Weather:  Overcast - rainy for the first 45 minutes or so.
Present were:  Gordon, K7HFV; Clint, KA7OEI; Bruce, KI7OM; Randy, KG7GI; Randy, N7BRP
Destination:  Up the Honeycomb fork of Silver Fork of Big Cottonwood canyon to the bowl below the pass.
Comments:  It took about 1:45 for everyone to meet at the top.  We hung around for a while until Mr. Adams returned from a brief side trip to the pass - the ridge between big and little Cottonwood Canyons.
Question of the day:  "Where are they?"  Clint (following Bruce) departed from the rest of the group and rejoined the main trail slightly later.  Mr. Adams also took off ahead of Gordon and Randy.  At the end of the trail (the bowl below the pass) all were reunited - having taken the same trail.  Having three separate groups no doubt prompted this question.
Total distance:  About 4.7 miles, up and back.
Times:  Start:  1851;  Turnaround:  20:49;  Return to vehicle:  2151
Altitudes in feet ASL (approx):  Vehicle:  8100;  Main mining camp:  9200;  Turnaround at bowl:  9544
Elevation gain/loss:  1444 feet (approx.)
Local sunset on this date:  8:58 pm

Images (300-1200k each, .JPG):

• IMG01067 - A shot up the old mining road.  (Sorry, it's somewhat out of focus.)
• IMG01068r - A view up towards the Honeycomb Cliffs from just below the mining camp.
• IMG01069 - Dramatic sunset lighting toward the north, across the canyon.  Similar, but less-dramatic is #1070.
• IMG01071- Remains of one of the structures at the Woodlawn Mine camp.
• IMG01079r - Another shot of the cliffs.  At the top, you can see a metal mast - visible from and fairly close to the abandoned steam engine at the Prince of Whales mine at the top of Silver Fork (just on the other side of the mountain.)

Maps/profiles:

• A topo map showing the traveled route, as recorded with a GPS receiver.
• An elevation profile of the trip.
• GPS track on a more-detailed map.

About the Woodlawn Mine:

While the big mining boom in the Solitude area occurred in the 1870's, the remnants seen up the Honeycomb Fork of Silver Fork (near the Solitude Ski resort) are mostly those of the Woodlawn mine.  Excavation of this mine began at around 1900 and continued intermittently until the 1940s.  In 1915, the Kentucky mine (the portal of which, from what I can tell, appears known as the "Alta Tunnel" - which is the mine that one passes not too far up Silver Fork) was begun to excavate minerals as well as to provide drainage to the Woodlawn and other nearby mines.

The primary minerals of the Woodlawn mine are lead ores, such as Galena and Cerussite, Pyrite, as well as other Manganese and Iron-based minerals.

A very interesting page concerning a court case relating to water rights to mine discharges may be read here.  This case has a brief history of some of the relevant mines, as well as some interesting insight into the geology of the area.

The Utah Mine Locations page of the Trainweb site give the location of many of the mines in the area.

Comments:

• Owing to the weather, group separation, and darkness related to the time and weather, fewer pictures were taken than normal.
• If you want one (or more) of these images and wish some sort of adjustment (color, brightness, exposure, etc.) please let me know:  All of these image have been processed in some way.
• These images are 500-1200k in size, .JPG and are in chronological order.
• No-one ever said that all of these images (or any of them) were good.  Some of them may have definite focus/exposure "issues."
• EXIF data is present for most of the images, showing time, date, and precise exposure conditions.  Recent versions of Irfanview will show this in the "View->Image Information->EXIF" tab.
• All images taken using a Sigma SD-10 camera using the 18-50mm zoom lens.

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