Day Two: McDonald’s Mine

Although the plan of the vacation was to just sit and relax, I find it hard to do so. The second day, or rather the very first morning at the cottage, I was on edge. I was worried about a dozen things, wondering if I would relax at all and thankful that I had a few weeks to start to relax.

Since I was so restless, I couldn’t bring myself to simply sit and watch the hours go by so we decided to take a drive up to the old McDonald’s Mine. The area isn’t a tourist site but simply a place that you can hike up to.

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, maybe some Hollywood version of a mine, the old prospect that had been plumed out, but I was delighted when we came to these cliffs. Natural caves made up part of the mine and the rest were manmade caves that were only 30 or 40 feet deep. There was also a slope leading down one of the caves, which took us out onto another hiking path.

We spent several hours exploring the caves and picking up quartz that littered the ground by the mine. By the time we were done, the backpack had increased in weight by about 20 pounds, I felt refreshed, the kids overjoyed at their find, and my husband looked like he was relaxing a little bit more (something he has a hard time doing as well).

Of course, like everything else, I had my camera handy and took some nice photos of the mine. At one point, I was hanging back, trying to get a scenic shot. My husband stopped, and was watching me to make sure I was okay. I said I was just taking a picture and he said, “Take your time.”

Then I mentioned that he was in my shot and received a whole lot of teasing because he was ruining the “photographers” shot! Anyway, here are the photos that this amateur “photographer” managed to capture.


Arriving at the mine.


My boys standing in front of the one tunnel.


Exploring the cavern.


Into the depths


Gabe standing at a cut mine.


Mike standing at a cut mine.


Another part of the mine.


And just a random shot of the scenery.