Quick Carnelian from New Mexico
Jun 9, 2015 3:16:19 GMT -5
DirtCleaner, snowmom, and 1 more like this
Post by herchenx on Jun 9, 2015 3:16:19 GMT -5
I've been on the road for work a lot this year. Twice now I've rented a car and driven instead of flying. The first time was to Vegas, but I didn't get to do any hounding.
Back in March, I drove to Tucson from North East Colorado. It can be done in one 14-hour shot, but I broke it up into 2 days so I could see more country and get an overnight at the hot springs.
I didn't get any photos most of the way up to the hot springs the first morning, it is a beautiful drive though.
The second day I headed south toward New Mexico. Here is the southern end of the West side of the Sangre De Cristos in the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado.
crossing the border
I made it all the way down to Hatch (home of the Hatch Chili Peppers, but I didn't connect the dots and didn't have cash for any of the roadside vendors and didn't want to stop and shop) - then headed West. There are large solar arrays West of Hatch
and wind farms
We have monster wind farms up across the state line in Wyoming, this farm was pretty small in comparison but it was the only one I saw on the drive.
I was getting really close to the Arizona state line and stopped to catch the sunset, assuming some of the mountains in the distance are in Mexico
Arizona. There was border patrol everywhere along I 10 through here
I can't show photos of the solar site I worked on, it was government and near an Air Force Base, with other top secret stuff around.
But I can show photos of dinner at the Silver Saddle in Tucson. Yum.
And the sunsets, they are consistently awesome there
So on the way home after a week of steak and sunsets I was ready to rock. We were on-site from before dawn until after sunset every day, I didn't have time to do any rocking other than finding some small odds and ends onsite.
I thought about hounding while I was still south, but I had a lot of ground to cover, so I didn't stop until I'd reached Mama's Minerals in Albequerque.
It was big, but I was disappointed in the selection. There was a mess up at the register and they didn't put a large, beautiful piece of Ricolite Serpentine in my bag before they stapled it shut. I didn't open the bag until I got home, found it missing, called them, and they said they'd send it. It took over a week and once it arrived it was a plain, frankly ugly piece of greenish stuff and I was very disappointed.
They seem like OK people, but I don't think I'll go back.
I drove straight through, trying to make it back to the hot springs for one night if it worked out. The snow that had covered the ground on the way down had melted a lot, so I got off the main highway to explore a little. I followed the Gem Trails book to 2 sites that weren't far from the main road.
I'm getting more stable with my knee after having surgery in December, but I still try to take it easy and there are still times when I feel it start to give, so I stayed close to the road and avoided any climbing around.
This photo doesn't to the first stop justice. These 2 large obvious pegmatites are right along the road, and look like someone ground up Vegas and sprayed it all over the side of the hill. So much pink feldspar and tons of sparkly mica.
again, my camera flattened out the color, this was all bright pink and the mica was crazy sparkly
I took a chunk from what was lying on the ground, and some flakes of mica, and headed to another nearby location that supposedly had carnelian.
The spot is very nondescript
Interestingly, when I'd come down the weekend before, the fields in Southern Colorado had large flocks of migrating Sandhill Cranes. While I was in the mountains in New Mexico, not far from Colorado, I could hear the cranes all over in the hills. I didn't see any so maybe they were roosting, but it was crazy to hear them out in the mountains in the middle of nowhere.
Again, my phone seems to be killing the color, but I started finding carnelian just like the book said, some banded.
lots of variety in the volcanic stone on the ground. A lot looked like "Lava Rock" you'd get at the store for your gas fireplace, but some was obsviously rhyolite (I found some banded rhyolite in the ground) and some had a crystal pattern to it, and was denser than the lava rock stuff. I found a little pumice too, all in the same place.
the rhyolite
The crystally stuff, it almost looked like there were holes that garnets had been in, but I didn't find any garnets.
