This is just a small tutorial for those of you needing a little help getting started and are visiting or live in these areas.

The ID/OR borders are rich with many forms of agate.  There’s also jasper, opal, petrified wood, queenstone and crystals, and today I’m just giving a picture tour about finding a few of these things  in these desert areas.

The first thing you need to know is the difference between quartzite, agate, and jasper.  Quartzite is often just called quartz. You can tell quartz because it has granuals. It looks like someone took sugar and pressed it together real tightly.  Agate often looks like quartz a bit, but you won’t see granuals. It looks like wax. It is also translucent, and sometimes even clear.  Opal is much the same as agate but looks a little glassier than agate. It also breaks easier than agate.

You can get agates off the ground or find stone outcrops with agate in them in these areas.  What you are looking for is going to be very different from what you get when you cut the agate into slabs.  The outside is usually rather plain, other than you will be able to see little telltale spots of inclusions sometimes.  Occasionally you will find one that actually looks the same on the outside as it does on the inside, but not usually.   The picture below shows what you find in the field:

This is what you actually will find.

Now up close you will see more of the waxy look – and in a few spots you can see through the surface far enough to see there are inclusions. But all in all, these are not “wow” rocks when you see them other than if you pick up one that is a good size. And – once you know the potential for what’s inside of that agate.  And – here’s where the fun comes in. Both of these  “oh hum” rocks were sliced – and here’s the result:

Doesn't look like the same rock, does it?

Here’s the other rock cut in half. If it were slabbed, it would have some gorgeous potential for a cab along the plume.

Second rock cut in half

The picture doesn’t do this one justice but you can see a plume across the top and some plummy areas at the bottom – how big does a nice area have to be to make a splendid cabochon?  The picture also makes it look like the middle is indented  – it’s not. It’s cut flat across.  The agate in the center is quite clear and you can see fairly deep into this stone.

There are agates, of course, that are worth more than others.  At Graveyard Point you can find agates with a plume that is almost mossy instead of plummy, even though it’s still referred to as plume.  If you find a nice one of these that has a pink or purplish color – you have a valuable stone.   I can’t be sure if the color of this specimen from Graveyard Point will show up in your browser, but these are the colors that you can get – and want from graveyard point.

GY plume is more mossy than Owyhee plume

The pink is rare out there.  Most of the agate is the white, browns, and yellows of the Owyhee agates.  That’s why pink pieces are prizes.

Sometimes you can find tube agate at Graveyard Point. These agates are great for either cabinet specimens or cabs.  The one in the picture below is tube agate that is not embedded in other agate,  when the tubes are embedded in a clear agate they can make awesome cabochons.  This one is a cabinet specimen.

It's real easy to identify Graveyard Point Tube agate

As you can see in the picture, when you find a piece of tube agate like this, you aren’t going to need much help in identifying it. I don’t think I’ve seen anything that looks anything like tube agate.

There are spots that you can find fossil leaves in the Owyhees, too. They are fragile as the matrix rocks break easily.  The rock is light brown to yellow, and looks like regular mudstone. It breaks into 1/2 to 1″ thicknesses.  If you see an outcrop of this stone, you will usually find a pile of broken chunks under the outcrop.  Finding the fossils is as easy as sorting through the broken pieces. They are usually rectangular in shape.

Where you find one there will be a lot more.

Another thing you will find in the Graveyard Point and Owyhee reservoir area is petrified wood. Some of the wood is agatized as in the pictures below and some looks almost like wood instead of stone.  The piece below is about  7″   X 10″.  It’s holding my rockhound books upright on my bookshelf.  The views are from the end of the piece and from the outer edge of the half round.

The outside of a half round.

Even though this piece is completely agatized, you can still tell that it was once wood when you see it.  Many of the petrified wood specimens of that area do not leave any doubt they are…or were wood.  You will usually be pretty sure of what you have even if it’s your first time out hunting when you find petrified wood.

Here is the end view of this piece.

You can still see some of the rings even without grinding or polishing.

The rings don’t show up as well in the photo as they do when you are looking at the actual rock, but you get the idea.

The agatized wood in one specimen I got is black and not as quality – but the bark is spectacularly petrified.

The bark on this one is spectacular!

Finds like this one make hunting in the Owyhees a lot of fun.

There’s two other rare finds in the Owyhees that you might just run across when you are out there sometime.

You could find Jessie and I out there!

OH yeah – if you find US out there you just gotta know – we’re gonna be dirty!

And we’re gonna be grinning ear to ear — even Rickie!

Rickie my rockhound best pal.

