Haven’t heard of Mina?  If not, you don’t watch the USGS earthquake web page.  Last year it was the nearest town to an earthquake swarm of over 200 earthquakes greater that a magnitude 2.0.  There was no major damage that I heard of, but the ground was rocking and rolling for months.    

Above is a snip from the USGS Earthquake web site.  Each dot represents an earthquake. Mina is about fifteen miles north of these earthquakes.

Now here I am at Mina and I think of the earthquake swarm.  But, there are also a number of old mining ruins to investigate in the area.  But before I go off exploring, I plan my time after checking the weather forecast.  No, I’m not checking for rain like I would do at home, I’m checking for high winds and dust storms.  

At Mina I started feeling like a Nevada traveling pro.  There was yet another high wind/blowing dust warning.  One day at Caliente I thought I could ignore the warning and went out exploring.  When I got out of the truck, I had to put on sunglasses to keep the dust out of my eyes.  I wondered about using my camera in the storm – probably not a good idea.  And I rolled down all my windows in the truck when I parked to keep the dogs from getting hot.  The already dirty truck just got more filthy inside.  At Mina when I saw a high wind warning, I went out early to do my exploring before the winds started and spent the afternoon inside my trailer while the winds howled and dust blew.    

Here are photos from the west and south of Mina from my exploring early in the day.

Best burgers. Researching this trip, I occasionally read about the best burgers at S’Socorro’s in Mina. I thought I would try a burger, but where was S’Socorro’s? I found out that S’Socorro’s had been sold and is now La Casita. Still really good burgers. I recommend stopping and getting one. It is across the road from the large truck parking area.