Beautiful downtown Ophir

Very nice, yet another place I'll have to discover/explore.

The access road up the canyon is exceedingly rough. The USFS doesn't even recommend Jeeps!
www.ipernity.com/doc/289859/23778441/in/album/455469
but the Wrangler did fine. It would be a lot dicier if there were any traffic at all.

Was wondering how far up if hiking, and found a page (link below) that makes it seem like about 5 miles with lots of stream crossing.
highway8a.blogspot.com/2010/10/lower-part-of-ophir-canyon-central.html

Thanks for that link! I agree with her assessment--altho when we were there we saw full sized 4WD pickups camped at Ophir, so obviously they made it. Several years back we did bail out with my son's Liberty just after one of the fords, it later turning out that by then we were thru the worst of it anyway. As I mentioned our Wrangler--which does have a hard top--did fine; the big worry is what happens in the case of oncoming traffic.

Wondering if I know this "Silver Fox"--there aren't _that_ many geologists in Nevada, and women geologists are still a minority! There's a geo-pun in the title of her blog--a "detachment" is also a type of low-angle fault.

All the canyons along the east side of the Toiyabes in the vicinity of Ophir Canyon are extremely narrow, steep, and rugged right near their mouths because of a very resistant weathering rock unit (a felsite) along the range front. If you want a hike where you didn't have to worry about vehicle traffic, ATVs in particular, check out South Twin River or North Twin River, both a few miles south. They're now in the wilderness area, and are extremely scenic. I have a couple of albums on them:
www.ipernity.com/doc/289859/album/437335
www.ipernity.com/doc/289859/album/437417
Summit Canyon is similar to Ophir Canyon, but the road isn't quite so rough. It's still a 4x4 track, though:
www.ipernity.com/doc/289859/album/461763
so you'd again be dealing with vehicle traffic.

The main thing is to see the old mining town. Since I'm always traveling alone (and less adventurous that David G..), I'm hesitant to go driving up really rough roads. Guess I'll just have to win the lottery and go in by helicopter...

Thanks! Yeah, it looks like they weren't expecting the town to dry up and blow away in a few years-- :)

Magnificent capture!

Admired in:
www.ipernity.com/group/tolerance

Love every brick and rock... beautiful !