They're not the safest places to go wheelin'. Our local big mines (Ft Knox and True North) restrict access. The roads are narrow, the Knox mine has some wicked hairpins, so if you can imagine a two-story dump truck that weighs 150K with a load of ore trying to stop going downhill....

A friend of mine delivers fuel out there. He has to stop and call the operations center to let them know he's arrived, so they can get traffic off the road for his drive down to the main pad. THAT is neverminding the other hazmat loads that go in to support processing and shooting rock. Ya just can't have some yahoo running around.

We've had a few trucks roll up there, one was a collision; the other had the road fail after a lot of rain. Long way to the bottom...

With pit mines, they shoot rock, right in the spot where you might like to cut some donuts. It would be like the Top Gear video in reverse; you will have a new concept of airborne!

With the sheer size of equipment, the operators also have rather large blind spots immediately below and behind them, and they AIN'T watchin' you. As a driver, you watch them, just like you should watch someone in a boat who is shooting game.

Also, in places like the Pogo Mine, they have a 30 mile road going in from the highway. They built it; it's THEIR road. Pizzes off the hunters, but it's a PRIVATE road. Folks who work in there are REQUIRED have to have radios in their vehicles, with the mine's freq programmed in, as the road is quite narrow, and you call in at every mile, so anyone coming out knows where you are, and can pull over in one of the waysides to let you through.

Up in the 40Mile and Central mining districts during your weekend nose-following-down-a-trail, you need to be careful, as a lot of those remote claims don't take kindly to Sunday drivers; you WILL BE MET by the lock-and-load committee. Ignoring signs out in the middle of nowhere is a VERY BAD idea.