Post by catmandewe on Apr 26, 2010 1:12:53 GMT -5
This weekend Chris and I along with Jason (1rockhound) and his son Jacob went to Nevada to look at some equipment and some rocks for sale.
We wanted to make a few side trips and check out some new areas while we were on the way there and back. It was a 900 mile round trip, so we had to weed down the areas we wanted to visit to a manageable number.
We settled on Rome, OR for snake skin agates, and Jordan Valley, OR area for jasper, and any rock shops we saw along the way.
I made sure to throw in my camera to get some pictures of the trip.
On the way down we pretty much kept to the road and stopped occasionally to check out the areas close to the highway. We wanted to get to where we were going before dark, so we didn't really do any rockhounding on the way down there. We did find an old rock shop on the way down with rocks all over the place, an open sign, a door wide open, and no one around. We looked around for about an hour then decided we would stop in on the way home and see if anyone was around. They had some nice Denio agate and some mossy stuff I wanted to see if I could get some pieces of.
We finally arrived at out destination and looked over some equipment and some rocks. I bought an old 24" industrial flat lap and got lots of saw parts, since I have lots of saws that are needing parts here and there.
Chris got a box of some nice rock that she picked out. Jason got a bunch of Brazilians and Carnelians and a few other assorted rocks, and Jacob got a whole collander full of rocks.
We loaded all the stuff in and headed for a motel for the night, we found one with a pool so we were able to get some soaking in for the night.
We left early this morning headed for home.
Our first stop was the rockshop we had visited the day before, and the neighbor across the street told me where the owners lived, so I went and banged on the door. The missus came out and told us to go look around and she would be over shortly. She sold me a nice big mossy rock to take home for the big saw and gave us directions to a local place to go rock hounding. Go a few miles down the dead-end road and take a right at the cattle guard, then head up into the hills and take some of the side roads, look around and there should be stuff everywhere! We were all excited and thought this was something we sure couldn't pass up.
We followed her directions and where we were to turn was a big sign that said
---------> Disaster Peak
Well we had all heard of this area, but had never known where it was, so this was an unexpected surprise. We took a few side roads, and ended up way up on top of a ridge and was out looking, then I remembered that I had brought a camera, so I went back to the pickup and snapped off a few quick shots.
My lovely wife, Chris showing off the view
Jason and Jacob headed up to see what was up there
Jacob hamming it up for the camera
We left there and went down the road a ways and could see a very large mine in the distance. Our local guide had told us there were mines out here and that none of them were open at the time, so the tailings were a good place to find stuff, sooooo we headed for the mine.
We found lots of cool stuff, and there was lots of cool equipment still there, and I headed back to the truck to get the camera, on the way I found a rock about 60 lbs that was just beggin for a ride, so I lugged it back to the truck and completely forgot the camera.
We thought we better get on the road cause there were some snakeskins calling our name, so we headed for Rome. We had some GPS co-ordinates from the Ore-rockon CD so we plugged them in and went looking. The first one we had took us down a long bumpy dusty road, through several gates, and finally to a cliff overlooking a beautiful stream, but our destination still a mile away on top of the cliff on the other side of the stream. I headed back to the pickup to get the camera and got side tracked picking up carnelian flakes and forgot to get the camera. While we were there we looked around for quite a while and I found one good snakeskin, while Jason found a few, but we found mostly little carnelian chunks. Well, no problem, we had 2 more coordinates, so we headed to the next one. It turned out to be someone's trailer house on top of a bluff, we looked around close by, but no snakeskins, so we decided to bag the third coordinate and head on for Jordan Valley.
We went up into the hills by Jordan Valley following a map that had been given to us by a fellow rockhound who said he had found some good stuff there. We found a pretty good spot with some really cool colored jasper with lots of different colors and some good scenery pieces, also.
I headed back to the pickup to get the camera and ended up rolling a large boulder down to the pickup, and guess what? I forgot the camera again.
It was getting late and we needed to get Jacob home before his bed time, so we headed down the road for home.
Had a blast and saw a lot of new country today, I am truly blessed!
