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| Porter Mountain / Sunrise Mine, AZ | |
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| | Porter Mountain / Sunrise Mine, AZ | | | |
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Porter Mountain / Sunrise Mine, AZ
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| Hiking | 5.71 Miles |
1,310 AEG |
| | Hiking | 5.71 Miles | 2 Hrs 54 Mns | | 1.97 mph |
| 1,310 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no linked trail guides |
| Partners |
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| partners | | Drove up to Prescottstyle's ranch in Deering Park, with no idea what he had in mind for today. He suggested Sugarloaf Mountain, on of the hills comprising the Sierra Prieta ridge, just west of Thumb Butte. So out his door we went, and started hiking. 
We headed down a gravel road, past the spread of an old cowboy who played the wagon driver in Johnny Depp’s crappy “Lone Ranger” remake, then headed up a pleasant, but unmarked trail.
We joined Sierra Prieta Trail #264, near the second gate, where a branch trail heads down to Copper Basin. We headed west on Trail #264, continuing to climb, until we reached the West Spruce Pack Trail.
Paul and I stopped to discuss if we should continue past West Spruce Mountain, to Sugarloaf Mountain, or summit — such as it is — Porter Mountain, then do some mine exploring. As the summit of Sugarloaf is well below the summit of West Spruce, actually necessitating a climb up from the summit, at least from the east, we opted for Porter Mountain.
We headed down the pack trail for a few hundred yards, before turning up towards the Porter Mountain summit, all of 150 ft. above us.
Paul tells me Porter Mountain is the most visible summit of the Sierra Prieta ridge, from Prescott, but it is not prominent enough to warrant a summit register, nor a geocache. Nice view though.
Then we headed down the east slope, bushwhacking our way towards Sunrise Mine.
Sunrise Mine was not very large, just four known adits, of which three were dynamited in the 1970s when authorities discovered wildcatters mining for silver & gold.
Paul showed me the fourth adit. The untimbered opening was small, but surrounded by loose dirt and fractured rock. He said had been in there a few weeks ago, and the tunnel only went back 75 ft. and there were no artifacts, other than a pickaxe he had removed. I figured for no payoff, why risk it?
We found many rocks with tiny crystals and interesting mineralization. The most fascinating specimen featured five distinct layers, with thin gaps between several, where the wildcatters had leached trace gold & silver.
Some pretty large PVC pipe ran downhill from one of the dynamited adits. Paul thinks it was used as sluice / ore chute, as something that large isn’t typically used to drain mine water. There pipe is a couple hundred feet long.
Now on an old mining road, at the bottom of the pipe we found a few scattered artifacts … okay, junk … typical of an abandoned mining camp: a 40 gallon barrel, a bed spring, etc. The most interesting artifact was a steel I-beam with old & rotten wood bolted to one side. It was way too big to be an ore cart rail.
After a few post hike brews at Paul’s ranch, my wife & I took AZ-89 home. We picked up dinner at the always awesome T-Bird Cafe in Peeples Valley, then stopped for a few minutes at the Granite Mountain Hotshots memorial south of Yarnell.
Hike Video: [ youtube video ] |
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