Blue Ledge Mine Hiking: California / Oregon

Blue Ledge Mine is an early 1900s copper mine at far north California, a few miles over the border, and you will most likely drive into the area from Oregon. Nice place for a hilltop retreat for the day. This page offers a few tips to find the mine. Be sure to use the GPS coordinates below and use Google Earth. Please don't email for information. This is all I have time to offer. The album link in the next paragraph, may have a video too if storage space permits.

My album: Blue Ledge Photos includes some images of the Blue Ledge mine area and hillside. A few photos like the Oregon Bigfoot trap are in that photo album too - see captions.

Here is a very basic map of the vicinity around Applegate Lake nearby: MAP. It shows Road 1055 mentioned below, but not road 1060 referred to. Nice clean map though.

The area is nice for hiking and exploring with excellent views from the mountaintop. There are two ways to get up the mountain, each using some old uninproved "road trail". This is one of several favorites on my Oregon Hiking page.

The "road trail" from Road 1060 is moderate hiking with some difficult stretches. The upper trail, for those who can find it, is an "experienced" hikers trail. It is "worn" and easy to follow. The "road trail" using Road 1055 and unimproved 700 is easy to moderate.

GPS coordinates approximately:

41.959238, -123.107510

Those coordinates, on a satellite image, should display mid-hill of the mine, where mine tailings discoloration appeared on satellite imagery at. The mine adits start about 1/3 up the hill, almost to the top of the mountain. If you come up road #1060 at 4030 feet elevation, you will park within a hundred feet or so, of coordinates:

41.962322, -123.105221 and walk south uphill - look for old road near hairpin curve.

Click one of these to view Road 1060 parking.

This is a few miles north of Applegate Lake, not far from Jacksonville and Medford, Oregon. There are mountain views, trees, natural rock gardens and animals. We saw a bear, frog, toad, deer and other small mammals. You can get maps in Medford, Oregon, from the forest service office, and there is a Star Ranger Station on the way there. The mine shows on the map as a skinny strip of private holding inside the national forest. This is not on any national forest maps as a trail, but it's a nice exploring area.

Directions...

From Medford, Oregon, go west through Jacksonville, take Hy. 238 to Ruch. Go left on Upper Applegate Rd. to the south end of Applegate Lake . Go left on 859 and pass Seattle Bar.

859 should become Road 1050 following Eliott Creek. Shortly comes road 1055; pass it, unless you want to explore the hilltop above the mine. After another 1/2 mile or so, go right at Road 1060. You will cross a bridge over Elliott Creek, and soon after crossing a second small bridge, Road 1060 will continue uphill following Joe Creek all the way to the mine area.

Go up 1060 for about 4 miles. The mine is on the right across the creek and above the hill at a sharp hair-pin corner. At that sharp turn, park and look for an old road crossing Joe Creek toward the hill. It's about 1/4 mile walk up to the first adit.

First, you may find a small adit, if its not covered over with plant branches. Keep going uphill by about 150 paces and there is another higher trail. It's very inconspicuous and goes up an embankment. You have to look closely for slight wear and tear as you make a sharp hairpin turn. What you are looking for is almost like an inconspicuous deer path going up an embankment. Then go up into the brush and the trail is more established looking like a worn hiking trail. The higher 2nd trail is an experienced hiker trail. At the very top of this hidden trail is a level area. There is an adit and shaft hidden around a corner, other than the obvious one that you can't walk to sticking out of the hill. This hidden adit around the blind corner, seems a fine access point.

There is another route via road 1055 to the top of the mountain.

Go 6 miles to a worn 6 mile marker up road #1055. Veer left onto an unimproved road shown on the forest map as 700, 741 and 740 - approximate GPS:

41.963374, -123.123878

Drive as far as you can, then park and hike up. On top, the rock outcroppings, trees and scenery were excellent. Walk 10 to 15 minutes to reach the peak. I did not try to reach any adits decending from the top. Maybe you will find some.

Blue Ledge was a booming copper mine. A bustling mining camp sprang up there, built on terraces cut into the mountainside. The mine operated from 1906 to 1919. The mine later lent name to a small community called "Copper" which was situated underneath what is now Applegate Lake.

If you want to hike to the adits and shafts, use road 1066 and come up from below. If you want to explore above the mine, from the top of the hill, use 1055. Using satellite images will help you visualize this area. Especially if you tilt and rotate the image to see the terrain.