a perfect day

Saturday was undoubtedly one of the most perfect days we've seen - clear with bright sunshine and a perfect temperature all day - and we made sure to get out into it.  We knew we wanted to go for a hike but as of Friday night, we hadn't decided on anything yet.  By the time the alarm went off (before the sun came up). H had come up with hiking to the Jupiter Mine at Park City Mountain Resort.  He had remembered that we had spotted the big mine when we hiked the ridge between Big Cottonwood Canyon and Park City back in August; at the time, we had said that we wanted to hike to it at some point.  This seemed like the ideal time to do it.

Park City Mountain Resort

We got organized pretty quickly and were boots on the ground in Park City around 8:30 a.m.  There were just a couple other trucks in the parking lot at that time with people getting ready to go MTBing; the temperature was a cool but pleasant 38 F and we assumed the place would get busier as the day warmed up.  We walked up to the base of PCMR's Silver Star chairlift and got on the trails there.  Our plan was to first take the Spiro trail up to Crescent Ridge but just as we started, we noticed Dawn's Trail, a hiking-only trail not on our map (our map is from 2011 - it might be time for a new map) and took that instead as it was going in the right general direction.

A doe and two nearly-grown fawns behind her

The trails in Park City are so nice.  Unlike the rocky Wasatch Front trails, they are mostly packed dirt, which is soft underfoot, and cross aspen glades and meadow-like ski runs.  This morning the dirt was frozen, which was still good footing, and we had them all to ourselves, only pausing to observe a grouse and, later, three mule deer who were curious and unafraid.

Chilly in the shade

We crossed under the King Con chair and made our way up an access road (the Broadway trail in the winter) to the new Miners' Camp lodge, where the Silverlode chair and new Quicksilver gondola are.  That new lodge looks awesome.  There were tons of moose tracks in this area but no moose.  We continued up the access road (parallel to the Claimjumper ski trail), pausing to check out the massive King Con ore bin before continuing up to the ridge. 

King Con ore bin

Atop the ridge, we paused for snacks at the terminus of the Crescent Express chair, then kept going up, under the Bonanza chair and along the Homerun ski run to the Summit House.  We passed the tops of the Motherlode, Pioneer and Thaynes chairs, heading down Jupiter Express.  The trees changed abruptly from aspens to evergreens and it got chilly in the shade, with old snow underfoot. 

I think we have enough time!

We followed this access road down and back into the sunshine at Shadow Lake, where the little old two-seater Jupiter lift is.  The one time we skied at PCMR we didn't make it all the way back in there but it looks like it's got some great terrain in decent snow conditions.  We stayed to the access road as it went down the drainage, past the remains of the California-Comstock mine to the massive Thaynes Shaft mine.

H at Shadow Lake (Jupiter lift in background)

All of these mining ruins have been preserved by the town and you can actually go into the building housing the Thaynes Shaft as it is less derelict than most.  You can't access the shaft - which is good, because it's about 1,700 feet straight down - but you can wander around in the building and ogle the massive equipment and machinery left behind, as well as more prosaic artifacts like 1930s lightbulbs, drinking fountains and urinals.  It's pretty cool.

California-Comstock mine

After touring the mine building and the huge tailings dump, with its rickety conveyor apparatus still standing, we started walking out, along the access road.  Before long we were able to get onto the Crescent Mine Grade trail and finally started seeing quite a few MTBers.  From the CMG we got to Spiro via the switchbacky Eagle trail, and Spiro brought us right back to where we started.

Thaynes Shaft mine

The parking lots was pretty busy with MTBers heading out and coming back, pumping up tires, drinking beers and calling to their dogs.  We had a beer while changing out of our hiking clothes - and after 12.7 miles, it really felt good to take our boots off.  Since it was mid-afternoon, we thought it made sense to get sandwiches at Subway and then check out the Park City Brewery tap room.  We'd never been there before since we're usually in and out of Park City before noon.  It's located outside of town, towards Jeremy Ranch, and has a man cave sort of vibe.  There's no food so it's dog-friendly and the big doors rolls up so there's inside/outside seating. 

Massive tailings dump and rickety conveyor belt

We had a couple of their Last Pitch session IPAs and toasted to a perfect fall day.  It really doesn't get any better than that.

See? Rickety conveyor belt

Hike stats:  12.67 miles; 5:28 trip total (4 hours 19 minutes of walking/2.9 m.p.h.; and 1:09 of standing around looking at stuff); 2,800 feet of elevation; no blisters.

What a fantastic day