I sure hope that this has helped some of you who are getting ready to go wander around the Owyhee desert areas.  Don’t forget to check out the RHS1 photo gallery for more pictures of what our members are finding and where they are finding it!  Thanks for reading.

Please remember – our open areas are under constant threat of closure. Please help keep these areas clean and healthy. Fill in all of your holes when you dig and if you pack it in – pack it out.  Help keep these wonderful playgrounds open for everyone to enjoy.

Tags: agate hunting, agates, Graveyard Point agate, Owyhee agate, Owyhee fossils, petrified wood, rock and gem hunters, rock and gem hunting tips, rockhounds, tube agate

While experienced hunters thoroughly enjoy a good day of garnet hunting, you don’t have to be an experienced hunter to find these dazzling little gemstones. In fact, they are probably the best stone for the inexperienced rockhound to begin hunting for. These gemstones are quite common and can be found in many US states and countries around the world. The rock which bears the garnet is very often peppered with the stones, too, so once you find a good garnet bearing area you will easily be able to take a very healthy cache home with you.

Garnets come in many varieties and the type of matrix rocks vary as well.  The most desirable crystals will be a deep wine red to purplish, pink, or brilliant green. Even smaller crystals are quite distinct in their natural form and you will be able to recognize them when you see them. Matrix rock may be about any form of rock in the area.

Your first step in garnet hunting, as with all gemstones, is to check your maps and guides. When it comes to garnets, I never worry too much about a location being “picked over” as the stones are usually so plentiful. Next you will want to make sure that you pack all of the equipment you need to gather the stones.

You will want to take your rock pick and mallet and small chisels (an eighth inch blade is usually plenty big) for any stones you find in the matrix rocks. I use these a bit at garnet locations as every once in a while I will see a stone still embedded in the matrix rock that I just can’t pass up. Many times the rock bearing the garnet is soft and the stones can be removed easily with a small flat screwdriver or knife blade. A mallet can be used to break the rocks apart to find the stones. This is actually the hard way to get the garnets, however, and I don’t usually resort to bothering with the rock itself. The tools that I use most frequently hunting for this particular type of gemstone is a spaghetti colander, a screen, and an army issue fold up shovel.

Over time garnets erode from the matrix rock. By scooping the dirt in the area of the gem bearing rock and sifting it in the colander you can easily find handfuls of gems. I use a colander for hunting gem rock as the holes are about the right size to let the stones which are smaller than I am interested in keeping fall through. If you want to spend money at a hardware store for special screens, they do have different sized meshes that will allow you to choose how large the gems must be for them to be trapped by the screen. If an area seems to have been picked over, by digging down deeper you can usually find the stones that fell and were covered before the area became popular to hunters.

After “panning” the rock area, I like to also pan the nearby streams for the gems. Garnets will wash downstream from their source over time and are not as heavy as some other minerals so you don’t need to dig too deep to find good quality stones. Water currents can erode the natural facets of the stone however, so you may find many of the crystals in water are much smoother than those from the actual rock area, depending on how long they have been there. When I choose a spot in a stream I will use the colander again so I am only getting stones I want to keep.  A gold pan works fine, too, but you will find yourself wasting time picking gems out that are smaller than you really are interested in keeping.

The normal sized screen I use for concentrated gem areas in streams where the stream bed is literally pink with small garnets. You will see this in many garnet areas. Most of these little garnets are not of gem size or quality, but they make great craft supplies. These I scoop up in the screen and just put in a bucket. Later at home I separate the small stones from the rest of the sand while watching television or talking on the phone.

Once you have found a few nice gemstones to use in jewelry, you will want to read up on panning for gold so you can find a nugget that one of your new gemstones will look nice with in a ring or pendant.

©2011 Sally Taylor

Tags: garnet hunting, garnets, gem hunting, gemstones, rock and gem hunters, rockhounds

Finding a great agate or piece of jasper is a thrill for any rockhound, but being able to identify exactly what it is that has been found is quite a headache for the beginner. These headaches can be relieved very easily though with just a little bit of knowledge about the different quartz group stones.

Agate and jasper are actually chalcedony, which in turn is cryptocrystalline quartz. All are SIO2. When you pick up a stone you can rule out that it is a piece of regular massive quartz quite quickly just by looking to see if you can see the grains of the stone. If you can see grains, you do not have an agate or jasper. Most likely, what you have then is massive quartz or some other type of stone. Many new rockhounds will mistake massive quartz for a piece of agate, so don’t feel bad if you do. It’s a very frequent mistake.

