[color=9e0b0f]A couple kids walk up to Jason while the food is cooking.  Jason turning around notices them and says. "You have some questions?" One nods his head. "Yeah, I heard that you have a half mile long water slide.  Is that true?" Jason Chuckles hearing the question. "Absolutely, we are getting it prepped right now for the day, it should be ready at the end of the tour." an adult comes up to him carrying a young 3 or 4 year old girl. "Any rides for the little one here?" Jason nods his head. "We actually have 8 rides specifically made for young children including a low speed 8th mile long water slide.  The vertical descent is only 28 feet over the entire slide.  Only reaching a top speed of 8 miles per hour and even then it only stays at that speed for a few seconds."

After a bit of time the questions stop coming in and all the people cooking food finish, some start eating or drinking their food and Jason goes back into tour guide more.  He walks into a cave and kneels down in front of a small mineshaft. "This next area is only accessible by crawling.  it is about 6 feet long, 4 feet wide and 3 feet tall.  Most of you will get through with little effort but the larger folks like myself will be a little uncomfortable.  I promise though, once through you will see it is well worth the tight confines." 

Jason crawls through the tunnel, standing up as soon as he is able to do so.  He stands there for a moment while the tour group enters the room.  The cave looking like 1 giant continuous crystal.  He begins talking as soon as everybody appears. "This is the reason why this mine was opened for over a century.  Originally the miners discovered the springs, both hot and cold, and used it for irrigation and surprisingly enough for heating and cooling.  As more people built homes in the area the demand for the springs increased and they had to find ways of extending the use of the springs.  This lead to drilling into the mine and creating more ducts into the homes.  They continuously mined the place but they started losing drill bits at an alarming rate.  1 drill bit generally lasted a crew 6 weeks before needing to be replaced, they started losing them at a rate of 1 a week, either sheering off the bit or grinding itself smooth.  These crystals were the reason for the destruction."

Jason walks over to the wall and grabs a hammer and chisel, sticking the chisel in and driving it in.  He twists the chisel and moves it around popping out a crystal. "The miners discovered these brilliant gems, they began seeing more and more of them and thought that they were common quartz.  Seeing how many were actually here made them believe they were dealing with something without real value.  It took them nearly 10 years to realize they had a cash crop." Somebody pulls a crystal from the wall and begins looking at it. "If they are so plentiful how are they valuable?" Jason looks at the man. "They are unique to this mine.  They are absolutely common to this mine, but they are found nowhere else in the world.  None of the other mines in the area, active or inactive, have these crystals.  They are Rofer crystals, named after the original owner of the mine, Theodore Rofer.  When he finally figured out the crystals value he started selling them, gold back at this time was going for $21 an ounce a diamond was trading at 7 to 8 dollars a carat, for several decades the Rofer crystal was selling between 50 to 75% more than a diamond.  Even to this day, you can still sell one of these larger crystals like I hold for nearly a grand, everybody here will be getting one to do with what they want.  We have a jeweler here on the property that will set your crystals however you want for a price or you can just keep it raw."

Jason turns and begins heading towards the next area. "Word of warning, this next area is over 100 degrees and since it is a hot spring it is sticky with the heat, I guarantee you will be sweating but we only stay in this area for 2 minutes.  The pools are somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 to 160 degrees on average.  Think about a sink full of hot water, that is how hot it is." Jason steps into the cave and surrounding the group are blue and green hot springs that steam slightly. "The hotter the water gets, the more blue and green the water becomes, 2 more areas until we reach that cave with the hot spring that is super heated."

As he moves through he wipes his forehead off and breathes heavy. "This is really hot." he chuckles, his shirt beginning to stick to his body from the sweat. "We have 4 more caves until the end of the tour but 1 is massive, it is less a spring and more of a underground lake, we have a seating area for you to relax and check out some of the many features of the cave, we have a cold spring in there that is nice and cold so we can cool down there.  It will be the next area."

Jason continues walking through the cave pathway for several hundred feet.  One of the tourists speaks up. "How big is it?" Jason turns around, walking backwards knowing he still has a way to go. "We are looking at about an acre and 3 quarters.  Lots of mini caves in there though so it could be a fun time for the children to play hide and seek." Lots of the children's eyes light up with that prospect.  Jason turns back around and enters the cave. "Please have a look around, this is our only stop from the actual tour until the actual end which should be about 20 minutes after we renew our quest." Some of the children take off to play in the mini caves, the adults mostly find some places to sit and eat their food, Jason opens his food and mixes it all together eating it slowly while the tour group rests in comfort, knowing the next area will be unbearably hot.[/color]