Park Day at the Crater of Diamonds State Park

We had planned to join in Finn's Park Day because we knew we were going somewhere special. Although there was a wifi connection you had to be with in 15 feet of it for it to work and our cabin was a lot further away so we didn't have have a chance to post our "park day" on the day. This was also a special time for our Mom for the 25th of April was ANZAC day (An Aussie Special Day) and the 26th would of been her Mom's birthday.

Anyway - our adventure continues. Now as we mentioned we stayed at a place called Diamond John's Retreat. He is actually surrounded by the State Park (They are trying hard to buy him out but he won't sell!) The front of his property is right on the river which has Rainbow Trout and Big Mouth Bass and River Otters. Now Diamond John also provides FREE fishing equipment, canoes, barbeques and stuff for rug rats to play. The accommodation is basic but clean and well kept. The cabins are all air conditioned and heated and a couple of the tee-pees are air-conditioned. The BIG tee-pee sleeps 10! Pets are most welcome - we were allowed to run free because there was no one else there but normally long leashes are required around the accommodation - there are plenty of areas away from the accommodation where we can run leash free though.

The Crater of Diamonds State Park allows pets too - if you are actually digging in the crater it costs $7.00 to enter and dogs can go in there too. You can rent digging stuff right there. There are plenty of shady places to sit and watch the peeps while they dig. The actual park and trails are all free to use.
 

Here we are at the Crater of Diamonds - now there are not only diamonds found here but many other gem stones as well such as peridot and garnets and Diamond John surprised Mom BIG TIME  by giving her some of these when we left. Was that ever nice or what? And guess what - there were 5 diamonds found the day we were there - none by us of coarse but 5 lucky people found them!

And here is the Sea Shanty Cabin (that is what Mom called it) - this one is close to the river. And here is one of the peacocks that lives there. There are two males with these beautiful tails. Being spring time they were busy calling out for females (which they don't have) and we must admit they were a bit noisy but you get use to them after awhile. They only call like this during spring.