bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 418
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Post by bcrockhound on Jul 9, 2014 1:33:23 GMT -5
Hello, Today my girlfriend and I took her dogs to a favourite local beach for some kayaking. It is the hottest it gets around these parts and we needed to cool off. But as soon as we got down to the beach, she saw dallasite and the rockhounding began. Dallasite is a local jasper on Vancouver Island beaches and we were also after flowerstone. My girlfriend had yet to find some herself and today would solve that problem. The beach is accessed through a dead-end road and steep short hike, so it rarely has anyone on it. We love the privacy of it, and it is just littered with pretty rocks. In just about an hour of hounding before kayaking, we collected several great pieces of flowerstone and dozens of dallasite chunks. Helper. He learned to overcome his fears and swim today. A look into the water here. This rock is all over the beach and it varies in shades of green and red and whatnot. I'd love to know what it is. Some of our haul. Then we figured out hounding by means of drifting in a kayak was much more relaxing. Flowerstone The dogs swam, chased a deer, and we got rocks. Then we went to sushi to cap off a great day. Thanks for reading and have a great day or night, please.
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Post by Jugglerguy on Jul 9, 2014 10:06:51 GMT -5
That's a beautiful beach. It makes me excited to get up to Lake Superior. Thanks for the pictures of your relaxing day.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,169
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Post by jamesp on Jul 9, 2014 12:41:33 GMT -5
Beautiful spot on earth too. Best of all worlds. thanks for sharing.
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alan
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since December 2013
Posts: 111
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Post by alan on Jul 9, 2014 15:03:36 GMT -5
I saw some beautiful jaspers on the beach in Sidi Ifni Morocco... some boulder size... couldnt bring them back though and my best hand specimen got left behind at my last hotel stop...
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bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 418
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Post by bcrockhound on Jul 9, 2014 16:52:44 GMT -5
Thanks for looking. Here's some of the flowerstone we found and today's chicken and quail eggs.
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herchenx
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2012
Posts: 3,360
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Post by herchenx on Jul 9, 2014 19:00:37 GMT -5
Very cool looking place, have you seen if that flowerstone tumbles or is it porous?
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bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 418
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Post by bcrockhound on Jul 10, 2014 0:47:31 GMT -5
Very cool looking place, have you seen if that flowerstone tumbles or is it porous? I have just put my first few in my tumblers and am waiting to see how it goes. It comes in many varieties. Some is too brittle to work with, others are dull when wet but some look hard and good to work, and I've seen it sold for lapidary purposes.
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Post by iant on Jul 10, 2014 1:25:38 GMT -5
Thanks for showing us around, looks a little like one of my favourite spots for collecting over here! Hope your rocks shine up nicely!
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Post by Toad on Jul 10, 2014 16:19:23 GMT -5
Sounds like a great day. Thanks for the pics.
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bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 418
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Post by bcrockhound on Jul 11, 2014 3:09:36 GMT -5
Thanks! I went out on my own today and didn't do so well. I think my girlfriend is lucky. I don't want to flood the forum with a continuous stream of similar pictures but I will on my blog at www.bcrockhound.com if you're interested. Some shots from today. Does this look like anything? I've found a few rocks that seem to look like this, hard to explain - a series of bumps running down either side inside a host material - but I'm wondering if it looks like any sort of fossil to anyone. Do rocks just tend to break/form in very similar ways? Finally, is this just a warped brick? There were a lot of ocean-smoothed bricks in the area but a few pieces looked quite curvy and weird.
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Post by snowmom on Jul 11, 2014 8:37:58 GMT -5
you have some marvelous conglomerates and breccias in that bucket, too. How wonderful to be able to spend time in such beauty and make such great finds as well... gonna go look at that blog!
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on Jul 11, 2014 10:45:47 GMT -5
The second to last photo looks like it *could* be a variolite. Variolites are an altered basalt that forms into an orbicular pattern. I've seen them in many colors/grades over here on the Olympic Peninsula. Your last photo looks very similar to our common chert. It's a brick red mass, that is usually too soft and too fractured for me to work with. I love seeing your collecting trip photos! It's really neat to see the similarities and differences in rocks from across the water. Here is a black/grey variolite I found on a beach facing your island:
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bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 418
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Post by bcrockhound on Jul 11, 2014 12:36:53 GMT -5
Nice rock! I have found the odd one that looks like yours and have been fascinated with those. Are fossilized clams/oysters common? I feel like I find a lot of rocks that look like they were once clams, but I could be way off. I'd still love to see what your beach jade looks like!
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Good Earth
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since November 2010
Posts: 155
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Post by Good Earth on Jul 11, 2014 14:09:03 GMT -5
Starting a new topic for Puget Sound beach jades now.
You ever cross the water to Port Angeles? Would love to host ya for a rock hounding trip!
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bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
Member since June 2014
Posts: 418
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Post by bcrockhound on Jul 12, 2014 16:36:42 GMT -5
Hey all, Same beach, another look at low tide. The beach...just looking at this is hard for me today, I got too much sun. After I did this quick rockhound look my girlfriend and I took the dogs kayaking. We made one of the dogs swim all the way out to an island in the ocean, then around it, then back. He is a trooper and earned his fresh duck dinner. Dallasite Flowerstone Any idea what this is? It's the same stuff that is green/red banded/conglomerate all over the beach. Some bits get translucent. bcrockhound.com/2014/07/12/low-tide-rockhounding-at-my-favourite-beach/Edit: Hey Good, thanks for the offer! Never have yet but badly want more trips to the USA. I love you guys from Canada.
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