McCarthy and Kennicott

We wake up at 5:45. In an hour Bob is here to take us to the footbridge in McCarthy.  We decided to not shake the Pleasure Way to pieces on the bad road.  Better someone else's jeep.

William and Bob looking at the former RR trestle that the McCarthy road goes over. The whole road is a RR grade. The rails were just pulled off and dirt put over the ties.

Me at the footbridge after a 3 hour ride. The facilities are in the background.

It is a beautiful day for this trip.

We are met on the other side of the footbridge by Jarrod and driven to Kennicott. In Kennicot Jarrod walks us around a bit then leaves us to tour the town while he finds someone to take us on the promised mine tour. We see a RR turn around, some old houses and some being fixed up and some old vehicles.  Nothing is really opening until the weekend. Other than a special group of Aussies, we are the first regular tourists.

The park is renovating some of the buildings.

We will tour the huge 14 story mine building in back of me.

The park rebuilt this bridge.

The bridge washed out in 2006.

We are taken on up to the mine and given a bit of time to explore on our own prior to the tour.  Even the Park office won't open until Friday.

There is still a lot of water here.

We head up a steep trail next to the side of the mine building. Here we are at the top.  The hard hats and the skills of our guide Lucas will keep us safe as we enter this old building.

It's a long way down.

We climb down through the mine building on many steep flights of stairs while Lucas tells us all about the concentration procedures. 
Thankfully the Golden Bar in McCarthy is open so we can have dinner at 5:30 prior to our 3 hour trip back with Bob.

William on the footbridge, ready to ride back to our little home.