Spelunking up the hill

While Lisa was home we went on our first open-ground hike up on the our upper property since the winter snow has mostly retreated. We investigated an outcropping of quartz and a couple of old mines on the property.

Here is Lisa standing in front of the patch quartz on a rock face -

And here she is looking closely at the rocks.

Nearby we spotted this area of blue rock- must be some mineral seeping out of the rock that has caused this blueing- Will have to do some reseach....

To the right of the quartz rock face - there was this natural crevice in the wall. I thought at first that is was a mine but It is not very deep and it was almost hidden by trees growing infront of it. Would be a perfect animal lair- so I didn't stick my head in very far.

Up on the next ledge we found this man-made mine opening. Lisa and I ventured inside- making lots of noise in case there were any animals and using the camera flash to find our way. The mine is about 30 feet long and 5 to 6 feet high. It was mostly carved in solid rock and had a level floor. This picture is just heading in......

This one is a little deeper inside- you still can't see the end.

This one is almost to the end..

And this is the end of the mine- we didn't see any gold lying around. Also no evidence that any animals have made this their home....

We lasted in the tunnel for about a minute and then turned and headed quickly for the opening- Here is Lisa heading out- with her shoe reflectors blazing...

Our final discovery was this rock lined hole in the ground that held water. After stirring the water a bit with stick we noticed a rather unpleasant smell- so the water is probably not useable.