As much as I enjoyed rock hunting in NV, it’s not really a user friendly place for much else, so I’m hitting the road again next week. .  I didn’t realize I picked up so much great stuff out here until I went to pack and found out how much of it I’m going to pack with me. You should see how much I’m leaving behind.  Silver Springs has turned out to be a phenomenal base for the avid rockhound, even if it is an employment black hole.

Anyway – I just thought you fine folk would like a little picture tour of what can be picked up out here not far from the Silver Springs area.

Mason Pass sits just to the west of a pleasant little town called Yerrington.  If you like blue minerals, this is a trip you have to take.  Crysacolla, azurite, turquoise, and malachite (yeah, I know. Malachite is green) all can be found in varied quantities in the Mason Pass area.  Here’s a few of my finds from there.  Gorgeous stuff, all of which  is usually found as seam material. The rocks have plenty of seams throughout though, so when you find blue, you can break the boulders up into smaller samples and still have beautiful specimens.  I got several angles on these for ya.

Here’s a view from a different angle for ya.

Petrified Wood:

Petrified wood is prevalent in many areas of Nevada in various color combinations and in varying amounts.  Here’s a few pieces I picked up right near home where it is a rare find. There are some areas just a little bit NW of where I lived that it is much the same in quality, but is much more common a find.  Getting back to it can be a pain in the butt, though. The trails are sandy and rocky, and sometimes you just have to park and walk in.  Needless to say – you will  probably want to go further to the South or East to hunt for Nevada wood than the Silver Springs area.  In some locations wood becomes much more similar to the colorful woods of Arizona.  My region wasn’t one of those locations.

The smaller chunk in front is what the wood in my general vicinity usually looks like:

Here’s a better picture of the big piece in back. I’m not sure if you can see the rings, but you can in person. This piece is a bit more unusual. It’s mostly black and agaty, but the agate seems to tend toward opal in spots.  The color is also blue in a few spots rather than black.  I can hardly wait to get a slice off of this piece!

Agates.  What you can find a lot of in my neck of the woods is agates.  I can honestly say it hasn’t sucked living where I have agates within a walking distance of me.  They are all over the place in pockets on the north side of 50 once you get past highway 95 in the Springs.   You almost have to be trying not to find agates not to find them out here.

Here’s just a general view of some of the different colors of agate that’s out in this area.

That big agate at the back is actually a dark royal or navy blue. I’ve never seen one near the color of this one. Most of the darker agate here is grey.  This is another one I’m extremely anxious to get a slab and a few cabs from. As you can see these stones are pretty rich in color.  They are more translucent than a picture allows me to show you, but you get the idea, I’m sure, if you’ve ever hunted agate before.

Here’s a closer shot of a blue crazy lace and a carnelian. The banding on the lace doesn’t show in this picture, but it is beautiful in person.  Perhaps when I get some of this cabbed I can find a higher resolution camera so you can see more of the details.

This agate shows how multi-colored a lot of the agates are and gives a little more detail than the other pics I got of my agates.

Well the agate shots didn’t show as much detail as I had hoped, so I’m just going to skip over the rest of them and get to another rock that comes in all sorts of variations out here – jasper.

The most famous of the jaspers in Nevada is called Wonderstone. Some of this jasper is a matte stone, other is quite waxy.  It is just gorgeous either way.  There are a couple of hills out West of Fallon between Grimes Point archaeological site and Middlegate.  One is called Wonderstone mountain and the other is Yellow Hill.  There is another by the old camp of Wonderstone.  I’ve heard of others, but never saw them.  Here’s a few pictures of some of this incredible stone.

Most of the Wonderstone is pink, maroon, and yellow as you will see in the pics – but this particular prize shows how diverse the colors can be.

Here’s a pic of more conventional and common Wonderstone specimens.

Here’s a close up of the large stone on the bottom:

While Wonderstone is the most widely known of the Nevada jaspers, there are jaspers of all colors out here.

The green jaspers in the pic above come from the area just SW of Fernley.

This next jasper and the pic under it came from another hill composed completely of jasper.  You can tell the hill  is pure jasper even from a distance. It is red.  The guy holding the jasper in the first pic here is a friend of mine, Aaron Aveiro, who took almost all of the pics here.  (Thanks Aaron).   He liked the piece he is holding up because of the vugs of dark drusy that form a face in the rock.  These are just small samples of the gorgeous agate from that hill.  If you are hearty enough and have the right equipment, you could pull specimens the size of my jeep off of that hill.

I don’t remember exactly where I picked up some of the jaspers. You can find a mix of these jaspers when hunting in the agate fields, or you just go to a hill made out of the stuff.  I’ve never seen anything quite like it.  A lot of the jaspers have  agate in them, too. Sometimes just seams, but some actually qualify to justly be called jaspagate.  When I get some of these beauties worked into cabs I’ll get some more detailed pictures of them.

Well that’s one longshot from being an all inclusive list of what you can find in Nevada – in fact it’s just a tiny start.  There are fire opals, black opal, garnets, topaz, quartz crystals, and a whole list of other gemstones throughout the state.   When, some day in the future you come back here to the Gazette, don’t be one bit surprised if you find that a group of us went out and got a whole new line up of pics of other mineral finds from out here.  I might be moving – but have an open invitation to visit this summer, so I’ll probably drag part of the RHS1 gang with me.  I don’t think I’ll have to twist many arms to get them to come, either.

Tags: agate hunting, azurite, crysacolla, jasper, malachite, Nevada Agates, Nevada Wonderstone, rock and gem hunters, Rockhounding Nevada, rockhounds, turquoise

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

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