jamesp favorites-Rio Grande #2

[jamesp]

Oct 29, 2016 22:30:06 GMT -5 meviva said:

Wow!! Loving all of them. Keep em coming.

Falling asleep Andrea.

[jamesp]

Late day sun messed the red up in this blinding jasper

[barclay]

That's it! I can't take it anymore! I am moving to Texas Too many damn cool rocks

[jamesp]

Couple of moss/plumes. 60 - 80 pounds of these a day. About all classic biscuit shape.
Prettiest are 2-5 inches.
Small but tested and tried. They made the trip. Try to window small as possible. Best to window, lots of counterfeits.

[jamesp]

Oct 29, 2016 22:37:53 GMT -5 barclay said:

That's it! I can't take it anymore! I am moving to Texas Too many damn cool rocks

Been filling two 5 gallon buckets a day of just the little high grade biscuits.
Big not necessarily better. Most have zero junk attached. No two the same.
Hispanic community here has no interest in picking these agates up.

[jamesp]

Check out lower right hand corner of 8 pounder @shotgunner

[jamesp]

Meet these guys often

Right side = north bound side




Not totally sociable

[captbob]

Dang, I went to that McDonald's one morning. Even went inside as drive thru was long. Never considered hounding the freakin' landscaping!

jamesp would probably find nice rocks in a kitty litter box!

[jamesp]

Sabre52, Dillon on the cause of some of the black.

"The oyster bed layers are the indication of the sea overlaying that area, millions of years ago and the adobe soil is from weathered oyster shell. The black skin, on at least some of the rocks, usually in a layer right on top of the oyster bed layer is an indication of the kelp or other seaweed dying and manganese coating from the bacterial action on the dead seaweed or kelp. It happens all of the World too. Sometimes the black petrified wood is just junk and the heft and smoothness or shine on the surface can be a good indication it contains a higher amount of silica and will be a better quality. I call those, UBR's, or "ugly black rocks" and they can be very colorful inside. "

[jamesp]

Oct 29, 2016 22:56:31 GMT -5 captbob said:

Dang, I went to that McDonald's one morning. Even went inside as drive thru was long. Never considered hounding the freakin' landscaping!

jamesp would probably find nice rocks in a kitty litter box!

Must have an eighth acre a foot deep in those cobbles. El primo river caliche gravel.
Tomorrow going to see if I can give manager a little boot to collect it.
The kids just got out the school bus and I had to avoid pediphilic suspicions(camera in hand looking at gravel...).
Lots of those gravels used, large parking, drive ways etc.

Ate at that Holiday Restaurant tonight. Owners man friend taking me to his ranch in morning. About 15 miles north of town close to Rio. Above lake.
All ya got to do is give the owner lady some tumbles and you will have 3 ranchers wanting to know where they came from. (I think she is ripe for the plucking and suitors in line). Tumbles rule.

[jamesp]

scissor tail fly catcher-seen it here. Talk about a fast bird.

[jamesp]

Pretty sure I saw the blue spiny lizard

[Jugglerguy]

This sure is a fun trip. Are you ever going back to Georgia?

[jamesp]

Oct 30, 2016 7:25:28 GMT -5 Jugglerguy said:

This sure is a fun trip. Are you ever going back to Georgia?

You should make a trip down here sometime Rob. Lot's of easy picking between the lakeshore and the gravel roads and their easements.
People here invite visitors. Many will let you hunt on their ranch. They find it amusing that you want to pick up their rocks.
Wife said to stay longer as the trip is a long one.

[Sabre52]

Very cool parking lot finds James. I know of at least four places in town where the landscaping contains the old upper layer Rio gravel that is rich with agate. Unfortunately, every time I ask to pick out a few I get turned down, even by my butcher shop. I guess I must not be purdy enough or sumpthin. Most frustrating of all is the motel we stayed in during our Texas move. They had a huge pile of agate rich gravel in their parking lot but in that case, I'da have to collect it, move it to Commifornia, than back here again. Missed my chance on that one....Mel

[jamesp]

Oct 29, 2016 21:45:29 GMT -5 amygdule said:

Thank you for the trip.

It was more exciting than
getting washed off the rocks
By rogue waves
And pesky little Agates.

Limiting my collecting to smaller stuff. If it is over 3-4 pounds it gets left behind unless it is spectacular.
Looking to max out variety and the smaller stuff is about all quality.

[jamesp]

Oct 30, 2016 8:01:44 GMT -5 Sabre52 said:

Very cool parking lot finds James. I know of at least four places in town where the landscaping contains the old upper layer Rio gravel that is rich with agate. Unfortunately, every time I ask to pick out a few I get turned down, even by my butcher shop. I guess I must not be purdy enough or sumpthin. Most frustrating of all is the motel we stayed in during our Texas move. They had a huge pile of agate rich gravel in their parking lot but in that case, I'da have to collect it, move it to Commifornia, than back here again. Missed my chance on that one....Mel

There is an industrial trucking lot that must be 2 acres #1 and #2 stone. Looks like four-five 5 gallon buckets.
You could bring buckets of junk and replace them....then they would be scared of you.

Looking at some of the larger pretty's I found earlier. They are woods or palms.
The woods and palms get attacked by the craziest assortments of replacements and fills.
like that 8 pounder, the edges say 100% palm, the orbs say different.
Much much wood where bleaching on surface tells you it is wood with great certainty, open it up and you say no way.
There is more, the mud stained rocks can be ID'ed by their shapes. Wood/palm has a shape way different than the mass chert ovoids.
Can pick such shapes at 80-90% certainty that it is wood. Lots and lots of wood.
However the well silicified stuff is only 5% requiring a lot of windowing. Mud coated or not.
The wood hard to read. I can collect 6 buckets grade A moss/jasper to one bucket grade A-B-C wood.
Hate to say, the jaspers about my favorite as they are so bizarre.
captbob disturbed about his 2 day learning curve. I have been here before and got lots of field hours reading this stuff.
The cherts and basalts will really trick you. Lot of the chert you would bet $100 it is a plume/moss because it bleaches it's plume formations.
Am amazed at how this place is not picked over. Too many obvious rocks that any amateur would have snatched up sitting out in the open.

[1dave]

All of this kind of material looks like what we find in a hundred mile diameter from "Pipe line Canyon" in Utah. It appears to be agatized Welded Ash Flow Tuff - from eruptions like Mt. St. Helens.
Much the same material is found in many places in New Mexico. A great Book :

geoinfo.nmt.edu/publications/nmgs/special/9/

[Fossilman]

SCORE!!!! The McDonald's in Sidney,MT-has a nice landscape gravel bed too.. Have found Montana agates and petwood in their piles!!!

[jamesp]

You posted similar on a field trip you made in Utah some time back 1dave. Lots of reds and yellows.
Was always curious how far this Rio stuff came from. Possibly New Mexico. Probably the entire Rio Grande catchment.

A la bring them all to south Texas via Rio Grande so we can collect a hodge podge of goulash LOL.
Looks like origin as far north as S. Colorado. Drains some serious agate fields.

Don't discount the agate rich slopes of Mexico and the 'illegal to collect' Big Bend of Texas.
Big Bend looks like 50 Woodward ranches, lots of volcanic formations and shafts.
Shame you can not pick up rocks there. I was amazed at the agate in those mountains.



Big Bend rugged agate bearing country