Summer Adventures 2012 Part 11

We went to the Kennecott Copper Mine while Heather and Hilary were here.  We had never been before and thought it would be a fun (and cheap) activity for all of us to do.  It only cost $5 per car to get in, so not bad at $1 a person.  After we drove in, we traveled up a long windy road around the mountain to the visitors' center.  From there we could see just how big this giant hole in the ground really was.

It's hard to tell just how big this thing is from the picture, but if you look at the little black dots along the road on the far side of the mine, those are the giant dump trucks they use to haul the rocks out.

To give you a better idea of how big those trucks are, here's a regular sized school bus taking some workers down into the mine alongside the dump trucks.

 They had a truck tire out in front of the visitors' center.  There are six of these on each truck--each back wheel has two tires.

 This aerial shot displayed in the visitors' center shows the whole operation.  It's massive.

We had a great time marveling at how huge the mine is.  It's a pretty unique attraction, and it's impressive that men have been able to literally move a mountain.