Topaz, anyone?

For Spring Break, we went to Topaz Mountain with Doug's parents, and his sister, Michaun, and her family. Michaun's family has a tradition of spending spring break at Topaz, because during the summer it's just too hot to spend time there. It's such a fun place to find cool rocks, obsidian, mahogany, garnets, and of course, topaz. Kids just love that they can hammer on rocks all they want. We also seem to have fun with lizards. Just remember to check your bed at night......

We camped in a spot that had the only trees for miles around. They are rare out there. The scenery is beautiful, all of the mountains look purple in the distance, and you can see for miles.


We found some mines that we had never visited, and they ended up being the highlight of the whole trip. I am so amazed that people used to crawl through this maze of tunnels that they left behind.

This one is fun, Doug threw a rock down so you can hear how deep they are. Just ignore how loud my voice is at the end. My camera really picks up the voice of the photographer exceptionally well, (and I am loud to begin with). I didn't realize this until I watched the films at the end of the day.

This is the same mine, but you can't really see it until you get closer. I thought that Doug was going to have a panic attack as I was creeping forward to get a better picture. The ground is really loose rock, and you feel like even if you were super careful, you would head straight down one of the mines. Grant told me (as I was creeping toward the mine with my camera) that he had already slipped there. That is why I was laughing at the end of the clip.

This next picture was so amazing to take. We had walked into a mine, and went as far as we could see. When the flash went off from my camera, we were amazed at what we saw. That hole goes down pretty deep, as far as we could tell.

After we realized that there was so much more in the mine, I tried to take more pictures. It's hard to aim at something you can't see even a little bit. The piece of metal on the 2x4 is the same one in the next picture.

That was taken above where we stood. It looked like it went really far back. How on earth did they get through there?

We were thinking that in this economy we could live fairly inexpensively here. We could build a house on a foundation that already exists.

We wouldn't have to look far for a bed. Maybe I should get some nice memory foam for it. Hmmm, where's Doug going to sleep? I don't see a dog house....

We found some furniture, too. This looks like it was once a couch. Maybe we would need even more foam.....

This next picture is the part that had me questioning the move. Hmmmm. Let's think about this for a second. Ok, I don't think this facility would work for me. This looks like it was a busy place, and they must have been doing well to afford the two-seater model. Still not gonna happen.

At first glance, this one offered more privacy. Then comes the reality check. Apparently, this was for those who wanted to enjoy the view. I can see this is not really my kind of place to live.

I did find one thing that was appealing, however. It was nice to see that Doug knows his proper place, and now I have permanent proof.

This was one of my favorite pictures. I was taking a panorama and my in-laws were in the first picture. By the time I had the second picture lined up, they were in that, too. Of course, when I took the third, I had to make sure they were in that one, as well. You can see Doug way down the road, but now we have 3 sets of parents. Wait, I need to re-think that concept.