SWPA 2017 september monthly outing
Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2017 6:17 pm
Spent the weekend out in the Sunflower Mine area. Sunflower mine is in the mercury belt and one of the larger mercury mines in the area. The processing plant has since been torn down by the state along with other processing plants in the area for our "safety". The mine shafts themselves have either been blasted closed or gated off (bats use the old shafts). The main trail to the Sunflower processing plant is closed as a fire left the terrain free of vegetation which caused some debris to tangle with the only bridge and move it off of its foundation making it no longer safe to use. As the bridge was in a very tight canyon there is no real easy way around it so that portion of the trail remains closed until the state figures out what to do. In most cases they just decide to leave it closed and move on.