Käyttäjän cosmiccat päiväkirja

On Saturday morning, I had breakfast at IHOP and then drove to the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. I arrived around noon and bought a ticket to the public diamond mine, on the site of an extinct volcano. I have never done this before, but some of the other park guests helped me.

I soon noticed that I was among the nerdiest group of park guests, which was awesome. One person was a geology professor from LSU. He talked constantly about rocks, and I enjoyed listening to him as I was in the wet sifting station. I could have listened to him all day.

An announcement came on at four saying the mine was closing in thirty minutes, so I packed up my things and left to check into my hotel. I didn't find any diamonds. :-(

I drove back the next morning to hike the river trail, which ends at the Little Missouri River. The water was so clear, and I could see a lot of fish and river mussels. I wished I had another day to stay to do some microfishing, but alas, it was time to drive back to Texas. I didn't want to leave. Besides the Crater of Diamonds, there were so many other interesting things to do in the area, like see Rick Evans Grandview Prairie. I tried to visit that spot last spring, but I was stopped by a flood. The weather forecast said "only a light brief shower around noon." The sky was clear until I got to Texarkana, where it began pouring down so hard that the Red River flooded over the roads. I had to turn around and go back; that "brief light shower" turned into a foot of rain.

I hope to go back to the area again in the spring to do some fishing and see Rick Evans.

My next planned multi-day trip is to the Upper Ouachita NWR near Monroe, Louisiana in November for bird watching.

Adjoining Lake Gilmer is a new nature preserve, the Kelsey Creek Sanctuary, measuring over 1,500 acres. Since it is new, not much has been done to it yet, other than construct a couple of short trails. Map here: http://gilmer-tx.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/lake_gilmer_trails.jpg

Most of the park is swampy hardwood bottomland. When I hiked part of it today, the swamp was very dry because of the drought.

Little notes:

*I got lost tromping through a marsh, but I saw my first snipe!
*I almost stepped in a hole where a cottonmouth was sleeping.
*I must go back with waterproof boots to explore the marsh.
*Feral pigs were everywhere.
*Some of the winter sparrows have arrived!