Gold Panning at Lynx Creek

Ryan getting the gold panning moves down!

Thar's gold in that thar pan!

If only we could get her to smile like that for every picture!

OK, since I am still playing 'catch-up' with posting on here, I'm gonna have to throw in some pictures every once in a while that aren't brand-new... like these. This was a trip we did to Lynx Creek in March with Debbie's parents- Debbie's dad gave us all a refresher course on gold panning, and taught Ryan since it was his first time ever. SO fun! I LOVE gold panning! It was freezing cold this day though- but by the end of the day we all had a couple little gold flakes in our jars! And Ryan learned well, because when he came back the following weekend with the scouts, he was able to teach them, and they all were able to leave with gold in their jars, too! Way to go, Ryan! (and Dad, too!) :)

This area -with big boulders & little waterfalls - is right near the cave.

There's a little cave nearby that I'm sure my siblings all remember from our gold panning trips growing up- I really wanted to go back to it & see it again, if it had changed or anything. My mom was wonderful & took care of Harrison the whole time we hiked to the cave. (And she took care of him pretty much the whole day we were there while I gold panned & helped the kids gold pan and dig holes in the ground for going potty, etc.! Thank you, Mom!) We found the cave, and the main difference was that there were a lot more bugs flying around, and a lot less bats. There was only one bat in the cave- but Ryan got a great picture of it! I was right under it looking at it- but never saw it so clearly as you can in the picture!

Cameron & Jacqueline entering the cave

Little lonely bat

Down almost at the very end of the cave, there was a pile of scat/droppings - and all I know is it wasn't people poop, it was pretty fresh- didn't look old at all, and was pretty big! I was glad the animal wasn't still in the cave- Ryan & I were in there with 3 kids- I was in a little rush to exit after that! I'm wishing now that we had taken a picture so we could post it too (I know you're bummed-just think, you could be looking at a poop picture right now!) but that would've involved staying in the cave a moment longer! But I looked around at different pictures online, & it sounds like it's probably mountain lion / lynx poop. Hmm... Lynx Creek... go figure! The kids thought it was pretty cool to go through the cave though- Cameron & Jacqueline both talked in "show & tell" in their school classes about it later- and were proud to show off the gold that they had found themselves!