Fools Gold

Today, we continued on our vacation, stopping in Kellogg, Idaho to play in a gold mine and have some lunch, before stopping in Missoula for the night. 

I would put our two stops for the day, Crystal Gold Mine and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, in the same catagory: Neat Stops, but not something that would be worthy of a day trip all by itself.  My wife says to make Kellogg worthy of a day trip, you would need to pair the Gold Mine with a gondola ride up to the Silver Mountain Resort, or a visit to the indoor water park. 

First off, the Mine.  Crystal Mine is an abandoned mine from the 1880s, that drifts 550 feet into the side of a hill, and at its deepest point, you are over 900 feet underground.  I was very proud of the way my wife handled herself...for someone that isn't always comfortable driving through a tunnel she can't see the end of, she had a good time.

We saw some gold...I mean, you can't expect to see HUGE amounts of gold, because then they would still be mining there...but I guess they feel there is more money to be made in tours than in mining. 

The most interesting thing going on in the mine though, was the Smithsonite...a form of zinc carbonate that leeches through the rock with water, and will eventually lead to all the normal type of cave formations you can expect.  I must have taken 30 different pictures of it: blue, green, brown, and white, with everything in between...I'll save you all but one of those.

After touring the inside of the mine, they let you do a 'Free Hour of Panning' for gold...which was perhaps the most disappointing part of the day.  I didn't expect to strike it rich(once again, if there was THAT much gold in the river, they would be panning, and not giving tours)...but I at least thought I would get to pan directly in the river.  Instead, they have big plastic drums set up with gravel in them, and then have it seeded with some iron pyrite and cute little rocks.  The kids dug it...my wife and I had fun humoring them. 

Afternoon found us in Missoula, and with time to kill before we could check into the hotel, we decided to visit the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundations headquarters.  I'm not sure this was a better choice than visiting the Big Sky Brewing Company, but it was probably more family friendly. 

RMEF is even less of a 'destination' than Crystal Mine...but if you are cruising through Western Montana and need a place to stretch your legs...this is a good one.  I few educational type stations inside, and a nice 1/2 mile loop outside.  They say you need to keep your eyes peeled for wild life, and I thought that was bunk until we spotted this mulie doe just chillin out.

She was keeping a close eye on us...but then I would keep a close eye on my kids also.