Post by Bluesky78987 on Jun 4, 2012 23:43:46 GMT -5
So, I met up with my friend John in Vernal, UT over Memorial Day weekend to do photography and go to Dinosaur National Monument. John's not really into rocks all that much, we normally just do photography. It wasn't intended to be a rockhounding trip, and anyways both Utah rockhounding books showed big blank spaces on their maps for the far northeast corner of the state. In other words, I wasn't expecting anything in the way of rocks!
First stop after flying into Salt Lake City was for provisions. First we hit the local State Liquor Store to make sure the necessities were covered:
Then we stopped by the supermarket, where to my utter amazement and joy, they still carried Hostess O's jelly filled donuts!!! Those are my favorite food in the entire world, and they don't carry them anywhere in CA, that I can find anyway. So with great glee I tossed 3 boxes in the shopping cart! No such thing as too many donuts!
On the way to Vernal, which is about a 3 hour drive from SLC, we were just checking out everything when I noticed this crazy looking cemetary. The wind was gusting and tumble weeds were rolling across it, sticks and plastic flower petals flying, dust flying around coating everything! This is the "Ft. Duchesne" cemetary. Check out the crazy grave markers and decorations!
A few miles earlier, we had passed a normal cemetary but I didn't stop, so we stopped and took a pic of it on the way back, just for contrast with the first one. Quite a contrast!
Our first stop was at the Dino Natl Monument Quarry. The Quarry is the big building built over the side of a hill where tons of really huge and cool dino bones are partially excavated, so you can see them (and touch some of them!) laying there like they were when someone found them. That was really really REALLY cool. I kept wanting to ask the ranger if we could slab one of them . . .
Then, in the parking lot outside the visitors center, I noticed that the roadbed gravel they used for the parking lot (it's new, so there's lots of gravel still around the edges of the pavement) was uncommonly fine gravel! In fact, there was jasper and agate in it! Nothing toooo fancy, but fun enough for sure! Since we were in the monument I didn't pick any up (of course). ;-) My appetite for rocks was whetted though, and as soon as we exited the park, the car mysteriously came to a halt in a turnoff with a big roadcut! Clambered around on that and found some decently interesting rocks! They have a jasper there that looks like petrified peanut butter. And one that looks like, I don't know, mint chewing gum maybe. And there's lots of quartz and things that look a little like quartz or calcite or something like that. Also, lots of chips and broken pieces of clear agates and some sort of blue chalcedony.
We drove along "Tour of the Tilted Rocks Road" (Utah has the BEST road names) that afternoon, which goes into the "beautiful landscape but no dino bones" part of the monument. There were some petroglyphs there, and more importantly, the road wove in and out of the monument, allowing me to stop a lot and collect rocks! More different ones over here, since they weren't road bed gravel. Couple of ones that might be pretty once they're polished:
The rest of the trip (3 1/2 days) was driving various scenic roads. But first we went to a place called Fantasy Canyon, which is sort of famous among photographers but nobody else has ever heard of. It has really wierd eroded rocks. The rocks are sculpted into completely bizarro shapes. Check this out:
As I was walking up the hill taking pics, I noticed a couple of pink rocks on the ground:
Then when I got up on top of the hill, I found that ash (?) layer was pretty much completely composed of those rocks! They were like pavement. Really cool and fun. I don't think they're good for anything, as they break way too easily, but I had to get some nonetheless! I think it might be gypsum but don't really have any basis for thinking that, it could be anything.
The parking lot gravel at Fantasy Canyon was also a rich hounding location! More quartz (hey, that's exotic to ME), river rounded rocks (another thing we don't have much of here), jaspers and agates. Little ones of course.
Granite?:
The second day we started out driving up the "Journey Through Time Road". This went up on a high plateau which overlooked the canyons of the Yampa and Green Rivers. Kind of like a miniature version of Island in the Sky at Arches/Canyonlands. Saw some pretty views and wildflowers:
Also saw some petroglyphs. The Petroglyphs were exceedingly cool becuase they were pecked into desert varnish on rocks that were flat on the ground - so you could stand right next to them and enjoy.
