Grey Horse Mine 2.5

An easy, relaxing Jeep trail up the west side of the Dripping Spring Mountains near Kearny.  Visit 3 shafts of an abandoned lead, vanadium and molybdenum mine, plus view a settling pond on top of of an overburden pile for the Ray Mine.​  Very short trail.

The U.S. Vanadium Development Company of Phoenix appears to have developed this mine around 1916.  I have not been able to find any other information about the site.

In 2007 a rockhound posted:  The Grey Horse mine is a little rough to get to, but the trip is worth it. The mine has multiple levels and follows a dike which runs along a fault. Entire walls of the slip-face have been exposed in the mine and look like sheets of ice because they have been polished smooth by crustal movement and compression. It has an excellent deposit of vanadinite on all levels. Descloizite is extremely prevalent, as is calcite. Wulfenite occurs, though less frequently.

This Jeep trail can be done in either direction, but we prefer clockwise because of the views descending toward Kearny.

The main loop of the trail is rated 2.0, with only 2 short sections leading to shafts having the 2.5 rating.  The southeastern leg is easier than the northwestern one.

We visited 3 shafts and have numbered them in the order of visit, not in the order of importance.

There is a GPS - gpx track file at the bottom of the page.

Shaft 2 Main adit for mine

The soils in this area must be perfect for saguaro.  There are large stands of healthy plants.

The higher parts of this run offer nice views of the Gila Valley as well as a large settling pond at Ray Mine.

Nice stands of saguaro

Settling pond at Ray Mine

The trail beyond the settling pond viewpoint to shaft 1 is rated 2.5 and is quite brushy.  Some people will prefer to walk.

We did not go very far into the shaft and did not take interior photos.  We did find where someone had recently dug up and stole a section of rail just outside the entrance.

A statement from mindat.org describes this shaft:  This locality is the northernmost opening in the Gray Horse group, lying at the very end of the road on the hill crest above the main Gray Horse workings. It does not have a formal name. This operation comprised an adit of some 170 feet in length and a shallow shaft connecting the adit with the surface (perhaps 30-40 feet). These workings do not connect with any other workings in the area. The operation was productive since there are the roots of a couple of small ore piles remaining on site plus a nearly barren waste dump.

Toward Shaft 1

Rail theft from shaft 1.

Return to the Ray Mine viewpoint then drop down into the wash to the main part of Grey Horse Mine.

Shaft 2 is reached by a short climb from the wash.  The shaft appears to fork after a bit.  We did not go beyond this point.

Main part of Grey Horse Mine

Shaft 2 forks

Follow a more difficult route up the wash to where a brushy old road turns right up the hill to shaft number 3.  You can squeeze 4 Jeeps at the end of this short spur.  Others can easily walk up from the wash, or walk up the hill from shaft 2.

Up the wash to shaft 3

Entrance to shaft 3

The shaft is open to a higher level.  We are not rockhounds so have no idea what minerals we were looking at.

Looking up from shaft 3

Minerals in shaft 3

Page updated 2019.

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