Looking for Amethyst

Monday, August 31, 2015

Woke up with mid-50s and thick fog everywhere, again.  There were a couple of things we wanted to do outside the park today.  The first was to go find ourselves some amethyst.  As you probably know, amethyst is a type of quartz, colored purple from minerals in the quartz.  This area is apparently loaded with it.  There are several locations (mines) that let you go in and dig around a bit for the stuff.  We chose Blue Point Mine, near Pearl, for our “mining” experience.

Well, they really don’t let you into the mine, a recent safety issue.  You dig around in a pile of rock they blew out of a hole.  It’s an open pit, not an underground mine.  Anyway Lynn was having a ball.  Searching, digging and whacking with her hammer.  Couldn’t get her to leave, even when our bucket got filled.  She would have stayed here all day, but we had more to do!

It’s about 2:30 and the fog has burned off, just in time as our next stop was Quimet Canyon.  It is a canyon formed from glacial action.  Its over 3000 feet deep with sheer rock edges; pretty scenic.

They have a couple of observation decks to view the Canyon.  It was quite a view.  It was possible to see Lake Superior from  up here.  The canyon appears to extend all the way to the lake, although it flattens out before reaching the lake.

Today’s Selfie.

Now it was back to the park to take a drive over to the giant’s head, the Thunder Bay Lookout.  The following map will help show you where it is in the park.

The main road into the park is 587.  That little yellow road is the connecting road to the lookout.  The term “road”  is generous;  the thing was dirt and loaded with foot deep potholes and ruts.  Poor truckie got a workout and really dirty. It took most of an hour to travel the five miles, but it was worth it.  The view was awesome!

They built a platform out from the cliff.  As you can see we were up a ways.

Get me off this thing!

Well time to call it a day.  More tomorrow!