William B.
Yelp
You got a rental car in Vegas? Well what u waitin for, giddyup and go see this ghost town/mine tour!
I found this place as we were looking for new places to visit - the usual array of high-priced tour packages went by and I spotted El Dorado Canyon. After some googling I found this modest web site (they dont really advertise) saying they offered 'mine tours' for $15, call ahead, etc. I called, like, 5 days early, they didnt really want to hear from me till the day before lol. So calling the 'day before' they said, 'gotta spot @12pm, follow Google maps please'. They want parties of 4 at least to start a tour. These are great people offering a pretty cool insight into their lives and how things used to be. Be courteous.
Its a beautiful desert drive to get here. Winding into the canyon you'll go past Nelson, and then spy the old mining town.
Lots of knick-knacks, old cars, western stuff and of course, mining tools scattered around the properties. Park, go in and pay the $15.
There were 6 of us in our tour group. Bruce comes out and amiably asks where everyone's from, and thats where he might assign you a nickname if he likes you. lol. Anyway, Bruce was a great story teller, and gave us the lowdown on how gold was mined, the tools they used, what life was like back then. They have lots of old photos and even a mine drawing.
Finally, he led us down the rocky trail, past interesting displays, like the old jail cell, which he locked me in, and tools. Then he led us into the mineshaft.
This was AMAZING. They've done a great job, wiring the shaft with old-style lanterns lighting the way. Its a few degrees cooler in here, with a breeze blowing in from some unseen sky-hole. Bruce showed us how they followed quartz veins, and gave showed us how they used the manual tools to hammer out the material. Omigod times were hard back then!
After we exited, Bruce volunteered to take pics of anyone in front of the mine entrance using our phones (which everyone accepted). And thats it. Bruce walked off and let us explore the grounds on our own; I wouldve offered a tip but apparently thats not 'the way of it' here.
EASILY the best outing of our most recent Vegas trip, highly recommend. Bonus - explore the rest of El Dorado canyon on your own, beautiful views of the river here. And the amazing solar panel arrays in the valley will blow your mind as you head back.
ps, I really appreciated the low-cost t-shirts which they offered in the 'XLT' (tall) size.