Jasper and agate will appear to be made of wax. If the rock is just plain clear to white translucent with no markings or patterns, it is considered chalcedony. If it is opaque, that is, if you cannot see into or through it, it is jasper. Jasper is most frequently earth tones or red but you can find jasper in just about any color or color combination and it can contain some very lively patterns. One well known form of jasper is called “picture” jasper, and just as the name suggests, the lines and markings look just like a scenic picture of mountains and valleys or forests and so on. Geometric patterns are also common in jasper stones.

If a stone is an agate, it will be translucent as is chalcedony, but an agate will have patterns. Most commonly, agates have bands, and are appropriately called banded agate. Sometimes the bands are also translucent, sometimes some are opaque. There are many agates named to describe how they look, such as plume, orbicular, or flower and many that are named for the place they are found, such as Dryhead or Lake Superior. For instance, moss agate is a clear to semi-clear agate that looks like moss was embedded in the stone. No two agates are alike and many fantastically patterned stones will not have specific type or place names.

There are also stones which you will find that have both jasper and agate in them. Both the opaque and translucent parts of these stones will appear waxy. These are often referred to as jasp-agate. Once you become familiar with the look of both jasper and agate, you will be able to recognize jasp-agate with no problems. One other stone that can be confused with agate or jasper is opal.

Opal will have flashes of color if it is precious opal. It can be also be common opal which is plain translucent or opaque and a just about any color or a mix of colors. Opal generally looks more glassy than waxy, and it is much more brittle and breakable than agate or jasper.

If you still aren’t sure when you find a rock if it is jasper, agate, or opal, you should take it with you and ask someone about it. Your local rock shop or club or even a jeweler’s shop can identify it for you. You will have few problems identifying these stones after the first or second time. Once you learn to identify these basic stones, you will be surprised how many different types of gemstones you will start noticing on your hunts.

© Sally Taylor, RHS1

Tags: agate, agate hunting, gemstones, jasper, jasper hunting, Mineral Identification, opal, quartz, rock and gem hunters, rockhounds

After the first dig, Jessie and I just couldn’t resist taking a second run back there right away. We had another person with us, too – she had seen Jessie’s cache from the first trip and was gung ho to try her hand at digging a few herself. This time the weather was warm but not as excruciating as the first time in.

I did some studying before this trip and found that our spot is in the Southern portion of a formation that runs all the way up to highway 26 and possibly even further North than that. Not having a lot of time to explore this time, we settled for just going back to the dig knowing that we’d find something. Something turned out to be a lot better than our first try at the pit.

Beginner’s luck doesn’t quite explain Jessie’s luck in finding a major pocket. She again had the biggest load to carry back to the car this time. While I had the biggest stone of the day – Jess once again topped me out with a spectacular green moss crystal. Her friend,Gina, was amazed and thrilled with her cache. While she came along expecting to find a few crystals, she was not prepared for the size of the stones she was finding. To tell the truth – neither were we.

For all Gina’s friends back home she said would never believe she actually found those herself — yeah, she did – and they were AWESOME!  I didn’t get pics of hers, but they are about the same trend as the ones in the pics below.

That said – we took some more pics for you all to enjoy.

These are my favorites for the day. The one on the left is the biggest single crystal of the day.

The crystal on the left was the biggest single of the day. It’s not the best crystal, however. It’s got a bit too many of the watery feathers in it to be clear at the size it is. The medium size crystals are much clearer than the larger ones.

These are Jessie's favorites from the day.

Jessie  had the biggest cluster (top left) and a lot of beautiful medium sized clear stones. She also got a lot of so-so stones that will probably end up being the start of what I call “driveway rock” collection. Those are the stones you toss in the yard somewhere for decoration. Non-hunters seem to love looking at these piles and picking something out for themselves to take home. There’s always party favors somewhere when you visit a rockhound’s home.

Let’s move on to the real prize of the day – also one of Jessie’s finds:

Gorgeous water clear crystal with green moss.

I have never seen a true moss quartz crystal before, and perhaps that isn’t the right technical name for it, but one look at that picture and I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s about the best description to be had for this gorgeous stone. It’s close to an inch wide and there is a crust, as you can see, but promises to be a stunning pendant piece when the layer is removed.

We did explore around the rock formation above the dig up by the main road this time. The view was spectacular. Almost spectacular enough to make me actually like being in California for awhile.

Veiw from the rock formation above the dig site.

And of course – Rickie had a great time and enjoyed a little more sun and hiking this time with the weather a bit cooler than last time. I think his smile says more about how the day went than anything else I can say.

Love this guys smile - he says it all for all three of us.

Um….if anyone should make it out to Copperopolis and find a folding army shovel……..It’s mine. Could ya let me know it’s been located?   I’ll be back for it – trust me  on that one!

