Post by lapidopterix on Mar 18, 2008 17:39:05 GMT -5
I was in Utah last week and got to spend Wednesday out in the desert looking for rocks. I was going to go to Topaz and Drum mountains but this old rockhound I met talked me into going to some spots on the San Rafael Swell in central Utah.
First place we went was along a creek.
The area is very flat and the creek is down in this 10' deep gully. There are seabed fossils in slate and shale all around and pieces of agate that have washed down the stream. There wasn't much water but there was a lot of slick sticky mud.
Seabed fossil
Big chunk of white agate
I found a cave that had been dug out of the bank. Getting close to it I heard something moving inside and I noticed tracks going in and out of it. I did not investigate further.
Cave
Track
Next place we went had a bunch of round boulders that looked like concretions sticking out of a cliff face. Part of the cliff made a nice shelter and looked like it had been used as a cache by Indians sometime in the past, there were little corncobs all over the place. The concretions ranged from fist to car size. Some of the concretions had fallen out and shattered. The pieces were covered with weird brown crystals.
Cache/shelter
Concretions
Inside concretion
The last area we went to had crazy balanced rocks and other cool erosion effects as well as lots of sediment layers and colors. I found seam agate, agate nodules, and agate and jasper pebbles. I also found what I thought was some cool green and purple jasper and what I'm fairly certain is a gastrolith (dinosaur gizzard stone).
Balancing rock
I spent about an hour breaking out chunks of this "jasper"
When I washed my rocks the next day there was a crackling noise and the "jasper" disintegrated.
I probably should have checked the hardness before I spent so much time on it.
Seam agate
Purple nodules
The gastrolith is very highly polished (much more than the creek tumbled rocks that were around) and seems to match other gastroliths found in the area.
Here's everything I found
Close ups of random/tumbling stuff
I had a blast and found some decent stuff, hopefully I'll get out there again sometime.
First place we went was along a creek.
The area is very flat and the creek is down in this 10' deep gully. There are seabed fossils in slate and shale all around and pieces of agate that have washed down the stream. There wasn't much water but there was a lot of slick sticky mud.
Seabed fossil
Big chunk of white agate
I found a cave that had been dug out of the bank. Getting close to it I heard something moving inside and I noticed tracks going in and out of it. I did not investigate further.
Cave
Track
Next place we went had a bunch of round boulders that looked like concretions sticking out of a cliff face. Part of the cliff made a nice shelter and looked like it had been used as a cache by Indians sometime in the past, there were little corncobs all over the place. The concretions ranged from fist to car size. Some of the concretions had fallen out and shattered. The pieces were covered with weird brown crystals.
Cache/shelter
Concretions
Inside concretion
The last area we went to had crazy balanced rocks and other cool erosion effects as well as lots of sediment layers and colors. I found seam agate, agate nodules, and agate and jasper pebbles. I also found what I thought was some cool green and purple jasper and what I'm fairly certain is a gastrolith (dinosaur gizzard stone).
Balancing rock
I spent about an hour breaking out chunks of this "jasper"
When I washed my rocks the next day there was a crackling noise and the "jasper" disintegrated.
I probably should have checked the hardness before I spent so much time on it.
Seam agate
Purple nodules
The gastrolith is very highly polished (much more than the creek tumbled rocks that were around) and seems to match other gastroliths found in the area.
Here's everything I found
Close ups of random/tumbling stuff
I had a blast and found some decent stuff, hopefully I'll get out there again sometime.