Saturday, December 26, 2009

I'm in love with the size of a desert

A few days ago I went with a friend to survey abandoned mines. A day spent doing that beats a day working on manuscripts any day of the week. My friend put me in charge of taking pictures of things. Here are a few of the pictures I took.

A mine entrance


Scary structure - we could hear dirt falling here, so didn't proceed any further


The area where five of the openings were


I made a comment about the harsh conditions these miners were working in, and my friend said, "I know. You look out at that, and it all makes sense why Nevada has legalized prostitution." He's got a point. We almost had to go get some prostitutes ourselves, and we were only out there for a day, and we weren't even blasting holes with dynamite or moving ore carts or anything.



The mines were fenced off in order to let people know to be safe and stay out


Some were fenced off better than others


This mine was one of my favorites


Even if it had experienced instability at some point as evidenced by this giant rock that had fallen from the ceiling


The mine was old enough, and damp enough, that some miniature stalactites had formed


Guano!


This was the mine with the coolest entrance. Fine. I admit it. I'm a sucker for a good 'Keep Out' sign.


This looked a little more stable than the wooden structure pictured above, but we still didn't go down. Safety first!




This mine was really cool too, in part because of the rails for the ore carts. Turns out that's not just something you see in old Scooby Doo cartoons and Donkey Kong video games after all.


The same tracks from the inside of the mine looking toward the entrance.


Guess what else we saw. Bats!!!






So there you have it. A slightly more exciting day in the life of Native Minnow.

9 comments:

Dee Ice Hole said...

But did you scavenge enough guano to fertilize my garden?

Kymical Reactions said...

I like the random appearance of some backpacks in some of the pictures. Next time you go you should strategically place your backpack in all of the shots. Fun and humorous. I’m jealous that you don’t have to deal with snow.

WORD COP said...

That type of mine entrance is called an adit.

Native Minnow said...

Dee Ice, not even close. Just a few pieces from each mine.

Kmwthay, the backpacks are included in some of those pictures for scale. I don't know when the next time I go will be. I'm usually too busy to tag along.

Word Cop, I knew that, but didn't think any of my readers would ;-)

steph said...

wow, that is amazing. i know the tracks through the mines were actually used, but in my head they will always exist in cartoon-land.

Mr. Giggles said...

FUN! Just stay away from Uranium mines...wouldn't want to start glowing, or have appendages start falling off....

Jenny said...

I didn't know it. But I did like your pictures.

Amber said...

that is pretty cool! Seems like a fun and slightly scary day! LOL

Inklings said...

Eeeek!