This is one of my file pictures taken from Mt Stanton a few years ago.
The ledges discussed below are those near the summit in this pic. The others are not reachable by trail.
We've hiked Iron so many times that we dont take a lot of pictures any more.
I've included a couple from our stockpile to flesh this post out just a bit.
We went from the Green Hill trailhead to the southern ledges; this trip did not include the mines. They are about .35 mi past the turn off to the ledges, and the trail gets rougher.
It had been a couple years since our last trip up Iron, so this seemed a good destination on this lovely day.
You access the trailhead by Green Hill Rd in Jackson; a nice tar side road next to a golf course, which becomes rougher as it ascends and becomes Iron Mountain Rd.
This dirt road is sometimes in decent condition, sometimes not. This trip =- was not. I was glad to be driving a truck, though ordinary cars were also able to make it up. Plan on 5 mph once it turns to dirt, with the possibility of negotiating with oncoming traffic. There are some pulloffs and some camp driveways along the way, so it's not to hard to get past other vehicles. The parking space has been expanded from the small pulloff at the actual trailhead. On this trip, we needed to park in the expansion space , which added a flat quarter mile road walk (each way).
In addition to the road walk, the first half of the trail has been rerouted ( for erosion I assume) since the last time I had taken a GPS track. This reroute added about .65 mi ( one way), so the hike turned out about 1.75 mi longer than we had planned. Fortunately we had plenty of time.
Despite the reroute, the trail is steep and a bit rough in places. No terrifying scrambles, but I'm still not 100% recovered from an accident, so I had a little trouble in spots. But I managed.
The summit is wooded. There are remains of an old tower, and a decent outlook about 1.2 mi into the ascent, but no views from the summit.
The views that put this mountain into the 52 are from the ledges, well past ( about .8 mi ) the tower site.
The path to the ledges involve some steep stretches that I found a bit intimidating; I'm getting a little more cautious about taking a fall than I used to be. The spot pictured below is much steeper than the picture appears. Especially from the top! 😜
No scrambles, but some rocky sections that take some care. And energy - dont forget you have to climb them on the way back 😒
After some time on the ledges enjoying the great views S, E and W ( not N, it's wooded ) we headed back. An uneventful but tiring walk back. Iron is not the longest hike , but it is still a solid one at 4.9 mi / 1560 ft
Gallery / slide show