Does this sign actually tell you anything about Cardiff Fork?
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There is still a lot of snow in them mountains! The good/bad news is that the weather has been pretty hot, so it's been melting fairly quickly.
Again, our choices were somewhat limited by our guesses of what might be passable: Dale had mentioned that Twin Lakes was still quite full of ice and Randy Lawrence, who had been to Red Pine lake in Little Cottonwood Canyon just a few days before, mentioned that it was still mostly covered with ice. We decided that two "safe" bets would be Mineral Fork and Cardiff Fork. One of the problems with Mineral Fork is that it can be hazardous, as a hiker, to walk along this trail as it is open to 4x4 and motorcycles and, in years past, we've had to dive out of the way as a less-than-careful driver has come around a corner at high speed.
Deciding on Cardiff Fork, we piled into the cars (and Bryan on his motorcycle) and headed up. When we got to the trailhead, we were lucky enough (for us, anyway) to have found that there were exactly enough parking spots for our vehicles: This trailhead is rather popular as it is also that of Doughnut Falls, which was re-opened to public use after a tragic death there several years ago.
Starting up the the trail, we looked at the signpost (see above) and couldn't help but comment on how little specific information there was about the Cardiff Fork area. Continuing upwards, we observed that the path diverged into two trails, and we took the one less traveled-by: It made all the difference, as it kept us on the old mining road as we bypassed the Falls (and crowds) down below. At some distance above the falls - in the area kept clear by frequent avalanches - we met two teenagers coming down the road who asked us where we were going: When we explained that we were going to the old mine, they seemed surprised, asking us how much farther up the Falls were. They were (again) surprised to find out that they overshot the falls by a considerable distance and continued on their way down.
As we went up the trail, we could catch occasional glimpses of the top of the canyon at Cardiff Pass and these verified that there was, in fact, still a lot of snow present at the top - something that we had already surmised by the loud roar of the stream. Along the trail, we also noted the presence of several malfunctioning culverts, with the water now running down the old road rather than across (and under) it. When we got to the large mine dump at Montreal Spring, we had our first "rustic" stream crossing: While this stream was flowing quite well, it was wide and flat enough that it was fairly easy to cross on rocks and strategically-placed pieces of shoring timber. Not too far above this, however, we had to cross the main stream. This time, it was a torrent, noticeably wider than normal and the only practical, dry path was across a wet log that someone had likely placed for this purpose. With water lapping at our feet, each of us crossed it - without mishap - sometimes using walking sticks or branches to aid in balancing, taking care not to allow our prop to be caught in the current and causing us to lose balance. A short distance up from that crossing, I'd stopped to remove a boulder that had lodged itself in my shoe, but after I got up again Bruce came at me, brandishing a piece of metal with a handle, saying "Is this yours?" Indeed, it was the tilt/lock handle from my tripod - but that wasn't all that was missing: A small washer had also fallen off, and without this piece the tripod head's "tilt" setting could not be locked into place. After looking in vain for it for a few minutes, I continued on up the road.
We finally arrived at the remains of the buildings near the portal of the Howell Tunnel. There, one can still see the mostly-intact transfer facility, the large piles of overburden, and the remains of other buildings scattered about nearby. Looking at the stream coming from up-canyon, we could see an impressive series of cascades where water came crashing down from above, appearing from and disappearing into the hollowed-out snow bridges that capped the watercourse. At the bottom of this, we noticed that there seemed to be a streamlet emanating from the side of the hill, so Chris went down to investigate: Braving the unknown strength of the hollowed-out snowfield, he looked at the meander and noted that it seemed to be flowing out of the gravel, probably through the gaps between the rocks in the bottom.
This turned out to be the end of the line, as the road above this point was heavily drifted with snow. Had the road been easily passable, there would still have been the need to cross (again) the torrent at some point - and having been satisfied that we'd accomplished our goal, we decided to stop here, take the obligatory group picture (using Gordon's light tripod - which seemed to be just barely capable of supporting my heavy DSLR) and loiter about, eating our snacks. I'd happened to bring along a portable, electronic blood-pressure cuff and passed it around, curious about our respective blood pressures: As you might expect, both the heart rate and blood pressure were a bit high, most of us not having yet fully recovered from the ascent: A notable exception was Dale who, according to the meter (and the counting of his own heart rate) was either in very good shape or nearly dead! While we were doing this, Chris went exploring for a cabin that we'd discovered last year. In talking it over with others that had been on the hike last year, we all agreed that it had to be on the east side of the road near the mine: Nevertheless, Chris was unable to find it - and later, after reviewing my notes, I figured out why: The cabin was in Honeycomb Fork! (So much for collective memory...)
