Friday, September 13, 2013
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Yellowstone
My parents have been planning a trip to Yellowstone for about a month now. They rented a cabin there. This morning we left our house in Jackson at ten a.m. We drove two hours to Yellowstone. Then, we traveled to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. On the way there we stopped at several hot springs (and mud pots) and got to see a BUNCH of bison. The canyon was really neat! There were two water falls. We hiked to both of them. Around five we headed to our cabin. After we checked in and unpacked, we went out to dinner. Then we walked to Dairy Queen, and then to a candy store and got a bunch of candy and chocolate. When we got back to the cabin we went swimming in an indoor pool (the cabins are also part of a hotel that has the pool). Kylie and I swam from about eight to ten p.m. We had sooooooo much fun!
Next Day-
Today we woke up early and went straight into the park. It was raining the whole morning. We drove to Tower Falls (which is a water fall close to The North Entrance of Yellowstone). After hiking down to the falls, we went to Mammoth Springs (also close to The North Entrance of Yellowstone) to have lunch. Right outside the restaurant we saw an elk with its calf. Then we drove back to our cabin. On the way back to our cabin we saw elk, moose, and bison. On the whole trip we saw everything except a bear or a wolf. When we got back we had a family game night!
Third Day-
We got up and packed up. We left our cabin around ten and went across the street to the Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center. I lerned a lot about bears (like a grizzly's front paw is completely different from its back paw). We even got to see two real grizzlys in an enclosed habitat! We also saw two packs of about four wolfs! They were running around playing with each other. On the way back to Jackson we stoped at Old Faithful. It was pretty neat!
Monday, September 2, 2013
Gold Mining
This morning my dad and I woke up around six thirty and got in the truck. We drove two hours to a small mountain town to meet our guide. We were going to learn how to prospect for gold! We followed our guide (and his son who's 14) up a mountain pass on a dirt road for about ten miles to a small creek.
During the late 1800's miners got $20 per ounce. They found one ounce per yard in that creek. They were mining placer gold. Placer gold is the gold that is mined from creek and river beds. It is eroded from mountain sides into these rivers and creeks. Lode gold is mined straight from the mountain side. The miners from the 1800's only recovered about 60% of the gold they mined due to their bad equipment. We were trying to get some of the rest of it from the tailings that were left behind. The miners used rockers and sluice boxes to separate the gold from the rocks. When they had the gold and sand left, they would use a gold pan to separate it even more.
We were trying to find big boulders that went deep into the river bed with sand behind them. I found one and started digging it out. Our guide filled his pan with the sand from behind the boulder and added water. He swished it around to imitate the creek current. The water washed away all the sand and rocks and left the black sand and gold. Then we tried it ourselves. Since we were beginners, we added tungsten beads to the sand. Tungsten has about the same gravity as gold, so wherever the beads are, the gold is usually there too. Gold's specific gravity is about 18. We got about twenty small grains of gold from that spot. When we were finished we also had two pebbles that looked like glass. I was going to just toss them back into the creek, but our guide told us that they just might be diamonds. So, we went back to the truck and found a beer bottle on the side of the road and did the "diamond" test (try to scratch the glass with the so called diamond without breaking it, and if it works then it's potentially a diamond). Sure enough, it worked! We had two "diamonds" that were both about half a carat. We gave one to the guide, and I kept the other one. I had a LOT of fun. On the way back we stopped at a jewelry store to see if the "diamond" was 100% real. The lady at the store tested it twice, but both times the machine denied it. Oh well.
During the late 1800's miners got $20 per ounce. They found one ounce per yard in that creek. They were mining placer gold. Placer gold is the gold that is mined from creek and river beds. It is eroded from mountain sides into these rivers and creeks. Lode gold is mined straight from the mountain side. The miners from the 1800's only recovered about 60% of the gold they mined due to their bad equipment. We were trying to get some of the rest of it from the tailings that were left behind. The miners used rockers and sluice boxes to separate the gold from the rocks. When they had the gold and sand left, they would use a gold pan to separate it even more.
We were trying to find big boulders that went deep into the river bed with sand behind them. I found one and started digging it out. Our guide filled his pan with the sand from behind the boulder and added water. He swished it around to imitate the creek current. The water washed away all the sand and rocks and left the black sand and gold. Then we tried it ourselves. Since we were beginners, we added tungsten beads to the sand. Tungsten has about the same gravity as gold, so wherever the beads are, the gold is usually there too. Gold's specific gravity is about 18. We got about twenty small grains of gold from that spot. When we were finished we also had two pebbles that looked like glass. I was going to just toss them back into the creek, but our guide told us that they just might be diamonds. So, we went back to the truck and found a beer bottle on the side of the road and did the "diamond" test (try to scratch the glass with the so called diamond without breaking it, and if it works then it's potentially a diamond). Sure enough, it worked! We had two "diamonds" that were both about half a carat. We gave one to the guide, and I kept the other one. I had a LOT of fun. On the way back we stopped at a jewelry store to see if the "diamond" was 100% real. The lady at the store tested it twice, but both times the machine denied it. Oh well.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
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