kennecott country

We're in the middle of monsoon season currently and what with the imminent threat of afternoon thunder (and lightning) storms, have been less motivated to get up and hiking deep into the mountains.  So we got a slow start on Saturday, by which I mean H took a 36 mile bike ride while I weeded for two hours.  After that we needed something to do since you can't just stay home on a Saturday.  We eyed the accumulating clouds and decided that this would be a good day to go west a little bit, to see the hugenormous Kennecott Copper Mine that sprawls across the eastern slopes of the Oquirrh Mountains, and then also to try to find a route over the Oquirrhs.

Kennecut Utah Copper's Bingham Canyon Mine is one of the largest man-made objects on the planet - it can be seen from space by the space shuttle astronauts. The open pit is 2.75 miles across at the top and 3/4 of a mile deep; the giant haul trucks, with their 13-foot high tires and their 320 ton haulage capacity, are smaller than Matchbox cars as they lumber down the winding roads to the bottom of the pit. Since its beginning in 1906, this mine has produced 18.1 million tons of copper, more than any other mine in history.

Where's AAA when you need them?

The busy visitors' center at the mine is open 7 days/week, from 8 a.m. - 8 p.m. ($5 entry fee per car, all proceeds donated to charity). Perched at the lip of the pit, you can watch the mining activity below as well as stroll through the exhibits inside the center. The wind was howling (as the afternoon's monsoon was moving in from the west) as we stared down into the giant hole in the ground - reminding me of the pit mine from that Stephen King book, Desperation, where the mining company digs too deep and unleashes some horrific beastie. It is way far down to the bottom and they plan to be another 500 feet further down by 2015. Watch out for horrific beasties, boys.

That's a helluva hole in the ground

The Bingham Canyon mine is right around the corner from Butterfield Canyon which, according to our gazetteer, has a paved road (and then a dirt road and then a paved road again) that actually crosses the Oquirrh range - and might possibly be the only way across the Oquirrh range - to Tooele on the other side.  The road is only open in the summer so we thought we should give it a shot.  We went up and up as the road got narrower and narrower and the weather got darker and stormier. 

Road to nowhere.  Truly.

When the pavement ended, we had a choice: up and to the right on the drier, more travelled road*, or down and to the left on the muddier road.  We picked up and to the right, following a black Jeep who looked like he knew where he was going.  We picked wrong: the dirt road stopped at the very top of the mountain (about 9,000 feet and with a temperature of 49F) at an impressive overlook of the mine, but did not in fact go through to Tooele.  We turned around and headed back down as the rain picked up, pausing to look at the down-and-to-the-left option.  It was slick and muddy looking and we decided to leave that exploration for another non-monsoony day.

All the better to hear you with, my deer

Despite not succeeding in our attempt to cross the Oquirrhs, we were glad to have gotten up Butterfield Canyon.  It was quite pretty, with steep walls and lush vegetation.  We saw a bunch of deer and also human recreators: bicyclists, ATVers, motorcyclists, cowboys, campers.  Next time we'll make it through and see what's on the other side.

* When I said "drier, more travelled," I didn't mean it was actually a good road.  In many places, it wasn't wide enough for two vehicles to pass and it was rutted and washboarded and washed out with 1.5+ foot ruts.  It wasn't the worst or scariest dirt road we've ever been on, but it was a bit nerve-wracking in spots nonetheless.