Arizona Road Trip -Part 3

Part 3 of our road trip has us heading to Kingman Az for one final stop, the Gold King Mansion.

That morning we left our camping spot in Flagstaff and headed home going west along the 40. Just outside of Kingman we followed a dirt road that runs along the Hualapai Mountains in Mohave County, Arizona.  We followed along a well maintained dirt road until we got to the trail head.  The location to the mine was is very rugged. We followed along a tight ATV trail.  If you don’t mind pinstripes  you can get through this part of the trail with a full size truck, but a mile before the mansion the trail got a little too sketchy for our truck which forced us to hike a mile to the location. 
The trail is mostly straight up and follows along a stream with several crossings.  The stream was flowing pretty good and it was nice and cool.  There is one part that actually has a small waterfall.  Going up the trail we realized that there was no way we would have been able to get our full size truck up this part and we made a good decision not to try.  We finally made the last turn and saw the mansion along with 3 side by sides there.  They were just going down and said that they lived in the area and the trail we hiked up was a very difficult part of the trail but it was doable in a side by side or ATV. 

Once they left we started to explore the building.  The Gold King Mansion was built in the beginning of 1929. The Mansion was actually built to house the miners that included a modern toilet and electricity but it ended up a place to wine and dine the investors for the Gold King Mine. The mine produced gold, silver, copper and lead, but it didn’t produce much and was shut down towards the end of 1929. It is amazing how much of the mansion is still in good condition. The crown molding is still up and you can even see where the indoor toilet used to be. The mansion sites on the stream and overlooks the mine. It amazes us on how these buildings are built in some of these remote locations.  If you plan on visiting make sure to bring plenty of water and prepare to hike if you are not in a car or truck that will make it up. 

We crammed a lot of sites in our weekend trip, but as always we utilized our time to the fullest. If you didn’t get to see the rest of our trip click on the video’s below to see part 1 and part 2 of our road trip through Valley of the Gods, Goosenecks Park, Forrest Gump road, Monument Valley, Lake Powell and Woopotkee National Monument.