Horse Mountain Mine

Six Rivers National Forest

(Map link.)

After wandering around the peak of Horse Mountain once more, I moved just a short way down the road to the gate above Horse Mountain Mine. It will probably open soon, but is still closed to try to protect healthy Port Orford cedars in the watershed below and especially those right next to it. All the better for me, since I was planning on walking it instead of driving it. There is a big turnout in front of the gate making parking easy.

locked gate on a road in the mist — The top of 6N38, which leaves directly from Titlow Hill to drop down to Horse Mountain Mine.

The road was absolutely lined with fawn lilies as I started down. There's some little streams similarly populated by onions and moss and something that looks like it will be irises. Out of the water, a few other irises can be found already blooming. I very quickly came upon evidence of mining.

terraces in a graveled and barren area — It's either a gravel quarry or a mine and the local area history would suggest mine.

temporary building permanently left and holed — A bit of boxcar? I guess if someone's left a bit of metal around, there's nothing to be done except shoot it.

showy white flowers beside a cedar — A small patch of yellowleaf irises.

As I dropped down, it cleared up a bit until I was out in the sun without my hat. The main mine area, or at least where the label occurs on the map, is about halfway down where there is one tunnel marked. There are also ruins (mostly foundations) for various mine related buildings including some processing stuff.

cement slab on a large turnout with background mountains — A foundation with a view. The building is down the side.

more foundations below — Also with a view of the old ore processing through the trees below.

water pool beside the road — A pair of ponds are near the tunnel.

grill across a hole — The tunnel is closed off to humans, but not to bats. It isn't very large and is certainly not the one mined area.

walls around a road — A secondary, abandoned road passes through the old ore processing and climbs up on the far side.

expanse of concrete — The ore processing area was quite extensive.

The road deteriorates below the processing area and the obvious evidence of mining vanishes. Instead, there are azaleas. The first I spotted was nearly alone, but there are also hillsides. A few bushes are in full swing with their flowers and a lot more have buds getting ready for the show. I also spotted a curious cedar with a particularly droopy character.

a few flowers, bigger and showy — The first azaleas I spotted, but there was one more bush above that I noticed on the way up.

large boulder in the trees — Giving up on views, largely, but there's some mild mountains nearby.

drooping branches — A particularly drooping figure, even with a few cones on it, is the Port Orford cedar.

more azaleas — A hillside of azaleas. There are a lot of other bushes mixed in. The azaleas might be only half of what's there.

small white bells of madrone — I caught a few madrones in bloom.

timber covered valley — A little bit of view with the madrone leaning and reaching out from among the pines and cedars into the valley air.

Down near the bottom of the road, it crosses a couple creeks. The provided a delightful noise before the road came to a rather arbitrary end, or at least any sort of recent maintenance. I could see the shelf of a road further along, but it helps to be bear sized to duck under all the branches while weaving around all the bushes.

water flowing down, in little jumps, a little water — Flowing down, down, down.

chain of flowers hanging down — The silk tassels are starting to be the shell instead of the flower and were certainly not something I expected to find up here.

bumble bee crawling on a sea of white flowers — Bumble bees love ceanothus.

After poking my way a few feet further down the brush clogged road way, I decided I was not all that bear shaped and still needed to get back to the top before dark. The maps I had weren't feeling any need to enlighten me on where the road might continue on to. Any exploration was completely out of the scope of the plan. I turned back.

branches of each cedar — On the left, the symmetric and ordered Port Orford cedar, and on the right, the stouter incense cedar which has branches that twist and give me the impression that it is in the midst of some sort of fan dance.

More orderly branches that give a lacy appearance even if they aren't drooping.

waxy leaves of three and little white/green flowers — It's rather sparse at 3600 feet, but there's poison oak about.

cloud bursting over the top — There's still clouds on the other side of the mountain ridge.

not exactly snow covered peaks — Surely there should be more snow out there?

flower puffs in white — I expect they are onion, but I didn't give them a good sniff.

drooping white flowers — More fawn lilies all over the top.

Once to the top, I needed to get to camp. Instead, I walked over to the sign that mentioned the Port Orford cedar have a bit of a droopy look to them. Then I couldn't help noticing a well used trail on the other side of the road. I followed it along a short way to where it intersected another trail at the base of a rock that looked like it might be a good spot for a view. It wasn't a good spot right then because the clouds were blowing up into a thick fog all around. I might have gone up anyway, but it would require getting my shoes soggy from bushes full of droplets. Coastal plants, always grabbing water from the clouds.

purple and white flowers — I found some lovely little violets along the side of the trail.

There's plenty of room for dispersed camping right at the top of the road and even an impacted tent space south of the gate. There was also already a camper parked there and people with rambunctious driving heading up the mountain, so I decided to move a little down the road. I found a minimal space at 4E35, which is a short road down to a watering hole. There's a much nicer space, but it was just the other side of a closed gate. I set up my table at one end of the car for cooking and dropped my bag and mat beside it for sleeping, so only needed a minimal space anyway. It had cleared again and the only chance of rain was slight on Thursday, so I didn't bother with a tent. The moon popped up as the sun set as if on a string and I wondered when the eclipse was supposed to be. Since it was to be visible all over the Pacific, probably in the early morning. I didn't stay up for it.

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