Saturday, January 25, 2025

Twisted Metal Mine - 1/24/25

David enters one of the Twisted Metal gypsum mine Adits

Wheelbarrow artifact at Twisted Metal Mine

View straight into an Adit

Our approach on a bike Trail
Another new hike for the club, the Twisted Metal Mine is located at the base of the North Blue Diamond Hill escarpment on the southeast side behind the gypsum board plant. There is a large gravel trailhead on SR 159 for this hike. It is 1.5 miles from the community of Blue Diamond, NV and 1.5 miles from the junction of SR 159 & SR 160 in the other direction on the northeast side of the road. There are a lot of bike trails in this area, too. We used one called Domingo for part of the loop. We set off through an opening in the fence on a road and veered to our right. Crossing the wash, we joined the Domingo bike trail to head toward the escarpment. After winding through some rock layers, we came to a fork.

Warming up on the Domingo bike Trail

View back toward Trailhead

Sign at fork - We went left.

Leaving trail to start hill Climb
We took the left fork and continued straight. The trail crossed an old road with another sign that indicated "Domingo." Eventually, the trail veered to the left without much fanfare and we continued straight again. But, soon after that, we turned left to cross a wash and start up a long hill. The yellow sandstone at the top of the hill was our target. We bushwhacked up until we were able to turn left onto the sandstone cliffs. There is a vague trail that led us on a traverse that has a bit of exposure. Be careful here. The small trail has a few hazardous small rocks. Part of the group of hikers chose to take the higher traverse but also ran into some difficult terrain. Nonetheless, we all reached the mine road on the other side.

Twisted Metal Mine Landscape

Group climbs to higher route Level

Lower route has vague exposed Trail

Higher route has difficult Terrain
The mine road was well-built as it was shored up with a beautiful rock wall. There was probably heavy equipment on that road during the mine's heyday. The first road fork to the right led up to two mine adits. We explored the entrances and reconnected with the road just below. Another fork to the right led to two more adits. All of the adits were the same size. Finally, back on the main lower road, another fork up to the right led to a fifth and final adit. This adit was deeper. David explore inside but the rest of the group chose to stay outside. There were mine artifacts all around. The remains of ore car tracks led off the cliff to the left. Next, we followed the road through hills where there was likely a small bridge at one time.

Starting down the mine road with built stone Wall

View back up the mine road with Las Vegas in Background

Blue Diamond Gypsum Plant from ore car Track

Hikers ponder the Adit
Passing a few more artifacts, we followed the main road all the way down the side of the escarpment to the wash below. While we waited for the rest of the group to arrive, we took our break. Going in and out of the last adit caused a little bit of a mixup above us. But, we did find everyone and gathered again at the wash. Starting out for the return, we headed down the rocky wash until it took a turn to the left. We turned to the right and started a bushwhack. We could see where we wanted to go (the trailhead area) in the distance. Crossing a couple of washes and roads, we bushwhacked happily straight back to the cars. As we hiked, we passed the Blue Diamond Gypsum Mine wallboard plant on our right.

Second adit of Five

Returning to lower mine road from Adits

Remains of an ore car track Bridge

Taking a break at the bottom of the mine Road
We were far enough away that we could not have worried anyone. This was a great new hike that we have now added to our repertoire. Many thanks to Susan and David for their previous research.

Stats: 5 miles; 800' gain; 3.25 hours

Some of many Artifacts

View of Twisted Metal Mine from wash Below

Wash descent on Return






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