I went to a prison!

This morning I caught back up on my schoolwork. Then, dad took us on a field trip. We stopped at a mexican food restaurant on the way there and had lunch. First, we went to a museum that was all about Idaho. Idaho is known as the gem state because of all the minerals found here. We also went to a mineral museum. I got to see lots of different rocks and fossils, and some even glowed! After all of that we went to another museum. It was an old 1900's prison! We got to go inside the buildings and see the cells, old washing machine room, armory, and there was a separate exhibit that was all about warfare! The cells there were so small, and some of them didn't even have plumbing! It was the best field trip that I have ever been on! Tomorrow we are moving on to another city.

Kylie October 1

Another Road Trip

We are going on another road trip in our RV.  This time we are traveling along the West Coast.

We have been packing our RV for the last three days.  This morning we left our summer home in Jackson.  Mom drove her car with Kylie and Mousse, while dad and I were in the truck with Noah.  We drove four hours to Arco, Idaho.  We were going to go to Craters Of The Moon National Park tomorrow, but we don't get to go because of the government shut down.  We were going to stay for two nights, but it will probably snow tomorrow and mom doesn't do well in the snow. Tomorrow we are going to Caldwell, Idaho.  There is a college with a planetarium, and a natural history museum there.  It will be interesting! 

Kylie Sept 11-13

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!

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.

Kylie - August 31