Post by catmandewe on Jul 26, 2009 19:46:47 GMT -5
Jason and I went out yesterday, looking for the source of some Owyhee jasper we found a few weeks ago.
The heat here has been pretty hot the past few weeks so we decided to leave really early and quit at noon. We left Jason's house at 4am and drove to the area of the Owyhees where we want to hunt. We were within about 10 miles of there by 7am.
Morning sunrise in the Owyhees
We would hike into a likely spot and walk around looking for float and then try to follow it back up to the source. Here is Jason wandering around picking up float.
We went past the Original Owyhee jasper mine, we just had to stop in and check it out. This is what it looks like now. This is still an active mine so there is no collecting allowed here.
We wanted to check out this ridge where we picked up some stuff a few weeks ago. We parked down below and hiked up to the top to see if we could find a vein or ledge. We found about a 700 pound chunk of Rocky Butte look alike, Jason is knocking a chunk off of it to see if it is a likely candidate for rolling down the hill into the back of the pickup. Sorry to say it didn't pass muster!
Talk about undercutting!!
Alot of the cliffs around here look like this, the softer material underneath erodes out and leaves a shell around it. I hiked up on top of a ridge and was standing on top of one of these that was about 50 feet tall and went back into the cliff about 30 feet, when you walked on it, it sounded hollow, kind of spookey!
Some scenery shots
This canyon could be a wet and wild ride when it rains!
See the slippy slide that dumps you into the canyon on the right?
(The mine tailings you see at the top is the Original Owyhee mine)
An old abandoned mining site
the big chunks are Rocky Butte/Owyhee jasper cross material
Time to head out, we have too many rocks!
We left the rock hunting area at noon, planned on being home by 4 or so, BUT, it took us 4 hours to drive the next 10 miles, there were just too many rocks on or right off the road that we had to stop and check out! We finally hit pavement at 6pm, and still had about 160 miles to go to get home.
On the way home my pickup turned over 300,000 miles, I even got a shot of it!
First piece I put in the saw, really want to find the source of this one!
I found this in the road on the way home
Some material waiting its turn in the saws
Maybe next time we can find the source, but in the mean time we will still be out there having fun!
Thanks for lookin...............Tony
The heat here has been pretty hot the past few weeks so we decided to leave really early and quit at noon. We left Jason's house at 4am and drove to the area of the Owyhees where we want to hunt. We were within about 10 miles of there by 7am.
Morning sunrise in the Owyhees
We would hike into a likely spot and walk around looking for float and then try to follow it back up to the source. Here is Jason wandering around picking up float.
We went past the Original Owyhee jasper mine, we just had to stop in and check it out. This is what it looks like now. This is still an active mine so there is no collecting allowed here.
We wanted to check out this ridge where we picked up some stuff a few weeks ago. We parked down below and hiked up to the top to see if we could find a vein or ledge. We found about a 700 pound chunk of Rocky Butte look alike, Jason is knocking a chunk off of it to see if it is a likely candidate for rolling down the hill into the back of the pickup. Sorry to say it didn't pass muster!
Talk about undercutting!!
Alot of the cliffs around here look like this, the softer material underneath erodes out and leaves a shell around it. I hiked up on top of a ridge and was standing on top of one of these that was about 50 feet tall and went back into the cliff about 30 feet, when you walked on it, it sounded hollow, kind of spookey!
Some scenery shots
This canyon could be a wet and wild ride when it rains!
See the slippy slide that dumps you into the canyon on the right?
(The mine tailings you see at the top is the Original Owyhee mine)
An old abandoned mining site
the big chunks are Rocky Butte/Owyhee jasper cross material
Time to head out, we have too many rocks!
We left the rock hunting area at noon, planned on being home by 4 or so, BUT, it took us 4 hours to drive the next 10 miles, there were just too many rocks on or right off the road that we had to stop and check out! We finally hit pavement at 6pm, and still had about 160 miles to go to get home.
On the way home my pickup turned over 300,000 miles, I even got a shot of it!
First piece I put in the saw, really want to find the source of this one!
I found this in the road on the way home
Some material waiting its turn in the saws
Maybe next time we can find the source, but in the mean time we will still be out there having fun!
Thanks for lookin...............Tony