Yankee Girl Mine

Rating: 2
This is an easy trail that doesn't require 4-wheel drive but a little clearance is nice.

Location
San Juan Mountains, near Red Mountain Pass.

Trailhead
This trail is to the east of and parallels the Million Dollar Highway (highway 550). The south end of the trail begins near the summit of the Red Mountain Pass. The road starts at the top and is located 0.3 miles north of the sign marking summit. Coordinates are 37.903221, -107.709513.

The north end of the trail is located on one of the many hairpin turns about 2.9 miles north of the summit or 3.7 miles south of Crystal Lake. The coordinates are 37.921903, -107.698537.

This is county road 31.

Description
This is an easy, fairly well maintained road. I did not use 4-wheel drive in my 4Runner. The road is short, and is a nice way to get off the pavement while driving across the Red Mountain Pass. There are mutliple mines and mining buildings in the area. If you don't stop to explore the mines, I would guess this would only take about 30 minutes to drive.

The gem of this trail is the Yankee Girl Mine. This was a productive Silver and Gold Mine. What makes this mine unique is that the opening is a verticle shaft with a hoist house above the shaft. The shaft is still there within the hoist house, but they have placed a metal grate across the opening. The hoist house is still in decent condition and you can get out an explore the building.

Here is the KML and map of the trip. At the time of writing this, Google Maps did not have county road 31 connecting back into the pavement at the summit of Red Mountain Pass, which is incorrect. The road does connect and is even labeled at that end.

 The metal grate that she is standing on is covering the vertical shaft.