first few feet in where she is has a high overhang of hard rock. We always check for pack rat nests/scat to check the air and leave brush over the hole to keep others out and to know if a lion made a home of it next time we go there. We look for explosives and caps and areas of previous cave ins and only one of the 3 of us goes in at a time. We've all got CPR/first aid/Lifeguard training and have a family friend who does search and rescue here who we talk to about staying safe.

We've been in all of the holes many times over the years cept one which is defiantly not safe and we won't go in. Its a weak schist and not sturdy like the others.

I've checked all the owner status and they are all very old and now public, all in national forest land.

[Coalbunny]

Here's another mine about a mile away. Its all ash and sulfur so I don't know what they were mining here. We stunk for a day after going in this one.

There were a lot of places people had obviously scooped out the rock/ash, a few seem to be visible in the upper left side of the pic.

Get a hard hat. You'll laugh that off until you scrape yer noggin on the roof.....
Trust me!

[Forestwalker]

Get a hard hat. You'll laugh that off until you scrape yer noggin on the roof.....
Trust me!

I have one, going in the tool bag.