Ghosts of the Past: The Simpson Mine (Part 1)

We are a few days within Halloween so I decided to get this part up of the "Ghosts of the Past" series. Again, this is another area I have shown on this blog before. The emphasis is really on the GoPro video that will be public on Oct. 31st., but I do have a lot of pictures I want to show so let's go...

I have talked about the history of the Simpson mine before so I will not do that here, but link to a blog I did before that talks about it below. The deal with this mine it is on a mountain above the town of Lee Vining and Mono Lake. It is really isolated, and the time I was there I was the only one exploring the mine. Getting to the mine is difficult because you do need a 4-wheel drive or high clearance vehicle. This year was a little tougher because of the snow melt that made the roads a lot messier at certain places.

When I arrived the weather was overcast, and it would start raining on the way down. I was sort of disappointed at the time, but then realized it would probably be the best atmosphere for a Halloween video. I walked down the road and soon came across the main structure of the mine.

Turning to my right:

The following pictures emphasize part of the main structure:

Notice the part of the structure that is lifted up:

This would be the inside. In the video I walk all the way up and back. I was careful, but wondered how dangerous it really was. It appeared safe for what I do. Standard disclaimer that I am not responsible for what others do. If someone does go up this thing make sure someone else is nearby. 

I walked further down the road. There is a series of buildings that are connected on the left side that I entered. That will be the next blog entry.

One of things I did was take GoPro video of the drive up to the mine. This video is almost twenty minutes long. It covers just about all of the drive except for a minute or so. If you are into offroad driving videos here it is:

Offroad Drive (Ascending Log Cabin Mine Road)

The Ghost Mine Above Lee Vining (Blog with the history of the Simpson Mine)