Day 2 of our vacation

We woke up bright and early to the sounds of birds chirping. It was a glorious way to wake up! We decided to make the 'short' quarter mile trek to the lower falls. (I say 'short' because the trek to the upper falls was 3/4 of a mile...however, the trek to the lower falls was much harder as it was zig-zaggy and very uphill!) So after much panting and climbing we finally made it to the lower falls. I didn't get any pictures as there was a young lady in the middle of a photo shoot. I didn't want to intrude. :-( It was pretty but not as nice as the upper falls.

We drove down the mountain a few miles to a little store selling both cut and uncut gem stones. We were able to go 'grubbin' again and we all had a blast. Each of the boys came home with several cherry-pit sized uncut garnets and tons of other semi-precious stones. Bradley got a fantastic nearly perfectly clear quartz point! Joe found a large chunk of smoky quartz and Hunter found a gorgeous piece of pink calcite. We picked up some lunch before heading north to find another set of water falls that the owner of the store recommended. The final leg of the trip back to the falls was incredibly hairy...1 1/2 lanes of dirt road with a cliff rise on one side and a sheer drop on the other. (can we say NO guard rails!!!) We encountered a couple cars coming the other way and MOST of them scooted as close to the cliff rise as they could to let us pass. HOWEVER the 1st car we encountered was some kind of luxury SUV who wouldn't move any closer that about 2 feet from the cliff rise...which left US riding the very edge of the drop. NOT a fun feeling! BUT we finally made it to the falls and I must admit they were SOOOOOO worth the harrowing drive.
(so I don't clog up my page with zillions of pictures visit my flick account to check out our vacation pics!)