We took a trip to Topaz Mountain with our friends, the Thomases, and my dad. We loaded up our vehicles with buckets, hammers, chisels, sledgehammers, screwdrivers, shovels, sunscreen, lunches, water, and snacks.
First, on the way through Delta, we stopped at the Topaz Relocation Site. This is one of the Japanese Internment camps from World War II. It was fascinating to walk around and find artifacts among the old foundations. It was great to show the kids a part of history and have them hold it in their hands.
Josh spent the entire time flipping over items looking for bugs and critters.
Guess what he found:
He's a tiny guy but he fascinated the kids.
On to Topaz Mountain. Our minivan took on some epic dirt roads and we made it in one piece.
We parked the car and the kids scattered across the mountain side. Topaz Mountain is a remnant from a volcano where anyone can beat away at the mountain and take away your treasures. The entire mountain sparkles in the sunshine, like glitter. You can find pieces of Topaz on the ground but the best pieces are trapped in pockets of rock.
Is there anything better, for a child, than beating rocks with a hammer? I think not.
Bucket hat twins, to the rescue!
Can you see my dad?
Checking out Grandpa's spoils:
We moved on to another spot to look for some Red Beryl. We couldn't find the right road but did find a little area to do more prospecting. This area had interesting rocks and some kids walked away with pockets full of Apache Tears.
Grandpa had to head home early. After dropping him off in Delta, we drove to Little Sahara Park. It is a fascinating area with huge sand dunes. The sand is super fine and clean. Here are the kids climbing most of the way up "Sand Mountain".
After they reached the top, the all started to run down. All, but Caleb. He sat at the top and just played with the sand. I was concerned that the motorcycles racing around wouldn't see him sitting there and he could get hit. I screamed at Katie, on her way down, to stop and go back. After she talked to him a little, this is what we saw:
If you zoom in the the picture, you will see Katie dragging Caleb down the hillside by one foot. We felt bad for her, assuming that Caleb wasn't listening to her and she had to drag him away. When they got down, she said he was nervous to come down. She proposed the idea of pulling him and he agreed. He had a blast. Whew!
Everyone had a blast.
I love this picture of Katie running down with a spray of sand behind her.
They played capture the flag and this image shows them seeing how far they could jump over another kid.
I decided that I wanted to see how far I could climb. It was incredibly exhausting. The slope was so steep and the sand would move down with every step. I could do 20 steps and then would have to stop and catch my breath. I got as far as I could, sat down, and felt quite proud of myself. I took this beautiful panorama shot of the area. If you look hard, you can see our silver and black minivans at the base.
This is my favorite memory of the day. My wonderful friend, Tifany climbed up to me for a good talk. I love my friends and I love my family. It was a great day and we can't wait to find some more spots to find some treasures.
No comments:
Post a Comment