Tags: CA, gemstones, Geology, rock and gem hunters, rockhound field trips, rockhound photo gallery, Rockhounding Copperopolis, rockhounds

Last week I took my Niece out for a first real rockhound excursion.  Jessie is in her late twenties so this wasn’t a “give a little kid their first taste” trip.  She’s randomly looked for rocks when she’s been where she sees things she likes, but this was her first real down and honest “lets go get these things” type of trip.  I’d already been to the site so I knew that we were in for a good day and was pretty excited about the trip myself.

It was around 10:00, clear, and sunny when we got to the hill and it was pretty obvious that early that we were in for some heat later on.   Here’s the view from the dig site:

The pointed rocks on the outcrop on top above the site almost looked like they were gigantic coated crystals of some sort themselves. If it hadn't been so darned hot I might have gone and checked those out.

We really enjoyed having this great bit of scenery to look at when we headed for a break in the shade.

That early, a lot of the site was still in the shade so we started out on a comfortable dig.  The ground at the pit was dry and a little harder than I’d have liked, but with a hammer, crowbar, garden claw, and shovels we were able to get through enough of the rocky clots to to reap some good rewards.  Around noon the sun was starting to make life rough for us and there was no longer any shade at the pit. Now and again we’d wander to a shady spot and do a little scraping around but wandered back to dig some more when the shaded location didn’t produce.

RIcki had a good morning exploring, but when the sun started getting high, it didn’t take him long to decide where he was going to spend the hotter hours of the day.

Part of Ricki's winning fight against bone cancer is a lot of interesting hikes and fresh air.

We enjoyed most of the wildlife we saw, but this next little guy didn’t get the same reaction that the cute little dear playing along the roadsides did.

This guy startled us when he climbed out from under a rock while we were digging

After taking a few minutes to try to figure out what kind of spider he was and snapping a picture of him, he was escorted onto the shovel and off to a spot far enough away to ensure he wouldn’t be sneaking back to the pit.  As hot as it was getting, he probably was glad to be where he could crawl off under a log to hide for awhile.

By  mid afternoon the heat and sun were getting the best of us and we’d finally had enough and decided to go back up to the rig and have some lunch and be on our way. Back at the rig we noticed this odd tree formation.

This tree formation looks just like the devil sitting on a stump playing a fiddle. Was he waiting for us to sell our souls for a good strike?

Even without knowing yet that I had a hole in my bag and was leaking out a few crystals on the walk back to the rig (Big oops), the devil didn’t stand a chance of a deal because there were plenty enough crystals between the two of  us for Jess and I to call it a pretty successful day:

These are some of my finds for the day. There are a few close ups of a couple of them in the photo gallery

Jessie had some of that good ole beginners luck that we’re all so familiar with and took home about three times as many as I did – she got the biggest and the best of the day, too.   Of course, I was a light weight in all the heat and sun and took more breaks than she did so she deserved the heaping cache she took home.

We made few more more stops on the way home.  One was the Milton Cemetery.  That place was spooky even in the daylight.  On the road near the cemetery, Jessie found a piece of jasper (might be chert, I didn’t look at it that well) that was a greenish blue with tan orbs in it.  It reminded me somewhat of Bruneau Jasper.

Anyway – for you haunted cemetery lovers — here’s a few glimpses of the cemetery.  There are a few inhabited homes in the area but for the most part, there is nothing around to suggest there ever was a town here.

The Cemetery Main Gate

Here’s a shot of one section in back of the cemetery.  Behind it you can see some of the hills in the area.  Definitely would like to go back and check those out a little bit.  They are part of the same rock formation that the dig site is so there might be some good hunting in those hills — if there is any public property out there, that is.

This pic from the back of the cemetery shows a little of the age and condition and why it seemed so spooky in there.

Now here’s an interesting concept in cemeteries.  When the headstones fall, just prop them against a tree and let the visitors guess which of the unmarked mounds the people are in.  Judging from the look and feel of this place someone (or something) would probably show up after dark that would be glad to show you.

Well, they are there somewhere. We tried hard not to step on anyone. Unmarked mounds are all over.

Well, that’s the highlights from this trip out.  We had enough fun that we’ll be going back in a few days.  Um….this time I’ll be checking my pack for holes before I go.

