This old structure looked nondescript at first, however it appears to have been a two-story affair of some sort. I found a lot of rusty iron parts of various sizes in the dirt around it, none that looked like horseshoes, or anything I recognized. A smithy's building perhaps? I had a lot of fun exploring these things.

      And just so you don't think all of the buildings that were still standing were small - this monster is in Bouillon Canyon. It is the remains of an ore mill, and still full of equipment. Bouillon Canyon was one of the richer canyons near Marysvale, and had a gold rush of it's own in the late 1800's. There exists now a wonderful collection of old buildings and interpretive signs throughout the lower reaches of the canyon called Miners Park, courtesy of the State of Utah. It's more or less all open, and discretion is advised when exploring such places. Some of the structures looked pretty unsteady.

     This monolith is a mill of some sort. It was connected to what may have been a conveyor belt that led to it from a mine on the hillside above. It seemed pretty solid, and didn't look as old as some of the other structures behind it. As with most of the things I found, it looked like the miners just walked away as it had a lot of ore still in it. I found another mining operation near Kimberly that appeared to have used a complex aerial tramcar of some sort to carry the ore down the mountainside to a mill that was not unlike this one.

     This is a view up Bouillon Canyon from one of the mines that is about halfway up the hill. You can't see them, but there must be hundreds of mines in this canyon. Up at the top of the canyon is the small waterfall pictured below.

   I was able to ride nearly up to this spot in Bouillon Canyon on my quad. The trail continued on up the hill, and I tried to work my way around to the top of the waterfall on foot to look down it, but the canyon got pretty narrow and rough and I never did find a way. The whole area is full of trails (both vehicle and foot).

     This is a mine that apparently has some potential left to it. Somebody went to a lot of trouble recently to make sure it can be accessed, as it appears to have been caving in at the entrance. That gate is all of eight feet tall!

     This is the gate into the mine. Unlike most of the old mines, it was locked securely. Many of the mines had recent mining claim's tacked up or stored in a visible place. Even some of the ancient mines had deeds, titles, or claim paperwork dated within the past few years. I made sure to put everything back as I found it after I looked it over.

     I rested the camera on the gate, set it to maximum zoom, and took a time exposure of the tunnel. By the naked eye I could only see about 50 feet of tunnel before it faded off into darkness. In a testament to the camera, the photograph showed that the tunnel ended (well over 100' away). You can see where the culvert-pipe ends and the rock-tunnel begins. I would have been pretty freaked out had there been something back there looking at me trying to look at it. Alas, although there was the cool moist breeze smelling slightly sulphurish coming out, there was nothing but dirt.

     Here is a view looking north down into Bouillon Canyon. All of the pictures above were taken in the canyon below! I rode up to the top of the canyon on one of several trails that snake up the edge of the canyon. The ride up was pretty hairy; a thunderstorm had developed on the way up. A lightning strike that was very close nearly caused me to bite off a chunk of the seat with my butt, and I turned around. As with most storms in the high country, it passed quickly and within the hour I was able to return. Incredibly, though it stormed almost every afternoon, I never did get rained on though I rode into many places that had just gotten drenched. (That dark spot on the left over the headlamp is not smoke, just a shadow from a cloud overhead after the storm had broken up.)

     This is from more or less the same spot as the picture above. The view should have been much clearer, but apparently half of California was on fire and the smoke from the fires was apparent. A lot of the folks I met commented on how it usually is much clearer than this. This view is looking northeast, and with binoculars Richfield and I-70 were visible directly over the bike. Marysvale is to the right of the photo, looking down and due east.