Opal hunting in the B.C. mountains

One of the reasons that we wanted to go to the Okanagan Valley was to search for Opals. We contacted an Opal shop in Vernon B.C. and they do a tour up into the mountains to search for Opals. So on Monday morning we took the 1 hour drive up a logging road to the top of a mountain and began the search for the elusive opal. In my mind I thought a opal would look like the ones on their web site. Nice and big and shiny. Well, it is not like it may seem. We spent 4 hours in the 40 degree heat searching through rock and dirt and found rocks with traces of opal slivers in them. Not exactly what I had imagined. But I suppose diamonds don't look like they do on a ring either. So we will return home with slivers of opal and I'm sure Dean will make them look really cool.