Kaymoor Miners Trailhead

Drive the narrow Kaymoor Road (with just sufficient space for two cars to pass) and park slightly past the trailhead. The hike comprises two phases, the first of which is a series of gentle switchbacks and wooden steps, leading to a “your family wants you to work safely” sign. Here you will find the mine entrance and safety bulletin among some interpretative signs. Other points of interest include a lamp house (presumably?) and ventilation fan house requiring only a few steps of level walking. I would call this the decision point. For some, descending more than 800 steps of the stair cascade may not be worthy. By contrast, if you are a history lover like I am, you will be rewarded with a few remaining mining structures. Please let your group understand that while the final descent is by choice, the ascent back is mandatory (don’t forget another uphill climb to the trailhead awaits). In my opinion, anybody without health or mobility issues can climb the stairs easily. Give yourself ample time to ascend back and rest. We did the hike on a snowy day. The trail was covered with snow not ice. Although it was not slippery, we did put on spike chains on our shoes as a precaution. I cannot imagine to hike to the ruins in summer! Half way down the stair cascade you can see a boiler (presumably?) and the remains of a cable car track. You will see collapsed buildings and structures at the end of trail. The entire area is fenced but it is fun to peek inside. We explored around the end of trail and found an opening of the fence. Note that it is NOT safe to enter because the structures are unstable. ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!!

It's a fun trail, but extremely physically demanding, and as others may have said—there isn't too much to see at the bottom. You descend a trail and the 821 step stairs to see the remnants of an old miner town along with some signage you can read to learn more information. If you don't like getting tired, I'd recommend a different trail, but it's a great workout and my party enjoyed it.

This trail had me questioning my life choices. Seriously, don't descend to the bottom if you just came from another 3hr hike. It won't be a "quick down and up" again. Fascinating stuff down there. Great trail!!

This trail is pretty intense, especially on a 95° day, but such a cool experience. We were discussing the history of the place for most of the hike, it’s an interesting immersion experience, wondering at what life was like in a coal town. It’s strenuous though, I’m pretty active and hike regularly, but still struggled getting out of there in that heat. Our favorite part was actually before you hit the stairs, so you could get the experience without committing to going all the way down. Even getting to that point isn’t easy though, I personally would never take a child on this trail. Everything at the bottom is fenced off for safety, but you can continue around that area to see the ovens and, I believe, eventually the river. Absolutely recommend if you know you’re physically able. There is decent parking compared to the other trails we hit, maybe 20 or so cars, and there is a bathroom.

Fantastic adventure! Yup you hike down. At the bottom you do a little exploring and the turn around and hike back up! I do believe you may have been able to connect a trail and return a different way but without a map and not trail marking I did not try it. Plus a little elevation never hurt anyone. I thoroughly enjoyed exploring and learning about the mine. I love that there are pieces of this history still there!

We started at this trail-head and that alone was moderate at times in itself. Once you get to the bottom of it you have a choice to continue down 821 steps to the bottom to visit the old coal mining area. Honestly I didn't think it was that bad however for someone out of shape or does not routinely do any strenuous activity I can see how it is challenging. Once at the bottom they have fencing around the old coal mining structures for good reason because some of that stuff looks like it would fall if you leaned on it wrong. At first glance it looks like there is nothing else to do but truth be told you can continue hiking around the perimeter of the old coal mining area looking at it from the other side of the fence. And there is old coal spread out all over the ground which my kids took some home. Again it looks like there is no trail once you make it to the bottom but don't believe your eyes you can either go left or right and make a huge circle around the old coal mine structures that brings you right back to the 821 steps to climb back up. If you've been to Chimney Rock in North Carolina and climbed all of those stairs to the top then you can do this. My 14 y/o son bless his heart was definitely struggling on the way back up and had to stop occasionally to rest and catch his breath. He finished it though and I was very proud of him and it was definitely rewarding.

Great trail, but NOT for the faint of heart! The elevation change in just .5 mile is pretty crazy. We took all of our kids and ended up having to carry our youngest (4 years) back up on our shoulders. The ruins in the middle section are very cool and worth the hike, but beware that it is a challenging hike.

The Kaymoor abandoned mining town was extremely cool. You can do a strenuous hike to the first site with a lot of neat abandoned stuff to get in, or add 800+ stairs down to the second site with more buildings (fenced off). Be cautioned, those 800 stairs are the real deal (about the same as the Washington Monument which they rarely permit people to climb), plus add a tough additional hike back up. 4 out of the 5 in my group did fine, but one teen struggled.