Bandora Mine / South Mineral Creek
Bandora Mine / South Mineral Creek (Silverton, CO)
The South Mineral Creek road is a popular camping area near Silverton. There are a number of semi-developed campsites along this road that are free to stay at, and a number of primitive areas that are great for camping along here as well. This is actually where Amanda and I like to camp when spending some time exploring the San Juan’s.
This road leaves from Highway US 550 and is a wide gravel road that follows South Mineral Creek for a few miles. Once you reach the USFS Mineral Creek Campground (this campground is a fee area) it might at first appear that the road ends here. However, the road does continue straight, and it gets narrower and a little rougher after this point. After emerging out of the forest and following a shelf road along the mountainside for a little ways you eventually will reach the Bandora Mine, located above the trail. The trail then drops down into a large meadow known as South Park that is also a popular area to camp. The trail continues on through the meadow and crosses a few water crossings, but eventually dead ends at some other campsites.
This is an easy trail with some great scenery and excellent camping opportunities relatively close to Silverton.
Please feel free to leave your comments and post your pictures from Bandora Mine / South Mineral Creek below.
Bandora Mine / South Mineral Creek KML Track
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Open file above in Google Earth.
