Monday, September 16, 2013

Day Trip to the Great Salt Plains

Last weekend, Tyler and I visited his parents in his hometown.  For several years, he's been wanting me to go with him to a state park in that region called the Great Salt Plains.  In the salt flats portion, visitors can dig for the crystals that naturally form in the salty sand.  That's what we went to do.

Its crazy, because the mixture of white sand and salt look just like snow.  Trust me, it wasn't cold!

The plains have been divided up into small sections, and only one section is open for digging per season.  That allows the crystals to form in the other areas.


This was a no-dig site.

Once you get to the designated digging area, you pick a spot and dig a deep hole...about two feet deep.  Water will fill the bottom of your hole, and you can use that to erode the dirt and sand away from the crystals.  Most of the crystals will be found in and around that black layer of sand.

Tyler digging in his hole.  He used one that someone else had already started...I wanted to dig mine from scratch.  My back feels it, too.

 If you ever go do something like this, please remember a hair band.  My hair had salt, sand, mud, and everything in-between stuck in it by the end of the day.

This is my hole after I stated digging out.  At first, I thought the crystals were in the deep part.  After not finding any for an hour, I figured out that they were in the sand.

The circle was where I would put all the crystals once I found them.

Lookin good!

Sandwich bags are great for dirty hands that are hungry. 

It was a great overcast and cool day for us to go digging.  We're hoping it will continue the trend toward fall weather soon!

The dig site...


Let's see how we did...



I thought these were cool.  We only found small clusters of them, and some nice looking big ones.  The hour glass shape in the bottom crystal is supposedly unique to this area of the world.


Thanks, as always, for stopping by and reading about our little adventures!

P.S. A little reminder to all you Okies...the Color Run is coming up fast!  Don't forget to CLICK HERE to get a $5 off promo code if you want to run the race!


10 comments:

  1. Those plains are beautiful, I had to keep reminding myself when I saw the photo of you sitting down or of dirty hands, that it wasn't snow and you're not freezing! :)
    What kind of crystals are those?

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    1. Haha, I know! It looks just like snow! They are called selenite crystals.

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  2. That looks like so much fun! I've never been out that way but I've heard of these plains before. Such an interesting little natural wonder...

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    1. It really was pretty fun! It really was interesting...it was so strange because the salt spot was really small, and randomly placed in the middle of normal Oklahoma topography. lol

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  3. I've never heard of doing this before, but it looks so cool! It is amazing how much it does look like that should be snow. Certainly something to keep in mind now that I know about it - thanks for sharing!

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    1. It really does look like snow - even from the car window. It was lots of fun, I'm hoping we can go back to do it when it reopens later this year!

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  4. So fascinating! What are you going to do with your crystals?

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    1. Tina, I've made several pairs of earrings and some necklaces from them...otherwise, I'm not sure! I guess they'll sit in a jar until I think of something better! ;)

      (Here's actually a link to a pair of the earrings I made with them! http://goo.gl/zoaWxG)

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  5. This is so neat! I've never heard of digging for crystals, but I've vaguely heard of the salt plains.

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    1. Its possibly because my husband's family is very into rock and crystal hunting. It was really quite fun, if you ever get an opportunity it is a great activity for the family!

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