Disclaimer: Crystal island is more like an abandoned gypsum mine in the middle of the desert than an actual island. Come to think of it, it is exactly like an old abandoned gypsum mine out in the middle of the desert. Apparently those two things are similar in a four-year-old's mind.
We heard about this from Natalie's cousin. It is probably one of the craziest things I have ever seen. The directions came from a 12 year old and we didn't know where we were going so we had a bit of a hard time finding the place. The end destination was described as "shiny hills out in the middle of the desert." That was very open to interpretation. We stopped at about every broken bottle on the side of the dirt road, thinking we were there. Finally we turned a corner and saw this...
That made us feel kind of silly about stopping at the broken bottles. This place was crazy. Seriously, I have never seen anything like it in my life. When you walk past those first hills you see this...
That is the old pit where they dug the stuff out. The hills you see from the road are the tailings of the old operation. This place is very worth the short trip to get there just to see it. However, if you do go, be aware that there are also some pretty wild natives roaming the place as illustrated below. Just watch out, they can be scary.
We had a great time here trying to get some of the crystals out of the layer in the wall. We also had competitions to find out who could find the biggest/clearest crystal. I was the judge. I also always won. Weird how that always seems to work. The girls loved it and we learned the important lesson of staying away from the two unexploded sticks of dynamite left from operation. If you don't teach your kids not to play with unexploded dynamite, in my opinion, you have left them ill-prepared for the world in which we live.In light of the previous fact, when a family came and setup a campfire in the middle of the pit, we decided that it was time to go. Thankfully, I did not hear of any fatal explosions on the Utah Arizona border for that weekend so I think they were OK.
In parting here is a pretty classic picture of the girls, both with their typical facial expressions.
As you can see, we all had a great time on our walkabout and can't wait to go on more exploratory adventures...
... And there was much rejoicing...
4 comments:
That was awesome Nick! I'm taking my girls to St. George this weekend (for the umpteenth time) and I've never been to either of those places. I'd love REAL directions from you. Of course, it's the kind of thing Emma would love, not Ashley. For Ashley, I already know how to get to the outlet mall. :-)
fun, i could really use a good walkabout.
What a fun trip. I love that your girls are so into the outdoors. They are darling.
That really looked great. One of the most envious blog posts I have seen in a long time.
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