In Blue: Grand National Mine

Shasta-Trinity National Forest

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3

static map — Brown lines for day 3. Click for interactive map

Seeing the Grand National Mine had been a thought for the previous day, but since we hadn't got to it, we decided to stop by on the way out. There was plenty of time. It did mean we wouldn't get to see what the lower trail was like, but sometimes you just have to make sacrifices. First, I took a little longer exploring the lake, this time looking for "better" water.

116: reflective water and grey — Mist plays across the water once more.

119: mists looking almost animated in the still picture — Watching the mists cross the lake.

121: mists on the water — Watching the mists from another angle.

There's a few well used camps along the west side of the lake with a couple well trod trails getting among them. Some were more elaborately situated than others.

122: bird standing on a log — A spotted sandpiper hunts from a floating log.

123: rock seats evenly spaced around a rock campfire ring — A very fancy campfire ring around the west side of Tangle Blue Lake.

I did find water in a far meadow, it's just questionable that it was better water than the much more easily obtained outflow water. Plus I got my feet wet again. Plus I got quite a lot more wet in the soggy low tree tunnels that were part of the travel to the far end of the lake.

124: lush meadow — A lush meadow full of flowing wet stuff and puddling wet stuff.

125: yellow flower thickly coated with water drops — Somewhere in all that dew is a monkeyflower.

126: shadowed lake — The morning light is coming to the shadowed lake. Eventually.

We were leisurely in packing up, getting some of the water off our tents. When all items were packed, we headed out toward the mine on the high trail.

128: new trail — Lots of work went into making this new trail.

We dropped off most our gear for the short hike, just over a mile total, to the mine. It was quite apparent how much work had gone into making the trail even as if follows the road. Below the junction, rocks and crib logs support a hiking surface that stays high out of the captured water that flows down the road when it rains. Sometimes the trail's route leaves the road a little. Above the junction, there's rocky erosion to choose your own fate through. It's not quite so nice a hike.

130: lots of trees and some bare mountain tops — There's some views from the road. Way back there under the puffs of cloud is where we met the PCT the day before.

134: road among brush — Nearing the top where the erosion isn't very bad.

Someone had marked a few things around the mine on OpenStreetMap, including a stamp mill, which may have left me with greater expectations of what we would find than is actually warranted.

135: big pile of wood debris — The collapsed rubble marked "stamp mill" on the map.

136: cam and wheel — Perhaps that cam shaft was part of running the stamps?

The mine sits high on the west facing slope of the valley just east of Tangle Blue Lake and offers some long views of the area. We found several established camp sites. I'm not sure what people use for water although the old water gathering might work in winter. From what we saw, the closest water is about a quarter mile back down the trail, but it was running fine as we passed.