Found one

Crystal Park

Today we went to crystal park.  It is a piece of land located in National Forest land.  It is open to the public to dig for crystals.  We had never done anything like that before so we thought it would be fun.

I stopped at the hardware store to buy a small shovel, a hand rake, gloves and a screen box to shake the dirt out of the stones.

The miner

The ride out to the park is 42 miles from our campground.  The road passes through some of the most scenic countryside in southwestern Montana.  The fields and woods were covered with wildflowers.  

As we wound our way up the mountain, the temperature dropped several degrees.  It has been very mild here with very low humidity.  Even temperatures in the mid 80s is very pleasant.  On top of the mountain it was 74.  

The mole

Wildflowers

One drawback of the crystal park is the hordes of misquitos that inhabit the area.  They are so thick  you can hardly breathe.  We wore long pants and shirts as we had been warned.  We took a can of deep woods Off with us too.  With a heavy application of bug juice they were held at bay but they were ever buzzing around you.

Some of or find

We found some nice crystals.  A couple of them were very nice.  We dug and raked until we were ready to drop.  Neither of us have worked so hard in years.  We were filty.  We looked like two buffalos that just finished rolling in dust.  As we were leaving the park, a young couple with kids passed by us.  We heard her say to her husband, "those peoplle are really into this."  We looked like seasoned veterans for sure.  Little did they know it was our first experience.  I don't know how you would find many without getting dirty.  We did meet one lady you picked up a very large crystal that was just lying on top of th ground.

One of our best finds

Tomorrow we will move up to Alder.  It is the site of another big gold strike in Montana.  There are two very touristy ghost towns in that area;  Nevada City and Virginia City.  We will visit those and check out Ruby Resivour where it is reported that small rubies can be found in the sands along the shoreline.  Hopefully it won't be as dirty adventure.

Another nice one