Summer Adventure Part II

After we spent time up in Island Park, we headed directly down to Bear Lake for fun with Sandi's family. Unfortunately, we were a little tuckered out of the water, so we didn't spend much time on the lake. We did, however, get to go to Minnetonka Cave. Essentially, you go down about 450 some odd stairs, some of which were carved out during the Great Depression, so it is not really ADA compliant.

Sandi and Heather in the depths of Minnetonka.


Once you get down a little bit, there are many, MANY geological formations, including stalagtites and stalagmites. I believe the one above is named "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves." I don't remember what the one below is named, but Sandi's hand is there to point it out, just in case you miss it.


These formations in the back are "The Three Sisters." They are scary looking sisters, and if you look closely, you can see that the cave shifted at some point in history and part of it is now resting upon them. Needless to say, one earthquake and anyone who is in there, will be in there forever.

Heather, Kathy, and Dan.

Another formation. Throughout the cave there are some formations that are long and fatty looking, and are appropriately named bacon. While somewhat disturbing, it also made me hungry.

Sandi and I in front of the bride and the groom. They'll finally be married some time in about 15,000 year. Also, this is an appropriate time to apologize for the lack of quality photography in the cave. In fact, a friend here in Moscow started a blog involving categories and amateur shots that we have submitted. So, if you want good pictures, go here. Also, even with our abysmal blogging frequency, we have another blog. Actually, Sandi just indulged me and we post reviews of random crap occasionally and it gives me a good chance to take a break sometimes.

After we got back to Rexburg, a tree fell on the Pearce's neighbor's power line, giving us a little show. It was a little dangerous, but good thing it wasn't the fall, or this tree may have just exploded into flames.

To cap off the summer, the Saturday before Labor Day we headed up towards Clarkia, Idaho and went digging for garnets. You pay $10/person a day and you can take up to 5 lbs. of garnets with you. Sandi and I managed to get a whopping 8 oz. We had a lot of fun, even if we didn't get our 10 lbs. The Forest Services dredges a creek bed and heaps it all up in to a big pile. They provide buckets and sifting screens, so you go to the big pile, sift, and then take it to the sluice.

So, instead of panning in the stream, you pan in the man-made stream that has the same water running through it. And you can tell that a lot of dirt that has come off.

My lovely assistant, Sandi, demonstrates how this is accomplished. First, you bring your bucket down to the sluice and dump it in a screen.

Then you take the screen and try to wash off what are hopefully garnets in what hopefully isn't low grade chocolate milk.

Then, you repeat until you see something shiny and purpley.

And hopefully you find some. I found one about the size of a gobstopper, but some people there found much bigger prizes (of course they had a better set up, but that's another story). We had a great time and maybe we'll get to do it again before we leave next year. And here are our spoils:

Finally, we will be embarking on another adventure, already started, but officially commencing on March 18, 2o1o.