Independence Mines

After doing the 20 mile Gold Mint Trail we decided to take a day off hiking and take a blast from the past.

Hatcher pass starts right across from the independence mines. This is an old gold mine that was abandoned in the 1940's and is now a preserved park. You're basically allowed to just come here and hike around. They don't let you into the buildings without paying for a tour, but since we got there really early one of the tour guides let us into a few of the buildings free of charge. We got to see into one of the apartment lodges where they had preserved living spaces with all of these items from the early 1900s. It was incredible. The guide told us that sometimes people who used to work in the mines would come back and take a look at the park that was once their livelihood and residence. It was awesome.

After touring the buildings of the small town, we hiked up to where the mines were and even got to the mine shaft. Then I climbed all the way up to the far right peak to get a nice view of the Talkeetna range, and the vast valleys of Hatcher Pass.