More carnelian
Ths carnelian looked like a gross blister on the rock.
some banding
I didn't get any more photos from this trip, but it was good to be able to get out on my own, and feel a little more stable with my knee, and actually find some rocks!
Back in March, I drove to Tucson from North East Colorado. It can be done in one 14-hour shot, but I broke it up into 2 days so I could see more country and get an overnight at the hot springs.
I didn't get any photos most of the way up to the hot springs the first morning, it is a beautiful drive though.
The second day I headed south toward New Mexico. Here is the southern end of the West side of the Sangre De Cristos in the San Luis Valley in Southern Colorado.
crossing the border
I made it all the way down to Hatch (home of the Hatch Chili Peppers, but I didn't connect the dots and didn't have cash for any of the roadside vendors and didn't want to stop and shop) - then headed West. There are large solar arrays West of Hatch
and wind farms
We have monster wind farms up across the state line in Wyoming, this farm was pretty small in comparison but it was the only one I saw on the drive.
I was getting really close to the Arizona state line and stopped to catch the sunset, assuming some of the mountains in the distance are in Mexico
Arizona. There was border patrol everywhere along I 10 through here
I can't show photos of the solar site I worked on, it was government and near an Air Force Base, with other top secret stuff around.
But I can show photos of dinner at the Silver Saddle in Tucson. Yum.
And the sunsets, they are consistently awesome there
So on the way home after a week of steak and sunsets I was ready to rock. We were on-site from before dawn until after sunset every day, I didn't have time to do any rocking other than finding some small odds and ends onsite.
I thought about hounding while I was still south, but I had a lot of ground to cover, so I didn't stop until I'd reached Mama's Minerals in Albequerque.
It was big, but I was disappointed in the selection. There was a mess up at the register and they didn't put a large, beautiful piece of Ricolite Serpentine in my bag before they stapled it shut. I didn't open the bag until I got home, found it missing, called them, and they said they'd send it. It took over a week and once it arrived it was a plain, frankly ugly piece of greenish stuff and I was very disappointed.
They seem like OK people, but I don't think I'll go back.
I drove straight through, trying to make it back to the hot springs for one night if it worked out. The snow that had covered the ground on the way down had melted a lot, so I got off the main highway to explore a little. I followed the Gem Trails book to 2 sites that weren't far from the main road.
I'm getting more stable with my knee after having surgery in December, but I still try to take it easy and there are still times when I feel it start to give, so I stayed close to the road and avoided any climbing around.
This photo doesn't to the first stop justice. These 2 large obvious pegmatites are right along the road, and look like someone ground up Vegas and sprayed it all over the side of the hill. So much pink feldspar and tons of sparkly mica.
again, my camera flattened out the color, this was all bright pink and the mica was crazy sparkly
I took a chunk from what was lying on the ground, and some flakes of mica, and headed to another nearby location that supposedly had carnelian.
The spot is very nondescript
Interestingly, when I'd come down the weekend before, the fields in Southern Colorado had large flocks of migrating Sandhill Cranes. While I was in the mountains in New Mexico, not far from Colorado, I could hear the cranes all over in the hills. I didn't see any so maybe they were roosting, but it was crazy to hear them out in the mountains in the middle of nowhere.
Again, my phone seems to be killing the color, but I started finding carnelian just like the book said, some banded.
lots of variety in the volcanic stone on the ground. A lot looked like "Lava Rock" you'd get at the store for your gas fireplace, but some was obsviously rhyolite (I found some banded rhyolite in the ground) and some had a crystal pattern to it, and was denser than the lava rock stuff. I found a little pumice too, all in the same place.
the rhyolite
The crystally stuff, it almost looked like there were holes that garnets had been in, but I didn't find any garnets.
More carnelian
Ths carnelian looked like a gross blister on the rock.
some banding
I didn't get any more photos from this trip, but it was good to be able to get out on my own, and feel a little more stable with my knee, and actually find some rocks!