Three brave hikers have decided on this cool Sunday to hike the Agua Fria River and continue on to the Richinbar mine. They were Wendy, Quy, and Michael.

We started out at the Badger Springs exit off I-17 and traveled down the riparian area to the Agua Fria. This is a nice easy sandy stream bottom walk area that will get you to the river with ease. This little walk is interesting in that you are passing sycamore and cottonwood trees, but higher up on the slope are cactuses. There is water running in Badger, so we have to hop over the wet spots. The Agua Fria River is running at a good pace, so we will have to do the alternate path to the mine. On Friday before this hike this area received a large amount of rain. The river has some water running in it.

We take the alternate path to the mine, which is just past the Sunset Rest Area. We have to take that exit to get on the correct side of I-17, so we can get to the mine gate. We hop the fence here and continue past an old ranch building.

The ranch hut has not been used in a while, but it is a sturdy building that could still keep you dry.

This is the easy way to Richinbar, about a mile of one way walking and only 200 foot of elevation change. The dirt road that runs from the freeway to the ranch continues to the mine, so very easy route to follow. When the old road goes below the rim and curves into the mine area, you can see down into the Aqua Fria river canyon. In the picture you can see the log jam, which is where you make the turn out of the canyon to the mine.

You can also see why it was a good idea not to hike the canyon today, as the river would have been very hard to cross and get up to the mine. This is also the point where you can go out on a ridge one and see some rock art.

We make our way back to the road and continue to the mine, where you can see one of the old ovens used to “cook” out the metals they were mining.

This is also a good place for a snack. There is plenty to see at this old mine, but do watch out for the old mine shafts.