The Rockhound Eye

[kyoti]

I've noticed from hounding in my area and watching videos on YouTube with people hounding in their areas, that we seem to develop an eye for spotting the interesting things in our areas. No matter how obscure they are, our eye goes right to them.
My non-hounding friends just scratch their heads at my ability to pluck Treasures right out of the dirt.
Here is what they see.



Here's what I see.


[
Here they are all cleaned up.



[Travertine, flinty, agatey goodness! I even found a piece of petrified wood sticking up out of the ground in the forest yesterday. I found it ironic.

I confess, when I watch videos about the Great Lakes and Northwestern rockhounding, I always look for the wrong things. I never see the sneaky agates that the locals pick right out.

So what does your rockhounding eye watch for in your area? What's your favorite? Mine is my surprise chert. (Which I have since found out is actually Travertine. oops!)

[quartzilla]

Shapes more than anything. I’m in an igneous area with most of the stuff I find being more crystal oriented so my eyes are kinda trained for shapes and edges. Second would be colors and / or things that looks out of place with the surroundings. The out of place thing works great as simply a color of mud in a crack has led me to find the smoky quartz that were in a small pocket that the cracks eventually opened into.

[RWA3006]

I like to hunt for rocks more than cutting and polishing them, so this is one of my favorite things. Depending where I'm hunting I've noticed I kinda program my eye for whatever species is in the area and then I systematically cover an imaginary grid so I don't miss anything.

I've also noticed that the light in the morning is more favorable to find treasure. Even when the sun is still up in late afternoon the light is not near as advantageous.

Whenever I hit a hot spot where the target rock is abundant I can get into a sensory overload and I'm not as efficient in deciding which ones to keep. I have to define a small area and search it without getting distracted by all the other goodies over yonder.

[rockpickerforever]

Jul 26, 2020 17:19:20 GMT -5 RWA3006 said:

I like to hunt for rocks more than cutting and polishing them, so this is one of my favorite things. Depending where I'm hunting I've noticed I kinda program my eye for whatever species is in the area and then I systematically cover an imaginary grid so I don't miss anything.

I've also noticed that the light in the morning is more favorable to find treasure. Even when the sun is still up in late afternoon the light is not near as advantageous.

Whenever I hit a hot spot where the target rock is abundant I can get into a sensory overload and I'm not as efficient in deciding which ones to keep. I have to define a small area and search it without getting distracted by all the other goodies over yonder.

This:

"Whenever I hit a hot spot where the target rock is abundant I can get into a sensory overload and I'm not as efficient in deciding which ones to keep."


Which means much more rock comes home with us than intended.

Both mrrockpickerforever and I have discerning eyes. We find the oddest stuff, anything that sticks out.  We are both good at spotting fossils, from shells, corals/bryozoans, bones, stromatolites, and petwood to strange limbcasts and oddly shaped agates. A few years back, I found a fish fossil in agate found on the RTH field trip to Brenda AZ during the annual pilgrimage to Quartzsite. Don't ask me how that works, but more than a few RTHlings were with us when it was found.

[RWA3006]

[/u][/b]Which means much more rock comes home with us than intended.


Exactly. Earlier in my rock hounding adventures I picked up stuff I wouldn't take now days. Years later when I sorted it I made reject piles and whenever I returned to wherever they came from I scattered them back to their origins. Seemed appropriate.

Now days I'm very picky about what I'll take. It makes for less mess at my house and leaves plenty for others to find.

[rockpickerforever]

 You got that right, Randy!

[kyoti]

I know what you mean about overload. Some days it seems like all the cool things showed up at the same time. I'm limited to what I can pack out. I have to be able to carry it by bike or foot for several miles back to the car. When I find a beautiful piece, I'll carry it out of the creeks to higher ground. The storms here will wash most everything away if you don't pick it. Whole sections of riverbank and trees get ripped away.

I agree about morning light. The shadows and reflections help me to spot crystal as well. I like your idea RWA3006 . I'll probably start bringing back my duds and setting them free too. Do you all have a favorite local stone? Mine's probably the Travertine or the occasional moss agate I find.

[RWA3006]

Jul 27, 2020 18:36:55 GMT -5 kyoti said:

Do you all have a favorite local stone?

I don't have a favorite "local" stone because I'm not too interested in anything within 45 minutes away. However I've gone through phases in my rock collecting years but seem to be settling down and specializing or focusing on one or two species. Each "phase" which is code for "obsession" usually lasted several years. It's a fine and pleasant affliction.

[rmf]

I found a Mosasaur vert because the slight part exposed to the surface looked similar in appearance to the sawed bone in T-bone steak. I sometimes get a chance to look for lake superior agates and it takes a while to retrain your eye what to look for but once you find one your brain says " Oh I remember that now ".

[pauls]

The rockhound eye is a strange thing. You are scraping around not finding a thing, then you will find one, you look closely at it, turn it over in your hand, put it in your bag and look back at the ground, suddenly the ground is covered in your target rocks. It's not permanent either, next year when you come back you need to go through the same thing again before finding anything.

[kyoti]

That's so true pauls. Feast or famine sometimes. I seem to find more things when I'm just strolling around and not looking for anything particular.