Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge — Attraction in Lambert

Great mini adventure for young and old. Suggest going on a medium day not on a 90+ degree day. Windy days are actually good too. We all got along. Rarely argued. You can work together or alone. Mild amount of work to get crystals. FINDING CRYSTALS: You must find the right spots. You can find small 1 inch shards littered around where others have dug. Most of crystals are areas near rear half of designated area . Then on the places you find small 1/2" or bigger brown/crystaline pieces above the surface you can dig down slowly within a foot or so and usually sift through it gently grabbing shards. WHAT TO BRING: Helpful hints. Bring cheap buckets, small gardening shovel, ziplock bags. For SUN protection, EITHER lots of suntan lotion, or nylon long sleeved shirt, large rimmed hat, sunglasses, and maybe long nylon thin sweats, neck gaiter to protect exposed neck. CLEANING UP and EATING: Use a medium cooler with water and ice to cool food and beverage supplies BUT then use drain plug to fill up extra bucket with leftover cooler water for rinsing hands of salts. Bring old towels for cleaning/drying as necessary. Rinse off all around vehicle when you get home to get rid of all the extra salt. If you can where shorts and tank top under neath clothes after you decide to go home you can take off your dirty clothes put in a bag before you get back in the vehicle to go home. Don't soak crystals in water. They will dissolve. Watch a video or something about cleaning...

Take a little drive, make a day out of it.

Crystals are pretty easy to find and it’s a lot of fun to dig and play in the dirt, and I’m saying that as an adult so imagine how much fun kids will have.

I had the best luck using a shovel to find good spots to dig carefully. Basically if the shovel didn’t easily break through the ground or I could hear/feel resistance, I would carefully loosen up dirt in that area and sift through it with my hands. Many crystals were pretty close to the surface. They’re flat so you need to work through the dirt with your hands to find them or spot the points/edges when you dig.

Besides the crystal hunting the landscape is beautiful and unique I would love more time to explore the area.

There is a bathroom available (your typical hole in the ground park variety) about a mile before you get to the dig area. There is no running water or places to buy water/food nearby.

The last mile of road is a little bumpy but manageable in a sedan.

Some things you may want to pack: food, water, a cooler, sunscreen, bug spray, towels, a change of clothes/shoes/socks, shovel, bucket, something to sit or kneel on,...

My intent was to capture another session of night photos from one of our mid-western lakes, this time that being the Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge. This review is similar to the one I left of the lake itself. While I'm not professional by any means I do love to use the clouds, stars and moon to make at least some "interesting" images. I was only able to see a small portion of the refuge due to road and access restrictions but it seems well accessible and protected from careless visitors. (I think that’s why a road was closed that crossed the area to the east.) I encountered some wind so clouds were moving – something to highlight the night sky. I was able to find enough access via a short hike or drive right up to the edge of the eastern side to get a few pictures. I snapped a few pictures from some nearby roads, although it’s not of the refuge itself it still reminds me of the interesting land around it. I’m looking forward to another visit in the “winter” months although I’m not sure of the weather in that part of the country. Does it snow? I’ll just have...