For Fall Break, we headed in the RV to the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and visited a place that's been on my To Do list: Crater of Diamonds State Park. This park is situated on the site of an ancient volcano and still produces natural diamonds. The park was beautiful and really well kept. We donned dirt-friendly clothes and shoes spent all day Sunday on the diamond field, which is a 37-acre field of dirt that is dotted with semi-precious stones and is plowed periodically to bring up new stones and minerals. Two things were on our side: one is that it rained HEAVILY ALL NIGHT the night before. Our pre-trip reading told us that right after heavy rain is the best time to diamond hunt. Raw diamonds have an oily surface and dirt won't stick to them, so after a rain you may find that dirt has washed away around a diamond that is now sitting on top of the soil. The rangers told us, "That's how the big ones are found." The second thing we had going for us was it was a sunny, 76 degree day, the better to see diamonds glinting in the sun!
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| Sophia heads to the Diamond Fields with her implements. She couldn't be bothered to wait for the rest of us! |
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| Michaela tries her hand at the "wet sifting" method of hunting. |
The weather was perfect for a day outdoors. We searched and searched and got super muddy. But for all our searching-- no diamonds! We filled a sack with some beautiful jasper, quartz, and my favorite, a glittery green stone called lamproite. But we didn't find The Big One this time. By the end of the day, the kids gave up on shoes altogether and played in the mud. This was definitely not a bad way to spend a day together! We hope to be back another day to search some more!
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| Sophia takes a refreshing mud bath. |
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