Day One: Chris had to round at the hospital before we could leave. We left in the early afternoon and didn't arrive at Grandpa and Grandma's house until late at night but we couldn't wait to start the next morning!
Day Two: Had breakfast with Chris' sister Wendy and her son David early in the morning. Left early and headed across I-70 for the Squeeze, right next to the San Rafael Reef. We didn't have any luck finding jasper but we did find a few rocks to break open. We wondered about the rest of our trip since this place was such a dud, but we were hopeful and pressed onto our next stop.
Greasewood Draw was just a few minutes away. We pulled up to the area and jasper and jasper geodes covered the ground. 
Abbie holding pieces of jasper geodes and agate.
This gives a view of the Greasewood Draw. the San Rafael swell is right behind us.
After filling a bag with jasper pieces we headed for Torrey, our stopping point for the night. The drive through Capitol Reef was incredible! This picture was taken out the front window of our van.
Day Three: Old Faithful Mine, an old copper mine just south of Torrey.
Grandma and Kiersten discovered a vein of azurite and chrysocolla.
Chris got out a couple of nice pieces but couldn't reach the biggest piece of azurite clearly visible in the middle of the vein. 
On the way to Cedar City we got a taste of Hell's Backbone when the highway dropped off sharply on either side. You can't tell by the picture how steep it really is. 
We stopped briefly at Cedar Breaks to take in the view. Beautiful!
Analise is a true Grandma's girl and stayed by her side most of the trip.
Next stop: Cedar Mountain to look for blue agate. It used to litter the area but we were only able to find a few small pieces.
Right off the freeway we picked up fossilized oysters.
Kiersten and Abs standing next to a large hunk of fossilized shells, which are known as devil's toenails.
We stayed overnight at Chris' uncle's house in Cedar City. The kids had a great time on the tall swing and riding the golf cart. We enjoyed catching up with family and really appreciated Kent and Bonnie's hospitality!
Day Four: Iron Springs Mine and Rock Corral. Right outside of Cedar City is a large iron mine. Chris' dad grew up in Cedar City and used to help set explosives for the mines. He remembers huge pieces of amythest turning up with the iron that came from the mine. While we didn't find any amythest, we had fun climbing on the mine tailings and searching for other interesting rock. We didn't let the kids go as high as we did, though!You can barely see Chris on the mountain of tailings.
Abs standing next to huge hunks of almost pure iron.
Abs standing next to huge hunks of almost pure iron.
Lunch at a diner in Cedar City.
After lunch we searched in the Rock Corral for smoky quartz.
Kiersten was ready to break apart rock.
Kiersten was ready to break apart rock.
We located a few vugs of small smoky quartz. Some of them were easier to get to than others! Chris is on the ground trying to break quartz free from under the rock.
Our hotel for the night was in Milford, Utah. A tiny town with a lot of railroad business--for us that meant a decent hotel!
Day Five: Highway 21 Quarry, Old Hickory & OK Mines, Black Springs and Sunstone Knoll. We didn't find anything except for a snake at the Highway 21 Quarry. Grandpa pointed out the tarantula holes to Kiersten and Abs, which immediately prompted Kiersten to volunteer to keep Analise busy in the van. Then we headed for the Old Hickory and OK Mines. Since the price of copper has recently gone up, these mines have become active. We ran into a mining engineer on our way who gave us directions to the mine rock dump, away from any of the explosives. We found beautiful pieces of chrysocolla mixed in. Abs is sitting on a rock with chrysocolla running through it. Too bad we couldn't bring home the large pieces!
One of our biggest worries on this trip was the heat. Traveling in southern Utah in the summer we thought the kids would be blazing hot and we would be going through cases and cases of bottled water. Fortunately for us, the weather was unseasonably cool. A downpour even started when we drove towards Black Springs. The rain washed the dirt off of the mahogony obsidian and it shone like glass. Every rock was more beautiful than the next. It was amazing!
Chris and Abs are on top of the quarry. All of the dark areas are mahogony obsidian!
A snowflake obsidian quarry was supposed to be nearby but there were so many small roads that we couldn't find it. We later learned that we were only about 200 yards south of the quarry!
At Sunstone Knoll we looked for crystals of yellow labradorite. As usual, Analise preferred to stay by Grandma's side.
The pieces of labradorite were scattered all over the ground in the wash. Analise loved looking for the "jewels."
We stayed the next 2 nights in Delta. We'd heard that Loy Crapo, who owned the rights to the Dugway Geode beds, owned a rock shop in town and we stopped by that night to talk with him. He gave us directions to the beds, where to look, and directions on Topaz Mountain. It was very helpful for the next day! Here we are getting our fill of Mexican food right next to our hotel.
Day Six: Dugway Geode Beds and Topaz Mountain. The drive out to the geode beds was bumpy and rocky. Thank goodness the van stayed together! We looked through the piles of rock to locate geodes. Cracked ones were scattered all over the ground and we found a few good pieces that way. Grandpa started digging in one hill and hit the jackpot.
Kiersten holding up a broken geode she found on the ground.
Analise digging in geode beds. 
We broke open a few pieces and took back the rest to be cut open at the rock shop.
Topaz mountain was our next stop. Small bits of topaz glittered all over the ground in the sunshine as we drove up the hills. We sat in the wash sifting for pieces.
Chris and Kiersten ventured higher up on the mountain to search in the rock.
Veins of brown topaz were scattered throughout the rock but the topaz crytals were extremely delicate and hard to get out without shattering them. We still had fun trying!
Veins of brown topaz were scattered throughout the rock but the topaz crytals were extremely delicate and hard to get out without shattering them. We still had fun trying!
Day Seven: Silver City and Vernon Hills. At Silver City we looked through the mine tailings to find pyrite. The sun hid behind the clouds, but every time it came out the pyrite shone brightly and we would gather as many pieces as we could until it dipped behind the clouds again.Here are Chris and Abbie climbing up the tailings.
Kiersten and Analise at the bottom of the tailings.
Chris and Grandpa climbed to the top of the tailings and then debated where to go next. They found huge pieces of pyrite up a little further on the hill.
Our last stop on our rock hounding trip was to the Vernon Hills looking for wonderstone. It is a uniquely Utah stone and gorgeous. Small pieces littered the ground and we dug into the hill to pull out bigger pieces. Chris and Grandpa tried to get a couple of large pieces to put in our gardens.
Analise sitting among the wonderstone. 
From Vernon we drove up to Salt Lake City and dropped off Grandma and Grandpa at Waynard and Bee's house and we went to Natalie and Steve's. Chris flew out the next day to get back to work and I stayed another week with the kids. But that's for the next post! We had such a blast rock hounding that we're already looking forward to the next trip! Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for joining in on the fun! (When are you ready to go again? Next week?)
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