Josh intended to take his boys to a popular rockhounding site called the Dugway Geode Beds. However, he made an error in navigation while on the way there. Instead of turning north after crossing Dugway Pass on the Pony Express Trail, he turned south.

Josh then drove the family’s 2005 Chrysler Town and Country minivan up a rocky path.

“We kept climbing/driving up, I felt like at points he van was pointed straight up and gravity would take its course,” Susan later wrote. “We found this white quarry and I found out later that it had real topaz in it.”