I hadnt been down to the secret spot for a few weeks, so Tuesday evening,  Missy and I loaded up and headed that way at 4 pm…this was before the record heat levels set in, so the evening temps were cooling down instead of heating up. By the next day, everything reversed and that all went out the window.

We arrived a little after 5 pm and the pocket I was intending to expand, was out in the direct sunlight, so I opted to check out other areas instead. I briefly walked around the pile of rocks to see if any new disturbances showed signs of life, but I moved over to a shady area, that I had previously worked before all the blasting occurred, and decided to try some of the areas where vegetation was showing….

…I`m not sure why we never checked these strips of vegetation before, but I sure plan on doing more of it now….

…we have found alot of pockets going where the vegetation is at and there were rows of vegetation in this area between slabs of rocks…if there is one thing we have learned, its that the floor here appears to be chock full of pockets in various areas….

…and while sometimes it takes a bit of time to find a pocket, today it didnt take long at all before I found some promising signs of a good pocket nearby…..

…I kept on digging down and pretty soon was seeing poker chips all over the place popping up in the clay dirt below…in fact, I found the clay dirt so tightly packed around these crystals, it reminded me of the way the clay dirt protects Arkansas quartz crystals too….

…and in some ways, this pocket was completely different than others I have found nearby…each time a hole would open up like the one below, I got a bit excited and anticipated a pocket or cavern opening up below….

…so I would back off and widen out the pocket area, thinking maybe I would get some indication of whether or not there really was a cavern of crystals below that hole…..

…and while I would pull a nice variety of poker chip crystals out of that widening detail….

…and while it gave me good indications of which way the pocket was going to move in and how wide it would go…..

…and how deep it might extend…..

….despite all that, and the fact that even more holes opened up throughout all this effort, as shown below, there were no caverns or cavities or pockets down below at all…..

…but I was never disappointed the whole time in as far as what I found during the three hours I was there…lots of bubbly druse plates, some with crystals attached, and some beautiful poker chips in singles, twins and triples….

…and within a few minutes, yet another hole opened up…which basically turned out to be a hollow spot under this cluster of poker chips that was attached to the side of the pocket, but since it was hollow underneath, I had high hopes of chipping it out later….

…and as it was…I was able to chip it out and it turned out to be a nice cluster, although it doesnt look like it here. I kept digging and the pocket kept on expanding in a seam like fashion…..

 

I stopped to take a water break, and returned with my four pound hammer and chisels, and was able to chip out a few nice clusters….

…as well as a few nice plates of druse and chips combined….

…and so the pile continues to grow….

…and pretty soon I had a pile of clusters big and small sitting nearby as well….some days you can chip them out and some days you only tear them up it seems like…today was producing some nice ones….

…and I was even able to chip out a nice druse plate with a chip or two attached…I gave this one to my friend Kaye…she wanted to come with me but had to go to a memorial service instead this evening….

..and below are some of my finds after cleaning them up a bit with soap and water….

 

 

 

 

 

 

this next little guy was kind of unique…it looks like another poker chip attached to a plate of druse from this side….

…but when you turn it over, here is the backside, which I normally dont get to see…..

…and this next one was actually laying loose below a huge chunk of bubble druse…I had reached under the chunk and tried to wiggle it back and forth and bring it out by itself…but it wouldnt budge, and not wanting to risk damaging it, I left it alone. Instead I took my hammer and chisel and knocked the back end of that chunk loose and then was able to retrieve this beauty afterwards….

…after taking a closer look at it, one might say it has damage, and maybe it does, maybe it happened with that chunk came down, maybe it happened before when it possibly fell off on its own…doesn`t matter to me, I still like it….even if they don`t.

…and between these beauties and this twin below…I was convinced that I needed to return and see if that pocket would expand and produce more than it did today….

…so I decided to come back a few days later…..stay tuned….