Daddy Day Trip!

Krista is off for the weekend to Red Lodge, MT for a Mom's Retreat Weekend. So, first thing I did was pile the kids and dogs into the 'burban and headed out with some friends to play in the dirt! We headed for the Benbow mine trail, which I wasn't at all familiar with... but what the hey. The brief history of the Benbow mine is as follows...
During World War I, the Stillwater Complex was intensively explored for chromite (chrome ore). The complex is a narrow area that runs southeast from the Boulder River to just east of the Stillwater River on the northeastern portion of the Beartooth Mountain Range. Chromite was first discovered in the location in the 1880s. It was important during wartime because it hardens other metals and prevents rust in iron and steel products. After the end of World War I, demand for chromite plummeted and most of the mining ceased. Demand rose again during World War II, and the Anaconda Copper Mining Company worked the Benbow and Mouat mines during the war, building extensive work camps and mills. The area continued to be mined sporadically until the 1960s.
...anywho; so we finally made it up to one of the mining complexes. Audrey had fallen asleep so I let her snooze while Madison, Zoie and I walked around. The view from up there is amazing (somewhere around 8300 feet). Audrey woke up a short time later and we all hiked around. As we neared the old mill, Madison wanted to go up in "the big house", Audrey thought it was a playground and Zoie was content to serenade her daddy with cries of "uppy, uppy (dang it, pick me up dad). So we went inside the abandoned mine and climbed high up on the rickety old staircase, some of the planks were missing so I told the girls to be careful. -ok, not really it was fenced off, so we settled for photo ops from a safe distance outside.