We are now residents of Utah, living near Hill Air Force Base where Dave is stationed. We are very pleased to be back out west, we truly do prefer the West to the Midwest, no offense to anyone... It's gorgeous out here with the mountains. We missed mountains!
The kids and I were tired of hanging around the house, and we were inspired by our rock-hound neighbor (who very kindly loaned us a book on rock-hounding in Utah) to go on an excursion in search of some cool rocks. It's a good excuse to go and explore. :-) So we headed two hours south to the historic towns of Eureka and Vernon and had a little adventure.
The kids and I were tired of hanging around the house, and we were inspired by our rock-hound neighbor (who very kindly loaned us a book on rock-hounding in Utah) to go on an excursion in search of some cool rocks. It's a good excuse to go and explore. :-) So we headed two hours south to the historic towns of Eureka and Vernon and had a little adventure.
The kids at the little mining museum in Eureka, which is in the Historic Tintic Mining District.
I wonder if there is some place where we could actually tour old mines, that would be cool...
The kids were fascinated by all the old equipment.
A restored cabin, believed to have housed Porter Rockwell, the famed Eureka area marshall.
Emmett by the portrait of Porter Rockwell.
Gareth and Vera Gail testing out the cabin chair.
The gang poking around an old caboose on display.
You can kind of see from this picture that Eureka is very nearly a ghost town...half the buildings are on the verge of derelict. It was quite interesting.
And now we skip down the way to the outskirts of Vernon, where our rock-hounding book had guided us to a pit of wonderstone.
Sanctioned digging, pounding, and generally getting filthy - yes, the kids were into rock hunting!
A view of the rolling terrain beyond the rock piles.
Being out here really gives me the urge to watch some classic John Wayne Westerns...where's my cowboy hat?
We took a little break from rock gathering (there were nifty stones all over) and took a little hike.
Kings of the Rock!
And Princess of the Rock. (Not queen, no, it would have to be princess.)
Me and Vera Gail by some scrub-brush.
Emmett and Gareth discovered a cactus growing in the rocks on the hillside and were exceedingly impressed by its presence.
Meanwhile, Vera Gail was still climbing up rock mounds - she squealed and danced in victory every time she got to the top. :-)
Here are some pictures of the wonderstones we brought back home. Pretty nifty!
This isn't quite all of it, there was a bit more. The kids are eager to rinse them again tomorrow and see if they can cajole a hammer out of the tool chest to break open some of the larger pieces to see if they have striking patterns inside.
So that was our adventure! I confess it was a bit much driving in one day since we aimed to be back for dinner, and next time we'll just not bother with that and stop for more sights (like some stops on the Pony Express trail, or some more historic or ghost towns) on the way home.
