Chloride 3.0

​Famous Purcell Murals above Chloride, Rainbow Mine and views both east and west.
​
The famous Purcell Murals were painted by the artist Roy Purcell.  In 1966, Roy Purcell took a break from pursuing a Master's degree in Fine Arts at Utah State University to labor as a miner in the Cerbat Mountains near Chloride, Arizona.

While he was there, and with the support of local residents, he painted "The Journey," a 2000-square-foot set of murals on some boulders about a mile and a half outside of town.

There is a GPS - gpx track file at the bottom of the page.
Picture
Purcell Murals above Chloride
​The murals have been restored since they were originally painted.
Picture
Purcell Murals "Journey"
Picture
Some Purcell Murals resemble Indian rock art
Begin the 4WD part of the trip about a mile beyond the murals.  There is evidence of mining all along the road, but the Rainbow Mine is the first item of real interest.

The Rainbow Mine is a gold mine that hasn’t been in operation since before World War II and is on the market for a cool $28 million. ​ News article.  Realtor listing.
Picture
Rainbow Mine equipment
Picture
Rainbow Mine deep hole
The loop section of this trail near Chloride is a mostly an easy road, but there are areas of more difficulty thrown in for interest.
Picture
Easy road
Picture
Harder road
After the Rainbow Mine you will come to the crest of the Cerbat Mountains with nice views both east and west.  At this point you have a choice of looping back to Chloride via a 4WD road or continuing north along the mountains on a graded GP rated road.
Picture
View to the east
Picture
View to the west
We recommend the GP road heading north.  This is an easy and very scenic road that takes you to US 93 a short ways north of the Chloride turnoff.
Picture
Heading north on GP rated road.
Picture
Dropping toward US 93.
Page updated 2017.
chloride_3.0.gpx
File Size: 219 kb
File Type: gpx
Download File