Late this fall I decided to head up the old Prince of Wales Mine. I’ve done this hike before and wanted to do it again so I could climb a little above the mine to the Honeycomb Cliffs above Solitude.
My hiking route started just above Alta, Utah. I followed the old Michigan City Mine Road through Chad’s Gap and past the old Michigan City Mine before heading on to the trail to the Prince of Wales Mine.
The first part of the trail was a short, but somewhat steep, hike through aspen trees to get to the old Michigan City Road. This .2 mile, 18% average grade was a good way to get my heart rate up a bit!
I followed the old mining road up Grizzly Gulch for about .7 miles before getting to Chad’s Gap. This is a place that has two large mounts of mind tailings on each side of the trail. Chad’s is an interesting side story. Back in the 1990s snowboarders would party in Grizzly Gulch across from Alta Ski Resort. Some boarders told a skier named Chad about these piles and told him nobody had attempted to jump across the approximately 120 foot gap. Although Chad tried unsuccessfully three times, the “gap” was named after him. A 17 year old French kid made the first successful jump across Chad’s Gap. Learn more of the story here.
Back to the trail… Shortly after Chad’s Gap I came across the remains of the old Michigan City Mine. This was a silver and lead mine that was active from 1870 to 1928. Other ore pulled from the Michigan City Mine included gold, copper, manganese, zinc and molybdenum. There was old mining equipment strewn around the mine, but all tunnels had been covered.
About .3 miles after the Michigan City Mine the trail to the Prince of Wales Mine forked off to the north from the main trail, which would have taken me to Twin Lakes Pass. From there it was about a little less of a mile to the Prince of Wales Mine.
The Prince of Wales Mine sits at almost 9,900 feet in the Wasatch Mountains. Primary ores mined were silver, copper, lead, gold and zinc. The mine began production in 1872 and was apparently worked at different times until 1930. Almost 18,000 feet of underground tunnels and chambers ranging from 6 to 16 feet in width and thickness were mined.
The main mine shafts and tunnels have been sealed with rebar, but old equipment remains including a large steam boiler and a large roll of steel cable. Tailings cascade down the slope and it is my understanding that another opening to the mine is farther down the slope.
On the other side of these cliffs is some amazing skiing at Solitude. Check out my skiing Honeycomb Canyon at Solitude!
After checking out the old mine and equipment I climbed up to the cliffs above. The Honeycomb Cliffs are along a ridge above Solitude Mountain Resort, my favorite place to ski here in Utah. They are stunning to look up at when skiing and it is fun looking down At Solitude from them as well.
By the way, the view from the trail was amazing. I could look across at Alta Ski Resort and down Little Cottonwood Canyon toward the Pfeifferhorn and Mount Superior
I took a little different route back down to Alta and passed a lot of evidence of mineral exploration including exploratory holes, covered mine shafts and mine tailings. The hike to Prince of Wales Mine and back covered around 5.6 miles and a little under 2,100 feet of vertical gain.
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