Post by elementary on Nov 9, 2013 16:55:21 GMT -5
Hey all you N Cady trippers!
Had a great time with Scott roaming the hills.
Starting off with the Pepto Bismal hill, Ron (aka Bob) and Jean and I led the way over to the Fluorite mine. Here I found the largest chunk (couple fists put together in size) I'd ever had the luck to run into, set it down on the tailings, and left it there. Go check it out. Might still be there.
Better though, we traveled up the gully above the Mine to find Mel's plume jasper site. Up to the right, as you walk, is a massive travertine deposite with jasper just beyond. I never made it. A large boulder sat in the middle of the gully showing an agate type I had never seen from the cady's before. It wasn't new - just new to me. So they moved ahead and I lumbered up the hill to the left to find the source. Within a few minutes i had, and I let Ron (aka Bob) take Scott to the jasper.
Now, for those who are interested, this agate wasn't the nodular material found in the green hills. This stuff was different. It was fortified with either quartz in the center, hollow space, or, rarely, actually completely filled. The color also was different. Most nodules you'll find are smaller, with blue and white being the primary colors. These were white with some pastels scattered within the agate. They were also highly fractured, and I'm wondering if these come from an older deposit somehow.
Pictures:
the Big one:
Hollow with crystals from same deposit
View of outside of agate bearing rock with sample interior (agate surrounding crystals - looking forward to cutting off 3/4 an inch to get a smooth surface.)
Old-weathered piece again showing that it seems to be forming in cracks and gaps in the rock rather than bubbles in basalt.
And finally a cleaner piece (still fractured) showing the reddish dots. There is banding here too, but the light washes it out.
This isn't the prettiest stuff, but I'm wanting to go back and see if digging produces better pieces. (especially seeing the size of the big one...)
After we finished there, we hiked away from the fluorite canyon entrance to another jasper deposit that shows flowering and plumes. The pieces I found were small but bring your gads and bars and picks cause the source seems to be still up there - just imbedded in solid rock.
Here's a couple samples from this site:
(working on this one and should have it finished by end of day - will post)
From here we drove past PB hill and down to where there is a parking spot surrounded by the green agate bearing hills. Here Scott rested while Ron (akaBob) and Jean and I went to a place I call Flattop HIll. A few years ago Ron and I found this spot and thought it relatively unscarred. Small to medium agate nodules littered the top - basically almost half of all small rocks on the hilltop were agate nodules. I've been there 4-5 times in the last few years (great for specimens for kids) so many of the bigger nodules are gone, but there are many many left. Inside the nodules can be (from most common to least) waterline agate, fortification agate, sagenite sprays (watch as many are not fully agatized), and pseudomorphs. White dominates with some blue.
Simple example:
Many of the remaining larger pieces are broken, but halves are still good to work with:
From here I led the group down the wrong road (which led to my less than favorite photo of me being taken - less than flattering of a more than overweight individual. I asked for a light filter and soft lens, but Scott said he forgot to bring those. Oh well.
I got my bearings and we finally went down one last road, where after a little probing of the hillsides, we came to a ridge crisscrossed with seam again. My largest nodule of the day come from here:
I also found a chip of a sagenite chunk of rock on the way to that last stop (can't find it now - will photograph it when I do - which made me want to scour the hillside but everyone was ready to move forward).
The seams were not the thickest, but their colors included greens, blues, reds, purples, and pinks. With some hiking, thicker seams were spotted, but by then we had to haul ourselves out to the highway with an hour or so of light remaining. I grabbed a bag of tumbling material.
And that was the day...... Man am I already to go back and am thinking of hitting the N Cady's during christmas break. Ron won't be availabe this time, so maybe I might find a couple others to accompany me.
Have fun everyone,
Lowell
Had a great time with Scott roaming the hills.
Starting off with the Pepto Bismal hill, Ron (aka Bob) and Jean and I led the way over to the Fluorite mine. Here I found the largest chunk (couple fists put together in size) I'd ever had the luck to run into, set it down on the tailings, and left it there. Go check it out. Might still be there.
Better though, we traveled up the gully above the Mine to find Mel's plume jasper site. Up to the right, as you walk, is a massive travertine deposite with jasper just beyond. I never made it. A large boulder sat in the middle of the gully showing an agate type I had never seen from the cady's before. It wasn't new - just new to me. So they moved ahead and I lumbered up the hill to the left to find the source. Within a few minutes i had, and I let Ron (aka Bob) take Scott to the jasper.
Now, for those who are interested, this agate wasn't the nodular material found in the green hills. This stuff was different. It was fortified with either quartz in the center, hollow space, or, rarely, actually completely filled. The color also was different. Most nodules you'll find are smaller, with blue and white being the primary colors. These were white with some pastels scattered within the agate. They were also highly fractured, and I'm wondering if these come from an older deposit somehow.
Pictures:
the Big one:
Hollow with crystals from same deposit
View of outside of agate bearing rock with sample interior (agate surrounding crystals - looking forward to cutting off 3/4 an inch to get a smooth surface.)
Old-weathered piece again showing that it seems to be forming in cracks and gaps in the rock rather than bubbles in basalt.
And finally a cleaner piece (still fractured) showing the reddish dots. There is banding here too, but the light washes it out.
This isn't the prettiest stuff, but I'm wanting to go back and see if digging produces better pieces. (especially seeing the size of the big one...)
After we finished there, we hiked away from the fluorite canyon entrance to another jasper deposit that shows flowering and plumes. The pieces I found were small but bring your gads and bars and picks cause the source seems to be still up there - just imbedded in solid rock.
Here's a couple samples from this site:
(working on this one and should have it finished by end of day - will post)
From here we drove past PB hill and down to where there is a parking spot surrounded by the green agate bearing hills. Here Scott rested while Ron (akaBob) and Jean and I went to a place I call Flattop HIll. A few years ago Ron and I found this spot and thought it relatively unscarred. Small to medium agate nodules littered the top - basically almost half of all small rocks on the hilltop were agate nodules. I've been there 4-5 times in the last few years (great for specimens for kids) so many of the bigger nodules are gone, but there are many many left. Inside the nodules can be (from most common to least) waterline agate, fortification agate, sagenite sprays (watch as many are not fully agatized), and pseudomorphs. White dominates with some blue.
Simple example:
Many of the remaining larger pieces are broken, but halves are still good to work with:
From here I led the group down the wrong road (which led to my less than favorite photo of me being taken - less than flattering of a more than overweight individual. I asked for a light filter and soft lens, but Scott said he forgot to bring those. Oh well.
I got my bearings and we finally went down one last road, where after a little probing of the hillsides, we came to a ridge crisscrossed with seam again. My largest nodule of the day come from here:
I also found a chip of a sagenite chunk of rock on the way to that last stop (can't find it now - will photograph it when I do - which made me want to scour the hillside but everyone was ready to move forward).
The seams were not the thickest, but their colors included greens, blues, reds, purples, and pinks. With some hiking, thicker seams were spotted, but by then we had to haul ourselves out to the highway with an hour or so of light remaining. I grabbed a bag of tumbling material.
And that was the day...... Man am I already to go back and am thinking of hitting the N Cady's during christmas break. Ron won't be availabe this time, so maybe I might find a couple others to accompany me.
Have fun everyone,
Lowell