At about sunset, we decided that we'd better start down - something that Mike had done several minutes prior. With the good road and the straight shot down-canyon, we made pretty good time in our descent - except at the stream crossings where caution and the fading light caused us to take our time. At about this time, Bruce approached me again, brandishing a shiny piece of metal saying "Is this yours?" Indeed, it was the missing washer from my tripod: Dale had spotted it on the road, handing it off to Bruce, and soon, my tripod was as complete has it had been when we started.
Continuing downward, I suddenly noticed that we were in unfamiliar territory - but there was a good (and mostly harmless) explanation for this: On the way up, we'd followed the trail to the Falls partway, taking the occasional fork toward the right. On the return trip in the dark, we missed these, staying on the road the entire time, causing us to walk an extra couple of hundred feet, perhaps - but it was downhill...
As expected, Mike returned to the trailhead first, followed a few minutes later by the main group and in another 5 minutes by those bringing down the rear. Piling back into our vehicles, we headed out to the main road, beating the official 10 PM "locked gate" time by about five minutes. The drive down the canyon was uneventful, although requiring the careful lookout for and occasional avoidance of foraging deer. From the parking lot, most of the group went home, but four of us (Tim, Gordon, Mike C., and me) wandered over to TGI Friday's by the now-demolished Cottonwood Mall and had a dime lime.
About the Cardiff Mine and surrounding area:
The Cardiff Mine area was worked into the 50's or 60's - largely by Desdemona Beeson - one of the few female mining engineers in Utah. Lead (mainly from Galena and Cerussite) and some silver ores were the main products of the mines in Cardiff fork. Above the remnants of the buildings is the Baby McKee mine - near which the remains of a steam boiler may be seen. This portal seems to be connected in some way to the Howell Tunnel located across the canyon (on the west side) from the Cardiff mine.The Utah Mine Locations page of the Trainweb site give the location of many of the mines in the area.
According to Keller, a 1/2 ton chunk of Galena was dragged out of the Mill-D South Fork in 1871, with the first claim having been filed in the area the previous year. Despite the initial hype, the flurry of activity fizzled until a large body of Galena was discovered at what was called the Carbonate Mine in 1876 and by the following January, shipments were reported to be 1200 ore sacks daily. Gradually, the output of the mine dropped - due to lower ore prices or lack of enthusiasm by the owners, and by 1880, it was being leased and worked only intermittently. It wasn't until 1908 that operations resumed with the installation of a 4000-foot long, 8-tower gravity tramway on the east side - but this operation fizzled again and after 1910, operations at the Carbonate mine seemed to have stopped for good by 1916.
It wasn't until 1906 that the Cardiff Mining and Milling company came into existence, taking over a number of claims farther up the south fork, the name being the Welsh hometown of several of the company's principals. In many ways, this was quite a modern mine, originally getting power via Park City in 1910 and telephone service soon after. Further improvements included a better road and a large bunkhouse above the mine - probably the one that we visited in 2007. In 1911, work was started on a long tunnel to reach an ore body that had previously been discovered - but was uneconomical due to large amounts of water. Eventually, in 1914, another large ore body was reached and the mine began to prosper economically. With the increase in traffic due to ore shipments, the water quality in the canyon suffered - both from the use of a lot of horses to transport the material, as well as erosion from such activity. Several schemes were tried which included the use of transfer stations, tractors with trailer, and large trucks, but it wasn't until 1921 that enough improvements had been made to the machinery and roads that they stopped using horses altogether.
The Cardiff Mining and Milling Company paid handsome dividends early on, but these gradually dwindled, with the last one being paid in 1924, with the company ceasing to operate in 1928. After this, various lessees operated the mine until the 1960's, with a connection being made between the Cardiff Ore body and the Wasatch Drain Tunnel in Mineral Fork being established in 1955. (It was noted that the staining by the runoff from one of the mines in Cardiff Fork was very similar to that of the Wasatch Tunnel in Mineral Fork.)
This information is from the book "The Lady in the Ore Bucket" by Charles Keller.
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