We toured with a party of 11. 8 of is we're together and the other 3 included a young (carried)…read morechild. The 3 and one of our party did the shorter prospector's tour (all walking - no repelling or climbing harness needed). With the large party we were a little over 3.5 hours. Plenty to see and do, but the wait for the rappelling section was a little long (one at a time). Just walking through the mine, seeing the fog, feeling the cool temperatures, and the overlook before the repelling is nice. Plenty of story about the history, mining in general, and features in the mine. That's the prospector's tour and the first part of the miner's tour. Then there's repelling, clipping in to walk down a hill, walking over a shaky bridge, and exiting through the ice cave (temps in the 30s). We had a good time and I recommend it. Don't go overboard dressing warmly. There's a decent amount of activity, especially on the last part of the miner's tour.

Check out the Miner's Tour. This tour is LEGIT…read more This is not a commercialized, santized tour company. No guardrails. No lights inside. No paved trail that everyone has to stay on. There's exposed shafts and pipes sticking out. You crouch through tunnels that are less than 5 feet tall and have sharp rock edges poking down. You are seeing a real mine and how it looked back in the 1800s. I've done some mine tours in Colorado. This one is way, waaay better than those - this is the real deal. Really fun. Use the portapotties before the tour starts. You do not need to bring anything on this tour. You arrive in the gift shop and after checking in, they bring you to get suited up for the rappelling portion. You get a harness, gloves and a hard hat with headlamp. Then the tour group gets on a 6-wheel military bus over some extremely bumpy terrain to the mine entrance. Hold on! The tour is very hands-on and engaging. Our guide Katelyn had a lot of info to share about the mine and its history. Inside, there's lots of old artifacts like old tools recovered from the miner days. You can see the wooden planks from the old miner carts. You'll see how they actually worked using the quarter-crank rod, it looked miserable. You really get a feel for how laborous and dangerous mining is. *** 3 things I'll call out in case you have fears: BATS. Yes, there are bats in this cave. I am not afraid of bats, BUT not a fan. The bats I saw were tiny, maybe the size of a golf ball. They are terrified of people so they cling tight in the rock crevice and hope we don't notice them. None were flying around, but I could hear some chirping in the cathedral room. DARK. The headlamps are good at illuminating, so at one point everyone turns off their headlamps to see how dark it is. I knew it'd be dark, but once in it, it's kind of unsettling how pitch black it is. HEIGHTS. There's 2 places on the rappelling tour where you will be dealing with heights. *** Ok, so rappelling! I'm not athletic, so I wasn't sure how hard this would be for me. They have you practice on the vertical metal barrier fence around the top of the shaft. You get strapped in and do a trial run against the fence before going into the shaft itself. The practice is harder than the real rappelling! The scariest part of the rappelling was actually the first step off the ledge, because it's a vertical drop of 2-3 feet. The guide will go first so you can watch where they put their feet, the first spot to put your foot was a whitish rock. The rest of the way was MUCH easier, because you are at a 45 degree angle so it isn't straight up and down. When I was actually descending, I had to feed the rope with my hand. I was actually really worried about my arm strength not being able to support me, but it really wasn't a problem. Arm strength is not what is needed, the rope is supporting you. You just need to hang on to the rope, no prob. I'd estimate it took 10 min or less for each of us to get down. The bottom of the rappelling section is a steep slope as well. Again, remember that this is the real deal, no guardrails. Wood slat bridge. I missed everything about this bridge when I looked up the different tours online (not sure how since it's prominently featured). If you are afraid of heights at all, the bridge is going to be the scariest part of the tour. It's wobbly, narrow, and about 15? feet across a deep dark gorge that I did not look down into because I didn't want to pysch myself out. There's a rope overhead you secure to, so you are still in the harness for this. I went across pretty smoothly. My husband, who is a foot taller and 100 pounds more, had a more difficult time. I think it was because I'm shorter, I could use the rope to hold myself up since I was under it. My husband was above the rope so it was more difficult for him. Check out pictures online. Or dont. I think if I knew the bridge was a part of the tour, I'd have been more nervous leading up to it. PRO TIP: instead of walking normally across, try doing a shuffle, facing sideways, kind of sliding your feet. This keeps the bridge from rocking from the weight of each step. *** Wear: - Layers: think of a 45 degree day with no wind, so it's chilly. I wore a t-shirt, a fleece, and light jacket, and jeans, and I was fine. My husband wore a long sleeve t-shirt and light jacket. You will be moving so that keeps warm too. - Old shoes with grip: sneakers, hiking boots, trail runners. Everyone on our tour had sneakers on and they were fine. Wear shoes that can get wet or muddy; there are some areas of the trail that are wet. Not wet enough that my shoes let water in, but enough that you would not want to wear white canvas Keds. - Jacket with zippered pockets: if you're bringing your cell phone (for photos, no service obv), you'll definitely want pockets that zip shut on the rappelling part of the tour. The way you sit in the harness, you wouldn't want your phone (or car keys etc) in your pants pockets.