Our November camping trip was all about rocks!
Good food, good weather, camp fires, gems, and hammers!
Fun, fun, fun!
The trip planning, this time, was headed by Miss 1 and Dada,
On our way to the Dugway Geode beds.
Heard of them for many years, but this is the first time we are making it out here.
Heart rock!
Dinner and a show.
Dinovember continued, on a small scale during the trip.
*****
Good morning.
Breakfast.
Starting the mid-morning off in the geode beds.
Frozen puddle.
Broke open some cool small geodes.
Found some larger portions of geodes, left behind by others.
Lunch.
Breaking open geodes, so much like unwrapping presents.
A pre-dinner game of Cards Against Humanity, family edition.
That evening, the dinos got some help setting up for the morning:
the meeting of their geological society to examine amber!
(Was maple flavored kohakutou.)
*****
Morning window frost.
The little gaming device remained popular for the duration of the trip.
Frost through the polarized lens.
***
On the old route of the Pony Express, some old markers.
Off to the next stop.
Fish Springs National Wildlife Refuge.
Getting the binocs out.
Through the binoculars...
We think that this flock was of Loons, perhaps?
The field guide wasn't too helpful.
Lunch by the river.
***
Parked by an old abandoned mine, to check out the view.
Setting up camp!
Big, big deadwood log.
On Topaz Mountain.
Wrapped foil packet dinners this night.
Sweet potatoes, bok choy, potatoes, ect.
Miss is preparing a bok choy packet.
These turned out amazing!!!
***
Evening set up for tomorrow morning's Dinovember...
A dinosaur ramen noodle cup headlines,
accompanied by a portable campfire by Radiate.
Never used one of these "cooking" candles before.
Thought it would be interesting to hike and cook with.
***
Sunrise
Reading the note from the dinos.
The dinos are suggesting a hike and ramen-lunch up in the hills.
The ramen dino is a hit.
There is almost always drawing happening in our household.
There they are up on the hill.
The surrounding geology is pretty soft and porous, so far as rocks go.
I catch up with them up on the hill.
They've picked up some small topaz gems.
This is the rock that contains a lot of the topaz,
lighter grey and soft.
The view.
***
I decided to check out another spot, one hill over.
I spy a tiny arch in the distance and decide to go for a visit.
Yup.
Definitely an arch.
View around to the other side of the arch.
You can find gems like this sticking out of the ground everywhere.
They are just waiting for the right person with the right tool.
Lunch time!
Erik sets up the kitchen.
We've hauled everything up the hill in our packs:
water, ramen, dehydrated vegetables, pots, some ramen bowls, ect.
It's a rather involved mission, one at which we aren't super practiced.
We set up a make-shift stove with the Radiant cooking candle and some rocks for ventilation.
Not-watching a pot boil.
Setting up our meals with dehydrated veggies and ramen and soup.
Munching on pretzels and waiting for the water to boil.
Add water.
Wait.
Et voila!
Ramen soup lunch up on the mountain.
Meanwhile, the dinos do play.
Only drawback is that there is only so much water capacity in the pot, so we have to boil twice.
That arch again.
***
Found some cool natural rock goggles.
Playing with photo-taking through the goggles.
***
Made it back to the van, with the cool rock goggles.
***
Some of my topaz findings.
I didn't even use any tools, these I just picked up off of the ground.
She hit the jackpot by finding some vugs with topaz hidden from the sun.
This type of topaz fades and loses color when exposed to the sun.
So the non-faded stuff is harder to find and you need tools and digging.
*****
Dinner starts with dessert.
Marshmallow snout.
***
Evening preparation for the dinos.
The theme is on the importance of hydration in the desert.
Someone is getting a cool new dino water bottle.
I lights up and everything.
I don't have pictures, but trust me, it's cool.
*****
Morning.
Time to pack up and say goodbye to Topaz Mountain.
Kicked outside to go play while Erik and I pack the van.
***
This was a tiny double-yolker geode that I cracked myself.
I have all of the pieces.
So many rocks that we had to tie them down, for safety.
We had arranged to meet some folks and give their truck a jump.
Apparently, they made it out before we got to them.
On the road again.
Homeward.
Down the old Pony Express by way.
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