Miners not Miners

George Tyng: Newspaperman, businessman and miner died here (Miller Hill) January 19, 1906.

That's where I went for Labor Day, Miller Hill. My dad took me for a 4-wheeling drive up to see George Tyng's grave and to see some of his old mines. We ate breakfast where there used to be a bunkhouse for his men that he employed there to mine. 

 Mountain man breakfast of course.

I did a little scavenging around and I have to say that one of my childhood dreams was realized as I uncovered history. That's right, I wanted to be an archaeologist when I was younger. I don't know what happened to that ambition but it's okay because as I was looking around my eyes spotted something in the dirt that looked suspiciously like the heel end of a sole of a shoe buried in the hillside. I grabbed a rock and began digging! 

Yup I discovered a boot! Is this not the greatest thing you've ever seen?! I mean think of how old this could essentially be... George Tyng who owned the mines up here died in 1906. That means I have at least a 100 year span. 

Here's some of the mines that we went to check out.

Obviously they're closed off now but stuff like that never stops me.
(If you look closely you'll see that there's a nice gaping hole to the right of me with precarious wood going across it. No wonder it's closed off.)

After that we decided to do some more exploring. And by that I mean climbing up the mountain side. 

This was a lovely bit that we somehow climbed up.

Over there in the distance is the nicely paved trail that we were going to climb...

But we decided that these kind of trails would be way more adventurous. 

I just have to say that it was the scariest hiking I've ever done. But don't worry, we made it to the top.

It was absolutely stunningly beautiful. I felt like I was reliving my climb up the mountain in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.

Of course I had to get my macro shots. You know how much I love those.

There's the back of Timp.

Sometimes I wish I lived back in the day when people really did walk out of their cabins to views like this. I guess I could always just move to Crans-Montana, Switzerland... that way I would have a decent house but still have the beautiful mountain right in my backyard. 

The meadow that we came down the mountainside from. 

All in all it was a full day of outdoor goodness.