Road Trip

The kids have been begging to go to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas for over a year. So, since it is Spring Break, I decided that there was no time like the present to take them there.

It was supposed to be beautiful weather and I didn't want to go when it was hot or rainy. So this was it. The park is in thesouthwest corner of Arkansas. I was very surprised at how beautiful northeast Texas and that part of Arkansas are.

There are lots of forests (we passed many logging trucks) and it was so pretty with all the blooming dogwoods and redbud trees. There are many cattle ranches and farms as well. I think it would be nice to own land out there. I think it is a completely different lifestyle out there in the country.
The state park is the only publicly owned diamond mine in North America and it is the 8th largest diamond mine in the world. Many diamonds have been found there including the largest one in North America at over 40 carats.
Any diamonds visitors find, they can keep!
There are many ways to prospect for diamonds. There is the dry screening process, where you sift through the dry soil looking for diamonds.















Or you can dig a hole and then screen. Or you can wet screen,which we didn't do because we didn't have the right kind of equipment and I didn't feel like going back and renting it. The last option is the walk around looking for diamonds lying on top of the soil, which is a good thing to do after a rain that washes away the soil.
The kids quickly tired of digging and sifting and not finding anything worthwhile (which I knew would happen when I agreed to take the kids on this adventure). So after a couple of hours we left.
15 hours of driving for 2 hours of digging in the dirt - the things we do for our children.

Nevertheless, we had fun staying in motels for 2 nights, jumping on beds and watching cartoons.