And another exceedingly cool thing about them was that they were OUTSIDE THE PARK on BLM land, which meant I could . . . say it with me . . . PICK UP ROCKS! I didn't bring any buckets or anything, so by the time we walked the quarter mile back to the car, I was having to hold my pants up, my pockets were so full!
Went down a steep road to a place called "The Center of the Universe" or "Echo Park." It's a bend in the river that's really pretty. On the way there we passed an old abandoned homestead and more petroglyphs and this cool cave:
On the way back, we were driving up the road when some cows were blocking the road. While driving along at 1 mph behind them, I noticed a roadcut that seemed to cut through some sort of ancient riverbed or something -- tons of big round rocks all cemented together. Mostly sandstone of various colors. BUT, lo and behold, staring at me, was a dark red one with white stuff on it. Did NOT look like sandstone, so I got out and snagged it. It turned out to be a 6" x 6" x 6" (at least) hunk of solid raspberry-colored jasp-agate! Yay! A real rock! At that point I knew a flat rate box was in my future since this rock was NOT getting left behind and wouldn't fit in my suitcase. So I could collect with abandon, because you can fit a LOT of rocks in a large flat rate box! (30 lbs, it turns out!).
Then we went to the overlook at Harper's Corner, which is absolutely stunning, even though it involves a one mile walk from the car:
Another funny thing, was that wwaaaaaaay out at the end of this finger of a ridge you walked out for the view, right in the area where all the tourists should have been ogling the view (we were the only ones there), there was a huge seam of bright orange/red jasp-agate running through the sandstone! Oh how I wished for my chisel and hammer! Sigh. There wasn't anything coming loose though, and besides it was inside the monument.
It was really pretty though, and interesting to see the top of the seam (the yellow stuff that looks like petrified spilled pancake batter):
On the third day we drove on another scenic road which I forgot the name of. It wasn't very beautiful, but it had cool petroglyphs, and a river! With river rocks!!! I was in heaven! Actual pre-rounded rocks! And in the water too so it was easy to see them!
A funny anecdote: we were driving home back down that road when I saw a bunch of shine up on the hillside. Something was reflecting the sunlight. So, of course, being a good diligent rockhound and outside the park, we stopped the car and hightailed it over to the shiny stuff. On the way, started seeing agate. Then more agate. Then a HUGE piece of agate in matrix. Not high enough quality to take home, but would really have been a nice garden rock!
Then we walked a little farther and found what was shining: beer bottles. So the shine of the beer bottles led us to the pretty agate! That was funny!
The last morning we mailed off my 30 pounds of rocks and headed to the airport. The rocks made it home on Friday, just in time for my INAUGRUAL TRIP TO THE LAPIDARY SHOP. Our local club has a really nice shop, which I hadn't gotten a chance to use yet. So, what better way to find out what was in that big raspberry rock than to cut it all up! Ran it though the 18" saw (OMG that thing is AWESOME), and made 3 big slabs. I still have to do something with the large endcut, but I didn't have time. Big rocks take awhile! Anyway, look what it had inside it!!!!!
So my first slabs and preforms! Soon they might be my first cabs! Although I'll probably have to mutilate some less pretty rock first until I get the hang of it! ;-)
Thanks for listening!
First stop after flying into Salt Lake City was for provisions. First we hit the local State Liquor Store to make sure the necessities were covered:
Then we stopped by the supermarket, where to my utter amazement and joy, they still carried Hostess O's jelly filled donuts!!! Those are my favorite food in the entire world, and they don't carry them anywhere in CA, that I can find anyway. So with great glee I tossed 3 boxes in the shopping cart! No such thing as too many donuts!
