Post by lapidopterix on Dec 5, 2008 1:59:24 GMT -5
I went to Sonora, California for Thanksgiving, and spent a few days rockhounding. I have pictures of the trip but not the rocks I found because I lost my camera (again) right before the end of the trip.
First day trip was into a canyon near Columbia State Park. Lots of mining in the area from the 1850's to present day. Didn't find a lot but I got some grey and white quartz, Mariposite (small chunks in road gravel), and black and white banded limestone.
The top of the canyon
Old fire lookout tower now shot full of holes and missing the base of one leg.
Creek down in the canyon.
No Mining
A couple days later we went to Moaning Cavern.
Me and Suzy
100' tall stairs I carried Suzy up and down.
The reservoirs are all really low. We went to Melones to fish and look for crystals. Lots of quartz is exposed all over the lake. I found a decent quartz point and a few small plates of crystals. We also caught four trout.
My dad is a gravedigger and has given me a lot of rocks he finds digging graves. There is one cemetery he digs at that has huge amounts of jasper and jasp\agate. I decided to go check it out and see if I could find anything that was off the cemetery property or that could be removed inconspicuously.
Old graves
Two children (an almost 1 year old boy and a 10 year old girl) had graves covered with crystals.
There was a lot of jasper poking up out of the ground. There was also boulders of jasper mixed with the host rock sticking out of the road cut near the cemetery. The pieces pictured below are about 10 feet from the chapel, right in a walkway. I picked up a few chunks plus I got about 100 pounds from my dad.
First day trip was into a canyon near Columbia State Park. Lots of mining in the area from the 1850's to present day. Didn't find a lot but I got some grey and white quartz, Mariposite (small chunks in road gravel), and black and white banded limestone.
The top of the canyon
Old fire lookout tower now shot full of holes and missing the base of one leg.
Creek down in the canyon.
No Mining
A couple days later we went to Moaning Cavern.
Me and Suzy
100' tall stairs I carried Suzy up and down.
The reservoirs are all really low. We went to Melones to fish and look for crystals. Lots of quartz is exposed all over the lake. I found a decent quartz point and a few small plates of crystals. We also caught four trout.
My dad is a gravedigger and has given me a lot of rocks he finds digging graves. There is one cemetery he digs at that has huge amounts of jasper and jasp\agate. I decided to go check it out and see if I could find anything that was off the cemetery property or that could be removed inconspicuously.
Old graves
Two children (an almost 1 year old boy and a 10 year old girl) had graves covered with crystals.
There was a lot of jasper poking up out of the ground. There was also boulders of jasper mixed with the host rock sticking out of the road cut near the cemetery. The pieces pictured below are about 10 feet from the chapel, right in a walkway. I picked up a few chunks plus I got about 100 pounds from my dad.