I will try to remember to get more pics next time, sorry, I know the narration is just not the same as the pics.
Thanks for lookin......................Tony
We wanted to make a few side trips and check out some new areas while we were on the way there and back. It was a 900 mile round trip, so we had to weed down the areas we wanted to visit to a manageable number.
We settled on Rome, OR for snake skin agates, and Jordan Valley, OR area for jasper, and any rock shops we saw along the way.
I made sure to throw in my camera to get some pictures of the trip.
On the way down we pretty much kept to the road and stopped occasionally to check out the areas close to the highway. We wanted to get to where we were going before dark, so we didn't really do any rockhounding on the way down there. We did find an old rock shop on the way down with rocks all over the place, an open sign, a door wide open, and no one around. We looked around for about an hour then decided we would stop in on the way home and see if anyone was around. They had some nice Denio agate and some mossy stuff I wanted to see if I could get some pieces of.
We finally arrived at out destination and looked over some equipment and some rocks. I bought an old 24" industrial flat lap and got lots of saw parts, since I have lots of saws that are needing parts here and there.
Chris got a box of some nice rock that she picked out. Jason got a bunch of Brazilians and Carnelians and a few other assorted rocks, and Jacob got a whole collander full of rocks.
We loaded all the stuff in and headed for a motel for the night, we found one with a pool so we were able to get some soaking in for the night.
We left early this morning headed for home.
Our first stop was the rockshop we had visited the day before, and the neighbor across the street told me where the owners lived, so I went and banged on the door. The missus came out and told us to go look around and she would be over shortly. She sold me a nice big mossy rock to take home for the big saw and gave us directions to a local place to go rock hounding. Go a few miles down the dead-end road and take a right at the cattle guard, then head up into the hills and take some of the side roads, look around and there should be stuff everywhere! We were all excited and thought this was something we sure couldn't pass up.
We followed her directions and where we were to turn was a big sign that said
---------> Disaster Peak
Well we had all heard of this area, but had never known where it was, so this was an unexpected surprise. We took a few side roads, and ended up way up on top of a ridge and was out looking, then I remembered that I had brought a camera, so I went back to the pickup and snapped off a few quick shots.
My lovely wife, Chris showing off the view
Jason and Jacob headed up to see what was up there
Jacob hamming it up for the camera
We left there and went down the road a ways and could see a very large mine in the distance. Our local guide had told us there were mines out here and that none of them were open at the time, so the tailings were a good place to find stuff, sooooo we headed for the mine.
We found lots of cool stuff, and there was lots of cool equipment still there, and I headed back to the truck to get the camera, on the way I found a rock about 60 lbs that was just beggin for a ride, so I lugged it back to the truck and completely forgot the camera.
We thought we better get on the road cause there were some snakeskins calling our name, so we headed for Rome. We had some GPS co-ordinates from the Ore-rockon CD so we plugged them in and went looking. The first one we had took us down a long bumpy dusty road, through several gates, and finally to a cliff overlooking a beautiful stream, but our destination still a mile away on top of the cliff on the other side of the stream. I headed back to the pickup to get the camera and got side tracked picking up carnelian flakes and forgot to get the camera. While we were there we looked around for quite a while and I found one good snakeskin, while Jason found a few, but we found mostly little carnelian chunks. Well, no problem, we had 2 more coordinates, so we headed to the next one. It turned out to be someone's trailer house on top of a bluff, we looked around close by, but no snakeskins, so we decided to bag the third coordinate and head on for Jordan Valley.
We went up into the hills by Jordan Valley following a map that had been given to us by a fellow rockhound who said he had found some good stuff there. We found a pretty good spot with some really cool colored jasper with lots of different colors and some good scenery pieces, also.
I headed back to the pickup to get the camera and ended up rolling a large boulder down to the pickup, and guess what? I forgot the camera again.
It was getting late and we needed to get Jacob home before his bed time, so we headed down the road for home.
Had a blast and saw a lot of new country today, I am truly blessed!
I will try to remember to get more pics next time, sorry, I know the narration is just not the same as the pics.
Thanks for lookin......................Tony