Lakeview / Plush / BFE

OK, in our hunt for precious jewels (sunstones, as I mentioned before), we drove miles and miles through Oregon desert (really striking country, by the way - Deena's not previously been a fan of desert, per se, but she sort of changed her tune along the way this trip).

The Spectrum Mine was many, many miles off the beaten path along some roguh dirt road. We beat the hell out of my car (next time: we'll rent). Deena dug in the "free" area and found some little stuff; we went back a second day and we paid for her to dig in the pit, to sift through a high-yield pile, and to work a conveyor. Meanwhile, i walked around with the dog and a cigar and picked up stuff off the ground. I definitely found the biggest stones without trying; Deena, however, loaded up on quantity and the best color (which = highest value, carat for carat) came from the conveyor.

I can tell you this, though - we came home with better than a kilo of stones, and hundreds of carats of valuable ones. We could definitely pay for our trip a few times over if we chose to sell what we found.

I don't have any pics of the mining - it was dusty as hell - but here are a few snaps we took along the way. Hmm.. I should get some pics of the pile of stones and some of the best specimens. Time to break out the light tent and get Deena going with the macro.