Missy and I had nothing better to do the next day, October 23rd, so we drove back down to the secret spot and after looking around a little while, I decided to see if I could find another pocket in the front floor area…when we rolled up there were some fossil collectors looking around but they apparently had been there a little while and didn`t stick around when I started pulling crystals out…I could see I was going to need my hammer and chisel, so I went back to the truck and Missy found a shady spot and stretched out….

 

..I guess she thought I was coming back up on the hill to dig some more, because she was stretched out next to the pocket I worked the day before….

 

..but as it was, I decided to dig in front of the hill….

 

..and within moments of scratching around, started seeing signs of calcite….

 

..I picked up my mini mattox and started scraping with it and pretty soon the bit went down into a crack in the ground and a crevice opened up….

 

..I decided I need to clear some more rock and dirt back so I started raking a clear path all the way around the crevice….finding a nice little poker chip crystal along the way….and then removed a big chunk of rock from the crevice that was kind of in the way….

 

..I actually had to chip it out a little bit, cause it was firmly attached at the base end…and when I turned it over, this is what I saw….

 

..and after pulling a few more crystals and plates out, I had the beginnings of a nice pocket forming up…..I pulled still more plates and crystals out and the pocket just kept getting bigger and longer….

 

..and as I dug down to the bottom of the hole, I began seeing more crystals hanging around…

 

..and pretty soon more crystals were piling up….

 

 

 then I discovered another pocket at the opposite end that opened up….

 

 

..and I began pulling crystals out of the other pocket as well….

 

..including this nice little cluster of poker chip crystals…

 

and even closer up….

 

…I reached back down into the pocket and cleaned back gravel and clay slurry and came up against this wall, but the wall moved, so I reached down and gently rocked it loose and pulled this boulder out…

 

…and turned it over and set it up on top of the pile off to the right…

 

…and down below it were lots of crystals…...so I began removing even more crystals…

 

…and sat back to take another photo to show the size of the pockets and the pile of crystals expanding as well…

 

…I wore out at this point and stopped here for the day…and what a day it had been, very nice cloudy sunlight….

 

 

 

I did do a little exploratory raking behind me and located what appeared to be a soft spot with water….

 

..but I decided to leave it for another day….I did see some nice foliage on the way out though….

 

 

 

 

 

..and a beautiful sunset on the way home….