Amethyst Mining

Doug and his 3 buddies from the Lapidary club decided they were going to go on an ATV trip to mine for more amethyst. The ladies weren't invited on this trip and we gladly stayed home. The fellows rented a gas powered diamond bladed concrete saw for the day. The blade alone was worth $90 if they broke it! They headed off into the mountains about 0830 hours headed for a mountain range just west of Superior where the Woodpecker mine was located. We had all visited this mine on a previous trip and the fellows had found a very thick, rich amethyst vein they wanted to try and retrieve. Of course the only way to do this was to cut the stone out of the mountain side!

 Bruce is chipping away small pieces of amethyst

 Jim & Trent eying the vein of amethyst

 Trent cutting a chunk of amethyst into s smaller piece as it was too heavy to carry back to the ATV's

 Lunch break for the big time miners!

 Doug had to take some pictures of the wild flowers for me

 Of course he also had to take a picture of the scary creatures also - a scorpion!

 The Ocotilla bush is flowering a bit more than when we were out for a drive 4 days earlier

 The fellows found another mine that went back at least 60 ft to where there was a cave it and beyond the cave it they could see the tunnel go back a further 60 ft or so and then turn a corner.

This was why they didn't take the women! We wouldn't have let them go that far into an old abandoned mine shaft!!

 They found another old abandoned mine with a sluice box coming out of it. They think it was a sliver mine

 This was the mine opening at the top of the sluice

 Of course they can't resist trying to go down the ladder into the mine!

 Coming down off the mountain at the end of the day

 Doug found a bird's nest in the center of a cholla cactus with little chicks in it

 A different look at the entrance to the bird's nest. Amazing how the birds can build their nests in these prickly cacti!

 Large chunks of solid amethyst.

 Another view of the rocks they brought home

A smaller rock of solid amrthyst

The  big chunks of solid amethyst will be stored in one of the fellow's sheds for the summer as they will need to take the big rocks into the Apache Junction lapidary club this fall to have them cut there as our club doesn't have a big enough saw. The fellows think they will get some wonderful slices of solid amethyst we can make clock faces and jewelery with. Doug is going to cut a few of the smaller pieces before we head home.

We had the walk through of our new winter home today and the old owners gave us a set of keys. They hope to be gone by 0900 hrs Monday morning so we will make the first trip over to our new house after I finish water aerobics Monday morning. It will take a few trips to get all the things over to the house we want to leave there permanently. We are getting excited!

A drive through copper mining country

We decided it was time for a little road trip. We have been so busy doing I am not sure what, that we figured it was about time we did a little road tour. We left our RV park about 1030 in the morning. Doug had to wait for me as I have water aerobics from 0900 - 1000 hours! It was a gorgeous sunny, warm morning. We headed out on East HWY 60 towards Superior and then took the hwy just as you enter Superior that veers off to the south. It took us up into the White Mountains and down towards the town of Kearny. One of the largest open pit Copper mines is just a few miles north of Kearny. It was a beautiful scenic drive over the mountains. A windy, curvy road much like you find in the BC mountains but the vegetation is very different - high desert. We came around the corner and there was this massive copper mine right in front of us. I am going to post many pictures but it was so awesome it was hard to stop taking pictures!

I had to take a picture so I would remember the name of the mine!

 This is what we initially saw as we came around a corner in the road

 A big slag pile

 The hole in the ground just got larger as we drove further around the corner!

 We couldn't believe just how big the hole in the ground was

 The different colors in the rock were amazing

 It is hard to imagine just looking at this picture, just how large the mine really is!

 Everywhere you looked, it just went on forever it seemed

 I just loved all the colors, it reminded me of a quilt

 Another view of all the colors

 I just couldn't stop taking pictures!

 We are looking over the edge at the Visitor's Lookout

 Of course Doug thinks it's funny taking a picture of me leaving the "loo"

 We are driving away from the mine heading for the town of Kearny

 Every where you look there are slag piles

 We are coming down the hill to the town

I never did take any pictures of the town. It was a very poor looking tiny village. It had a great little thrift store we spent some time looking through and the ladies volunteering at it were very friendly. We also went to a garage sale and were able to find a microwave tray for Catherine's microwave. We paid a whooping $1 for it. Cath just had a small accident and broke her tray so this was a great find. Now to just get it to Yellowknife........

 After leaving Kearny, we headed up the mountain and over it heading top the town of Winkleman. The small town of Hayden was 2 miles before it and was another copper mine town. You can just see the green colour of the slag pile through the chollo cactus.