Tags: abandoned cemeteries, California, California spider pictures, gemstones, odd tree formation, quartz crystal dig sites, Quartz crystals, rock and gem hunters, rockhound trip report, Rockhounding Copperopolis, rockhounds

The Snyder Pow-Wow in Calavares county, CA  was a real success this year, it seems from the large amount of vendors and visitors having fun there yesterday.  I was a bit wowed when I got there as I  hadn’t expected the event to be so large.  It took me around an hour of wandering around just to find Bob (RHS1 member, coldwatergold).  I won’t pretend I was in any hurry to get to his club’s tent after I got to the show, though.  What an interesting array of rocks and fossils, not to mention a few other things I had to walk through to get to there.  Bob’s tent, by the way, was the Calavares Rock and Gem Society tent.  That was a fun bunch of folks to talk to.

There were a few pretty spectacular rocks in that place this year.  I talked to many vendors who I hope we’ll see pictures from in the photo contest In June.  I saw a few specimens that are spectacularly vote worth at the very least.  It was also fun just standing around shooting the breeze with people who don’t give you the RCA dog head tilt when you say you’re “a rockhound”.

I saw the best piece of Graveryard plume I’ve ever seen there (and am really hoping to have that pic entered in the contest) and some of the nicest chunks of Virgin Valley black opal I’ve seen to date, too.

Thanks go out to Al who was at the Tuolumne Sunshine Mine display with owner, Gilbert Gonzalez.  If the soapstone I get after talking to Al about “what to do” in this neck of the woods is anywhere near as nice as some of the specimens he had, I’m going to have a lot of fun on the find and afterward, too.  Gilbert had a pretty spectacular display of gold there, too.  I enjoyed that one.

The most spectacular display of the day, for me,  was the tourmaline and sunstone display at the Spectrum Mine booth. The tourmalines were gorgeous, greens, pinks, watermelons, predominated.  One  pencil like and beautifully faceted raw crystal that went from green on one side to a watermelony pink was particularly striking.  The sunstones were plentiful,  with both cut and polished sunstones of the pink tones with copper inclusions.   I caught a good look of their items just as they were packing for the day.  When petite Jessica picked up that huge glass display with all those beautiful tourmalines in it and carried them to the back of her rig I held my breath a little bit.  If she’d dropped that case, I know it would have brought a few tears to my eyes – I’m sure she’d have completely melted down.

The best part of the show apart from the people I met though was while people were packing their wares for the day and I was walking to the gate to leave.  Okay some background is called for here.

A few years back in Idaho, I found this really neat little “rock” that sparkled like it had metal in it – I thought it was some different metal dusts cemented together from some sort of mining procedure or another.  It was a pretty piece and so I took it home and never really looked at it under a light with a loupe.

So when I saw something just like it at the show, I ducked under the tent the folks were trying to shut down to find out what that thing was.  Well it turned out to be corundum.  So I came home and got that rock  in the sun with a magnifier glass and it is phenomenal.  The crystals are a too thin for lapidary, but as a display piece, it is beautiful.   It was better “finding” it the second time than it was the first.  I can’t believe I had it all this time and never looked at it closer. The metal shine on the faces completely disappears at some angles and allows me to see the sheer beauty of that blue.  Next time I am in that area I can hope to find something a bit more phenomenal.  At least I’ll recognize it for what it is even if I do see some metalic sparkles in the light.

I took a few pictures at the show but won’t know what turned out and what didn’t for a few days.  It’s the first time I ever used that camera so I’m not sure how skilled my shooting was.  Whatever turns out will be on the photo gallery in a few days.  Maybe some more of my finds will, too as long as I have the camera accessible.  The corundum, I’m afraid is going to have to wait until I can get a worthy shot of it and to do that I might have to find someone who knows more about photographing minerals than I do.

Until next time

Life’s Short, Rock Hard.

Tags: California rock and gem shows, gemstones, Gold prospecting, lapidary rough, lapidary supply, rock and gem hunters, rockhound equipment, rockhound events

Idaho Rockhounds, can any of you solve this question for us?

I was reading a field guide for rockhounds one day – sorry, I don’t remember the name of it – but it said that there is an occurrence of garnets around 10 miles East of Lewiston along the river.  Nobody seems at this point to be able to disclose whether there is actually garnets anywhere in that area other than that some can be panned from the river.  This information also leaves us to wonder whether there are GOOD garnets coming from the river.  For those who plan to be in that area, or go to that area, it would be very helpful if someone out there that knows anything about the area could stop by and give us a heads up.

I’d like to note that I am wondering a tad whether someone was thinking of  beautiful star garnets and just mistakenly jotted down the wrong area for finding those treasures.

We here at RHS1 would sure appreciate any information that anyone could offer in this perplexing issue.

Thanks all.

Tags: garnets, gemstones, rock and gem hunters, rockhounding Lewiston Idaho, rockhounds