Since people were allowed to dig on Thursday, the day before the scheduled rock swap, I decided to take that option.
After the healthy walk up the mountain I began by poking around in the same dusty rock shelf the majority of people also searching for the iridescent hematite were. It took me that entire day to begin to make sense of what was going on there. I noticed there were quartz veins running through a sandstone matrix. Certain areas contained blue kyanite mixed in with the quartz and sandstone. In many cases although not always the quartz veins were accompanied by pockets filled with iridescent hematite. All sorts of weird and curious formations of hematite from botryoidal to stalactites and stalagmites to just plain weird.  I even saw rainbow covered quartz crystals.

I did not bring my camera up on the first day as I knew it was my time to first acclimate and explore. Night approached and I was starkly reminded how much light pollution I have back home in the capitol. Staring up at the sky that night at Elijah Clark State Park reminded me of my last visit to the planetarium. It was a good time to take a few shots.  I was lucky to have captured a shooting star, its faint streak can be seen in the upper right corner of the first picture below.  The red was just me "painting" the trees with red light to create some contrast and bring in more detail.

Drew and Tony working hard.

And now a few specimens from the vein.

Nice stuff guys, congrats!  By the way Scott, there is no such thing as a "stalagtite".  It's a stalactite.  Stalactites grow from the ceiling, Stalgmites from the floor.  Remember "C" for ceiling, and "G" for ground.

Now you're just trying to confuse me, DSM.
If I think of mice I'm going to think about cheese.
I like the "C" and "G" rule, tho. Thanks Laurie.

Great pics, Scott! Thanks for the report.