Sunflower Mine
Trail Rating: 3.0
Sunflower mine is a great straight forward trail with excellent opportunities to see some old mining equipment.
The trail starts not far off of Highway 87 north of the 4 Peaks area towards Payson. Winding up and down, the average elevation on the trail is higher than most of the other Phoenix area trails. This makes for generally cooler wheeling.
80% of the trail is a pretty easy dirt road. Maintained more or less constant throughout. Once past the main camping and staging areas you start to wind down and cross several creek beds.
The rest of the trail is made up of small boulder fields and a few short climbs that can be prone to wash outs.
You can make the trip in a stock TJ with a keen eye on those rocks, a small lift will make the trip an enjoyable breeze.
Operating until as late as 1955, the sunflower (also called National) mine produced Mercury. The mercury was formed by burning cinnabar from surrounding rocks into a gas then cooling to condense.
Several structures and shafts remain. BE CAREFUL when exploring these. Although they are some of the best preserved in the area, the potential for accident is high.
The largest section of boulders and rocks.
Typcial creek crossing.
Road from the mine.
Hardest (optional) rock crossing towards mine shafts.
Typical rocks along the way.
Main existing structure.
Washed out sections (nearly optional) near the end.
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