 As we get closer, the green of the slag pile gets more vivid

 Imagine looking out your living room window looking at this all day! Many of the houses did

 It was quite the site being such a vivid turquoise color

 The sign identifying the town of Hayden was so lovely, I expected the town to be the same.

Of course Doug loved the picture because it had a train in it! The train is called the Copper Basin Railway Company. When we went up the hill into the town, it was shocking to see all the old closed down buildings just falling into disrepair. Two large smelting plants were no longer in production and just rotting away. It really was a sad little town that looked like the people were just scraping by.

 Beautiful butterfly on the road where we puuled over to take some pictures of the wild flowers

 I just couldn't get over the colors

 beautiful wild flowers all along the road

 Not the clearest picture but these little flowers were so pretty

 We are now up at the 5000 ft level in the Dripping Springs Mountains going over El Capitane Pass heading towards the town of Globe

We could see for miles but the wind was howling and I was actually cold!

We had lunch in Globe, then toured this mining town, visiting a couple of thrift stores and a really neat little tourist trap and a turquoise wholesaler. The nearby town of Miami has a large turquoise mine and the mine offices and wholesale and general public stores are in Globe. We bought a bag of small turquoise chips and have them in the rock tumbler as I type, I want to use the chips as the numbers on clock faces. Doug is making clocks out of slices of cut stone he and his group have mined. I'll post a picture once we get one finished

Night time in the Desert

Well last night (Saturday March 19th) was a full moon and a special one at that! The moon's orbit was as close to the earth as it is going to be for the next 20 years. It was supposed to look huge as a result so we decided last night was a good night to go out into the desert and have a wiener roast and watch the moon rise. There were the three couples and a single fellow, Brian who lives in the park full time. We pulled out from the RV park about 6pm and headed into the desert. It was a very warm day, about 88 degrees so still very warm when we left. Still it is the desert and it certainly cools once the sun goes down so we were looking forward to the fire.

 We were getting settled in and lighting the fire. Doug had brought his fire barrel and it worked wonderful!

 The fellows brought fire starter cubes so the fire started with no trouble

 Ann, Sharon & Connie guarding the fire

 The moon is rising behind the saguaro

 It was such a beautiful site sitting out in the peaceful desert, around a fire with good drink, food & friends

 The moon was so huge it was almost daylight it was so bright

 It didn't take us long to get hungry and start roasting those hotdogs

 The fire was mesmerizing! Ask Ann!!

 More moon pictures

 Of course you can't have a campfire without a few ghost stories!

 The moon is getting higher

 Well the fire is going down and it is time to head in (10pm)

Doug guided us in and I was very impressed. Once we headed down the road everything looked foreign to me and I would never have found my way home! Doug got us all home safe and sound. We sure slept well after all the good desert evening air! We were almost home when my ball cap flew off into the night so I guess we'll head out for a drive in the morning to see if we can find it.

Sunday morning, a beautiful warm day with a bit of overhead cloud that makes it feel even warmer. Supposed to be in the high 80's again today. We headed out on a ball cap retrieval trip about 10am and saw our first cacti starting to bloom. The blooms are behind this year because of the two extreme cold spells we had this winter.

 Hedgehog cactus is just now starting to bloom

 My lonely ball cap sitting right where it flew off my head last night!

 The Ocotilla are just coming out in their beautiful orange blooms. We'll have to go back out in a few days to see them in full bloom

 Doug walking off down the road, I think he got tired of waiting for me as I was taking too many pictures! It gave me a chance to get behind the wheel and drive the ATV for the remainder of the trip

 Another Ocotilla but it is just starting to bloom also

 I keep warning Doug the rattlers are now out but he persists in walking out in the desert. Good thing he has life insurance (you notice I didn't say "good thing his wife is a nurse!")

 A dead saguaro cactus skeleton

 You have to look close but we spotted a snake going between the two bushes

 A closer look at the snake

I am sure I won't hear the end of this, but I was driving down the trail and this snake was in the middle of the road. I thought it was just a tree branch until Doug called out snake. Well I gave a shreek and drove right over it and kept going. As you can see, I didn't run over it as it was moving just fine across the desert. Doug made me stop and back up so he could get pictures. I would have been just as happy to keep on truckin. Doug thought it was a diamond back rattler but I think it was a bull snake as I didn't see any rattles on its tail. Not that it really matters, it was one darn big snake and it gave me the creeps!

 

Two hawks flying over head - now they do love those snakes

 I thought this was a neat picture. It is a fallen cholla cactus that is dried up

That's all the news for now. We have closed on our house and now have the title and registration but the old owners are not vacating till March 28th so another week and we'll be moving in! More news then