Saturday, January 8, 2011

Royal Blue Sand Mines

Last weekend our Jeep club along with ET4WD ventured up to the sand mines at Royal Blue.  According to a couple of friends that were on the trip with us, TVA mined sand out of the top of this mountain to be mixed for concrete for the dams.

The first hill climb turned out to be quite tricky as the rains made everything a muddy mess and we ended up having to winch up one section of the hill.


We stopped just short of the top at the wheelhouse.  This is where they brought the sand down from the top and loaded it into carts for the ride down the mountain.  Here's a picture of the wheelhouse:

Everyone with lockers continued up to the top where there's a small lake and lots of sand. (duh)  :)  Pictures never show it, but it was pretty steep up this last part:


And here's a video as proof that we went up there:



Special thanks to my stunt driver for making me look good.