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| Hiking | 6.95 Miles |
978 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.95 Miles | 3 Hrs 59 Mns | | 2.21 mph |
| 978 ft AEG | 50 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | North to Morning Star Mine A glamping weekend at Morning Star Mine. One of our crew is recovering from an injury so we opted to break this hike into a weekender. We set up a shuttle near the Mine (think we accidentally found a short cut that saved a lot of drive time). We didn't start hiking until late in the morning so needless to say, we were glad our restaurant was only a couple miles away at Kentucky Mining Camp.
The hike starts out with a pretty good hill but it's short and once on top you have great views. You get exposed to some of the history of the area rather quickly with an Interpretive Sign and the remnants of the rock bridge for the big flume that runs up here. You also hike over that big pipe that is in the ground. You do a little road walking and we did have to let some OHV pass us by. It was quite busy out here today but that was the only traffic we encountered.
Walking thru the gulches is pretty cool  and once again there is an interpretive sign letting you know that the holes in the ground, though not obvious, are not natural. Soon we were at Kentucky Camp eating our lunch on a picnic table in the shade on the porch. This is a place I've always wanted to see so I was glad of that. After lunch we walked thru the building and around before heading on to our camp near Morning Star Mine. Once again more road walking but Shawn was stalking out a different route for the AZT to get off the road. Eventually we headed right and up and down a few times. There are great views over the plains to the east of the Whetstones, Mustangs and Chiricahuas. When you're not road hiking the trail is in fine shape.
We checked out a 2016 claim, checked out another claim up on the side of the hill before wandering around Morning Star Mine (the adit is now enclosed for bats). It looks like it was a pretty decent-sized operation. I can't find much info on it except it was part of the Greaterville Mining District and it was a lode claim. (Prior to the 1874 discovery of the placers, early miners of the St. Louis Mine, the Morning Star Mine and nearby workings recovered native gold and silver and gold-bearing cerussitc, as well as argentiferous galena and sphalerite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, and barite, from quartz-calcite veins in the quartz latite porphyry and adjacent sedimentary rocks at Granite Mountain.)
We hung around at camp before heading back to the southern TH to retrieve Shawn's truck and then headed to Sonoita for dinner at The Steakout. My strip steak was awesome and Ambika bot us a bottle of the local wine which was also quite good. We headed back to camp, hung out for awhile before turning in. Ambika got some nite shots and I assisted before turning in myself.
Pictures are done. Three-part video in production 4-21-2017 including inside Kentucky Camp Quarters. (4-24-2017)
Part 1 - to Kentucky Gulch [ youtube video ]
Part 2 - Kentucky Camp [ youtube video ]
Part 3 - to Morning Star Mine [ youtube video ] |
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For me, sometimes it's just as much about the journey as the destination.
Oh, and once in awhile, don't forget to look back at the trail you've traveled. |
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