Mexican Hat:
Uranium Mine:
Petrified wood:(Jesus wood for EatSnot)
Uranium precipitate(aka yellow cake):
I think this is a Gypsum crystal growing from the roof, if there was a layer of limestone nearby that would explain the presence of calcium carbonate, and limestone is very impermeable which means water would then be forced to precipitate out minerals in the sandstone layer:
For some reason, a black window spider a few hundred yards back into the mine:
Blasting agent:
Now this was the real reason I went back into the particular mine, back early 2000 I found this.....cache of stuff, oddly incongruous stuff way back in this mine. What was so odd about it was the near randomness and low value of this junk. There were random bathroom type of items, medicine, soap, deoderant, etc. An electric train engine, part of an old camera, some kids random school documents, including a 8.5x11" matte finish school picture of a ~8 year old boy. Written on the letter sized envelope that contained that stuff was a 303 area code phone number(denver area code). There were a few other things, maybe a coloring book, a few toys or other kid related things, some aqaurium stuff, one of those viewers you put the little round slides into and look at pictures of places like mt rushmore.....etc. Just really odd stuff, way back in this mine, hours out into the desert. If someone wanted to dump trash why bother doing it there? Its a helluva ways to drive in just to throw some stuff out, this puzzled our whole group over ten years ago when we first found it(and the find and all the items were fresh in our mind).
I went back with one of the guys who was with me during the initial trip in early 2001, after walking a short way in we both agreed the air in the mine seemed off and there was evidence of fire being set in the mine. Deciding it wasn't worth the risk at this point we bugged out and rejoined the rest of our group.
In early 2008 I went back again with a roomate, we walked in a good ways further before I decided we had seen enough(despite my continued frustration about the mystery of the random junk).
So finally this time I was determined I was going to find that cache of junk, write down that phone number or any names I could locate, and do a little detective work.
Well after wandering around the mine for a while I finally found it just as I was about to give up. Turns out that the arsonist from over 10 years ago had partially burned some of the materials I was seeking, notable the photo and phone number.
I should also note this stuff dates back to the late 80s or early 90s, the mine dates back decades earlier, so it is not leftover junk from the mine.
So something that has nagged me for years still has no resolution. But heres some pics:
At least my dog is smart enough not to walk off the edge:
Evidence of native american flint knapping:
This will be printed and put up on my wall, I have a series of photos of old trucks printed up to movie size that decorate my living room, this will make #4, 3 of which are from around moab.
Some cool looking rocks on the hike out:
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