Treasure Hunting

Digging for Opals and Sapphires

Every vacation has to have a purpose or a goal. My vacation this year was all about Idaho Falls -- not because I thought it would be such a cool place to visit, but because it just happened to be near enough to several vacation spots that we could commute to and still stay in a nice hotel. We needed a pet-friendly hotel at that, and finding pet-friendly hotels online is a bit of a challenge.

Nonetheless, Idaho Falls proved to be some driving distance from each of our destinations. We justified the trips by telling ourselves that we were getting to see more of the state than we otherwise would have. In fact, driving for 2-4 hours to and from Idaho Falls by various routes, we saw more historic sites, more rivers, and more wildlife than we could have hoped to see by just getting hotel rooms next to our real destinations or off the main highways.

Not that getting hotel rooms (with a dog) near popular tourist attractions is easy. We lucked out and got to stay inside Yellowstone National Park one night at Old Faithful Lodge, probably because of a cancellation. Spending the night in the park made it easy for us to drive through all five regions and stop and visit many of the attractions. To be honest, although the park is incredibly beautiful, the smell of sulphur will resonate with me for a long time to come. Most people don't realize it, but Yellowstone National Park is the caldera of the world's largest active volcano.

But what does Jellystone Park have to do with opals and sapphires? Okay, I'm sure there are gem stones in the park but the tourist traps -- I mean, the places where you can dig for your own gem stones that we visited lay outside the park. We spent several days exploring Jellystone, middle Idaho, and western Montana.

I was so impressed with my experience at the Spencer Opal Mine near the Idaho-Montana border that I promised the owners I would write a glowing review on Xenite.Org. That review is included in this feature.

But, truth be told, we had an equally rewarding experience at Gem Mountain in Montana, and that is why I decided to write an extended feature about treasure hunting in the western United States. It's not comprehensive. It's just an overview of my experiences on one vacation. I hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: For legal reasons I have omitted many names and when pictures are added to these articles they won't feature any people. I just did not have the means to obtain proper waivers for using people's images in these articles.

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