Sunflower Mine ATV Ride

Note: This is a lengthy article but it can be bookmarked and you can come back to it at your convenience. Please enjoy!

My husband and I haven't been doing the ATV thing for very long, maybe only a couple of years, but of all the places I have been so far, this one has to be my all-time favorite ride.

This ride has the best views of the Mazatzal Mountains. They are spectacular! This is not a smooth ride like my previous accounts. This is a rougher more ATV-like ride and I had a blast!

To get to the starting point, follow Highway 87 to FS 627. The north and south bound lanes are separated here so depending on where you are coming from you may have to go north a little further and turn around. Follow the paved road and make a right at the cattle guard onto FS 201. This is where we offloaded the quad and began our journey.

Continue to the junction of 201 and FS 25, there will be another cattle guard. Make a left onto FS 25. On our first ride this is where we saw a bunch of vultures that had been feeding on a dead cow. These birds are huge! I had no idea just how big they were. I could have gotten pictures but they just wouldn't sit still for me, and, of course, I forgot my camera has video mode. Figures!

Through this area you will pass some camping spots that run along Sycamore Creek. This is a very beautiful area with great scenery.

Once out of the camping areas you will start descending into one of the most beautiful canyons I have ever seen in Arizona. There are rocks here; I'm assuming some type of shale that is growing vertically. Really cool!

This is one of my favorite rides because of the gorgeous canyon you are riding into. There are sheer rock walls and steep mountains on one side of you and a canyon descending to the creek below on the other side of you.

You'll want to continue going straight and this turns into FS 25A. As you descend, the canyon becomes more and more beautiful. From the highway you would never even imagine a place like this existed. It's like a whole different world!

With all the rocks and rugged landscape above you, you can just imagine that mountain lion and bobcat must live here. Then below you and ahead of you, you can imagine seeing deer grazing on the grasses along the creek. No, we didn't actually see anything but we could imagine it.

After climbing some big rocks along the creek we came to this large clearing. We walked to a short road to the left and didn't see anything right away. In this clearing there is a flat spot with a few bits of concrete left that were probably a foundation of some kind. If we had walked farther into the canyon behind this we may have found some more ruins but we were too excited to find the processing mill; a picture of which we had seen on the Internet sometime before. So on we went.

Not far after this clearing is the first mine entrance that we found. It is on the left hand side of the road and we almost missed it.

We didn't have the nerve to go into this one, although it didn't look very big. We also didn't think to bring a flashlight with us. We actually weren't expecting all the mineshafts that we found.

We did find some more ruins across the creek on the right so we went exploring. There is an old foundation with lots of scattered wood around. An old concrete and tile bathtub still stands here.

I can just see some old miner soaking in his tub, listening to the crackling of his fire and hearing the creek running outside; resting his weary body after a long day at the mine.

As we drove along we took some small side roads off to the right of the main road and found all kinds of mining equipment lying in the creek bed.

Here the road gradually starts going at an uphill climb. At the top of the hill you will see a road that continues straight and one that goes to the left. You will also see another mine entrance with a fence around it that people have knocked down.Take the road that goes to the left here.

We did not enter this mineshaft. We felt that it had been fenced off for a reason but obviously other people didn't care much.

Follow the road to the left and you will soon come across this really cool looking rock. Looks like Snoopy to me.

Then as you round the corner you get a big surprise! Literally, we were so surprised that this huge thing was so well hidden. The Sunflower Mine processing mill sits just off the hill in a little canyon. We found it!

At this point you will have the option of taking the road down to the left or a road up and to the right. To see the processing mill, take the road down to the left.

The Sunflower Mine is also known as the National Mine. It was founded in 1911 and was later purchased by the Sunflower Mining Company. At one time soldiers were detailed here to protect the miners from raiding Apaches.

This mine was mainly a mercury mine, but gold, copper, and silver were also extracted. The mine operated until 1982.

A reddish-brown ore, called cinnabar, was extracted from the mines and brought to the ore chute and passed through a grizzly. I'm not sure what this actually did other than it probably sorted the material coming through it.

The ore was then taken to the tipple (the wooden structure on the far right of the processing mill picture). The cinnabar was then passed through a large pipe, called a rod mill that tumbled the ore into finer particles. These finer particles were then burned to produce mercury gas.

The gas was then passed through U-shaped pipes in which the gas cooled and liquefied to produce pure mercury.

Material was moved around and shipped by wagon and later by truck.

This conveyor belt was used to pull tailings out and drop them into the canyon below.

At the processing mill we saw an old truck that had fallen through the top of the processing mill and was lying on it's top. We just figured that with the rains it had slipped from the top of the mountain but as I was cruising the Internet looking for information I found a picture of this truck on the hill in antique but otherwise perfect condition. That picture was taken in 1999. There are no slide scars on the mountainside so I assume that a group of people probably pushed it over. This is too bad. It really put a scar on some well-preserved history.

Okay, back to the ride. When you are finished oooohing and aaaahing over all the cool equipment, go back up to the top of the hill and take the upper road (the one that was to the right). Follow this road down through the canyon and across a creek bed. There is a small hill you have to climb with a flat area on top. There will be mine entrances on the right and on the left.

We followed a 4-wheel drive club into this area and they loaned us their flashlights so that we could go in and have a look. Thank you, thank you.

Note: If you enter a mineshaft, you do so at your own risk. Mines are dangerous and have taken lives in the past. We went in knowing that someone was outside in case of an emergency but we still took a risk.

The mineshaft to the right has an entrance that is a little steep so watch your step. This shaft is especially dangerous and care should be taken. There is a path to the left around some rocks and then a path to the right. The path to the right is blocked but would have at one time led to the upper portion of this shaft. The left path leads to a large hole (drop-off) that is called a stope (I believe) and it leads to a lower portion of the cave. We wouldn't go anywhere near this drop-off!

The other two mineshafts here are really cool to go walking in. You may even find some leftover pieces of cinnabar.

To get out of here, backtrack all the way back to the mine entrance with the fence around it.

If you want to end your trip here you can go back out the way you came. This is the way we usually go now when we take friends down to the mine.

The first time Robert and I went, we continued on with the loop. If you want to continue, take the road that would have been to your right. This is the 25A road that turns into the 86 road and eventually turns into the 201 road.

Much of this part of the ride is through a creek bed and the 4-wheel drive clubs love it because the rocks are huge. I loved it too! We followed the 4-wheel drive club on the 201. They let us around them when they were ready to follow the 201A road since they would be much slower than us. The 201A road is a 4WD road and is very steep and slippery in spots.

This road goes up and down through various canyon areas and at a place called Horse Camp Seep you will find a couple more mine entrances. We did not go into any of these since we were alone at this point. They sure looked cool though.

About halfway to three-quarters of the way up the 201A road you will be on a flat area and will have great views of the mountains. We happened to stop here and were looking towards the 201 road when I zoomed in on this:

Yep, another mine processing mill way off in the distance. We figured we would wait and see it another day but we couldn't resist. We continued on the 201A road to the 201 road. (To go back to the starting point you would make a right here) Since we couldn't resist the extra trip we made a left and continued on the 201 going north until we could see the processing mill from off the side of the road. From there we took some little roads down into the mill itself. This mill is called the Pine Mine and is very similar to the Sunflower Mine but is much more run down.

Someone's signature in the steel pipe at the Pine Mine.

Here are a couple of views of the Mazatzal Mountain area.

If you have any questions please email me and I will try to answer them. I hope everyone enjoyed this ATV photo essay and can someday use the information and enjoy the places that we have enjoyed. Arizona has some awesome country!!! Please share with us the places that you've been.