Ash
- Sep 22, 2022
- 6 min read

Yankee Boy Basin

Trail Details

Location: Ouray County, Colorado

Approximately 2 miles south of downtown Ouray

In the San Juan Mountain range & part of the Uncompahgre National Forest

Elevation: The total elevation you will reach by vehicle is 12,460’ however, you will pass one of Colorado's many 14’ers, Mount Sneffles, which has a summit of 14,157’

When to go: The trail typically opens sometime in June and closes sometime in October, however based on weather conditions and trail damage/erosion the trail could open sooner or stay open later. If you plan to go outside this time, be sure to check Ouray County roads conditions before going to make sure the trail is open. That being said, it doesn’t hurt to check within that time frame as well, sometimes trials could be closed during their open season for various reasons (accidents, trail damage, scheduled races, etc.).

Difficulty: Up until the landmark of twin falls, any kind of stock SUV would be sufficient. However, the entire trail contains shelf ledges and narrow roads so make sure to stay aware and focused. After twin falls, the trail begins to get very rocky, increasingly so as you approach the summit. We would suggest a vehicle with high clearance, 4X4, and mud or all terrains (no street tires).

Camping

Along Camp Bird Road there are two campgrounds that even non-4X4 vehicles with a little higher clearance can access, Thistledown (9 sites) and Angel Creek (15 sites). Both campgrounds are first come, first served. Angel Creek is a very short distance down Camp Bird Road , maybe a mile at most while Thistledown is a couple miles in. The sites are $10 a night with a picnic table, fire ring and tent pad. There is a self check-in station where you fill out your information and pay via cash (maybe even check?), close it up in an envelope and drop it into a designated box. Each campground has 1-2 vault toilets. Thistledown even has two sites that can fit a trailer up to 20 ft long but does not have any hookups. All sites are primitive.

Notable Landmarks

Yankee Boy Basin is not only known for its breathtaking views but also for its many historic and unique landmarks that you will encounter along the way.

Drinking Cup: This spot is about 3.4 miles into Camp Bird Road. It is located at a sharp curve in the shelf road. At this spot miners used to lower their drinking cups down into a natural spring that was nestled below over the ledge as they walked by. It is a great opportunity for a photo with the wooded mountain range behind you, however, be careful as this road is narrow and heavily trafficked.

Camp Bird Mine: Located a few hundred feet down the left turn at the fork towards Imogene pass in what is known as the Imogene Basin. See below for more History!

Atlas Mill:Located only ¾ of a mile into Yankee Boy Basin Trail (after the fork). Here lies the remnants of Stamp Mill used by the Atlas Mining and Milling Co. that ran from 1876 to 1926 alongside the Mt. Sneffles Mining District. Primarily they produced gold and silver that in today's money would be worth over $1 billion dollars.

Mt. Sneffels Mining District & Yankee Boy Mine: Located a little ways past Atlas Mill. See below for more History!

Twin Falls: Located about 2.8 miles into Yankee Boy Basin Trail (after the fork). A small parking lot is available to the left. This landmark is just as it sounds, there are two small waterfalls a few hundred feet from the trail with beautiful, picturesque mountains in the background.

Wrights Lake: Located at the very end of the Yankee Boy Basin Trail. Although I could not find confirmation anywhere, I believe this lake was named after Ed and George Wright who purchased land in downtown Ouray in 1881 where they constructed a two-story brick Opera House that opened in 1888. Ouray's sole mission at the time was to serve as an export town for mined goods, so the Opera House took a while to really take off. Nowadays a non-profit organization called “Friend of the Wright Opera House” aims to restore the building and use it to inspire and promote an educational and artistic environment in Ouray. However, the Wright Lake could be named after anything.. I am just speculating. Nonetheless, their link is listed in the sources below if their organization/mission is something you are interested in learning more about!

History of the Mines

Like much of Colorado, Ouray County has a very rich history of mining..no pun intended. Along Yankee Boy Basin there are two major mining towns/districts that used to bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in today's money before ultimately shutting down due to the receding amount of materials able to be mined.

Camp Bird Mine

What remains of Camp Bird Mine is in Imogene Basin which is located at the fork of Imogene Pass and Yankee Boy Basin (see trail map above). The mine was discovered in 1896 by Thomas Walsh, a former carpenter from the Dakotas who made his way by selling materials to miners during the gold rush. In doing so, he learned a lot about the ins and outs of gold mining and soon had the knowledge he would need to eventually make millions in Ouray. Originally, before it was taken over by Walsh and renamed Camp Bird Mine, the location was well known in the 1870's for its silver mining. However, when the silver panic hit in 1883 and the price of silver dropped drastically, miners began to sell off their claims leaving what is today's Camp Bird Mine untouched as well as exhausted of other materials such as lead-copper-zinc ore.

When Walsh arrived to the Rockies he inspected the tailing piles at Canyon Creek which runs through Imogene Basin, and as the saying goes, he struck gold. Walsh followed the tailing piles back to their origin and discovered rich veins of gold. Walsh was smart and kept his discovery to himself for the time being and bought up other claims in the area. What was once an abandoned area became a booming mining district once again. Within only four years of discovery the mine produced 1.5 million troy ounces of gold and 4 million troy ounces of Silver.

Walsh quickly became Colorado's second most successful gold miner. Some of the reason for that may be due to that fact that he went out of his way to make a comfortable living environment for his miners and gave them very reasonable wages. Camp Bird Mine was equipped with a three story boarding house for 400 workers, all of which included steam heat, working toilets, electricity, hot and cold water, and that is just to name a few of the many amenities. The miners, unlike many other miners at the time in various areas around the US, had eight hour work days. Nowadays this is typical, however, back in the late 1890's, early 1900's labor conditions were not as much of a concern. Walsh's mission to treat his workers fairly paid off for him in the long run seeing as during the early 1900's many miners from other districts were becoming angry and even violent over their working conditions. Walsh did not experience this. I believe the miners only complaints were that occasionally a Canadian Jay would sometimes steal their lunches. Little did they know that those Jays would end up being the namesake of the Mine.

In 1902 Walsh decided to sell the Camp Bird Mine for a whopping $6,000,000, which in today's money is little over $206 million. Although, half the money was given to him in cash while the other half was to be given to him over time from profits the mine continued to generate. Camp Bird Mine continued

to grow even without Walsh. Between then and now the mine has been open intermittently dependent on the economy. From the Yankee Boy Basin there are two houses that served as offices back in the day that can still be seen today that are still in excellent condition. They are only a few hundred yards down the North Imogene Pass trail head (left at the ORC 361 fork). From what I can find, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been the only ones at the mine recently in order to remediate the surrounding area from the leftover tailing piles. This is typically done at many mine sites where the tailing piles are close to any sort of water source. Back during the early mining days there was very little knowledge about the health and environmental hazards involved in working with certain elemental materials.