Well today was hot as Hades but still fun. Perry, Steve and Leighton mined topaz at topaz mountain. I screened a bucket and stopped. To hot. I enjoyed the shade, birds and lizards. Perry was going strong when we left. Steve was sitting in the shade waiting for Perry. I couldn’t take the heat any longer. Leighton wanted to drive to the clear lake bird refuge and then we headed for our hotel. I must admit Filmore is not my favorite place. The hay is being harvested and both of us are reacting badly. We had lots of fun but I must admit I don’t plan to return and am looking forward to some allergy relief. Perry and Steve will continue to hunt rocks tomorrow while Leighton and I go to Capital Reef National Park. We will meet up again tomorrow evening at our house in Moab.
Fortunately topaz day was sunny and clear. It just also happened to be fairly warm. As you can see there wasn’t much shade around where we had to hunt. The area below was a site that was open to the public to scratch and dig as much as you like. We chows to go the easier route.
We went to an area where they dynamite the rock so you don’t have to spend as much time breaking the rocks, but you still have lots of rocks to split.
Perry is up on the pile splitting rocks while the rest of us watched from below. Donna had coaxed me down with the promise of panning for gold. They had some concentrate and a drum of water so I went through a couple of bags of concentrate. Since I was rich from all the gold I found we figured we had enough topaz specimens and called it a day but Perry continued on.
While Perry and I were busting rocks (good practice for when we are in prison) Donna and Steve made sure the shade tarp didn’t blow away. Looks like hard work.
On the way out from topaz hunting we found what the local boys do for entertainment. I don’t think this is much different from any other rural area.
On the way to the bird sanctuary we went by a marshy area and noticed we were being watched as we passed.
The bird sanctuary was a small body of water (it looked like a lot of it had dried up) and there were a few small water fowl and a lot of damselflys that congregated on one bush.
The most interesting fowl I saw was this devil looking bird called an eared grebe. You just gotta love those eyes.
On the way to Fillmore we say another interesting formation and as we looked closer it was a lava flow. This looked like it was one long stream of lava but when we got to the end it was many “rows” of lave. We really didn’t see and information about it so it remains a curiosity.
finally retired! 