On the way to Vernal, which is about a 3 hour drive from SLC, we were just checking out everything when I noticed this crazy looking cemetary. The wind was gusting and tumble weeds were rolling across it, sticks and plastic flower petals flying, dust flying around coating everything! This is the "Ft. Duchesne" cemetary. Check out the crazy grave markers and decorations!
A few miles earlier, we had passed a normal cemetary but I didn't stop, so we stopped and took a pic of it on the way back, just for contrast with the first one. Quite a contrast!
Our first stop was at the Dino Natl Monument Quarry. The Quarry is the big building built over the side of a hill where tons of really huge and cool dino bones are partially excavated, so you can see them (and touch some of them!) laying there like they were when someone found them. That was really really REALLY cool. I kept wanting to ask the ranger if we could slab one of them . . .
Then, in the parking lot outside the visitors center, I noticed that the roadbed gravel they used for the parking lot (it's new, so there's lots of gravel still around the edges of the pavement) was uncommonly fine gravel! In fact, there was jasper and agate in it! Nothing toooo fancy, but fun enough for sure! Since we were in the monument I didn't pick any up (of course). ;-) My appetite for rocks was whetted though, and as soon as we exited the park, the car mysteriously came to a halt in a turnoff with a big roadcut! Clambered around on that and found some decently interesting rocks! They have a jasper there that looks like petrified peanut butter. And one that looks like, I don't know, mint chewing gum maybe. And there's lots of quartz and things that look a little like quartz or calcite or something like that. Also, lots of chips and broken pieces of clear agates and some sort of blue chalcedony.
We drove along "Tour of the Tilted Rocks Road" (Utah has the BEST road names) that afternoon, which goes into the "beautiful landscape but no dino bones" part of the monument. There were some petroglyphs there, and more importantly, the road wove in and out of the monument, allowing me to stop a lot and collect rocks! More different ones over here, since they weren't road bed gravel. Couple of ones that might be pretty once they're polished:
The rest of the trip (3 1/2 days) was driving various scenic roads. But first we went to a place called Fantasy Canyon, which is sort of famous among photographers but nobody else has ever heard of. It has really wierd eroded rocks. The rocks are sculpted into completely bizarro shapes. Check this out:
As I was walking up the hill taking pics, I noticed a couple of pink rocks on the ground:
Then when I got up on top of the hill, I found that ash (?) layer was pretty much completely composed of those rocks! They were like pavement. Really cool and fun. I don't think they're good for anything, as they break way too easily, but I had to get some nonetheless! I think it might be gypsum but don't really have any basis for thinking that, it could be anything.
The parking lot gravel at Fantasy Canyon was also a rich hounding location! More quartz (hey, that's exotic to ME), river rounded rocks (another thing we don't have much of here), jaspers and agates. Little ones of course.
Granite?:
The second day we started out driving up the "Journey Through Time Road". This went up on a high plateau which overlooked the canyons of the Yampa and Green Rivers. Kind of like a miniature version of Island in the Sky at Arches/Canyonlands. Saw some pretty views and wildflowers:
Also saw some petroglyphs. The Petroglyphs were exceedingly cool becuase they were pecked into desert varnish on rocks that were flat on the ground - so you could stand right next to them and enjoy.
And another exceedingly cool thing about them was that they were OUTSIDE THE PARK on BLM land, which meant I could . . . say it with me . . . PICK UP ROCKS! I didn't bring any buckets or anything, so by the time we walked the quarter mile back to the car, I was having to hold my pants up, my pockets were so full!
Went down a steep road to a place called "The Center of the Universe" or "Echo Park." It's a bend in the river that's really pretty. On the way there we passed an old abandoned homestead and more petroglyphs and this cool cave:
On the way back, we were driving up the road when some cows were blocking the road. While driving along at 1 mph behind them, I noticed a roadcut that seemed to cut through some sort of ancient riverbed or something -- tons of big round rocks all cemented together. Mostly sandstone of various colors. BUT, lo and behold, staring at me, was a dark red one with white stuff on it. Did NOT look like sandstone, so I got out and snagged it. It turned out to be a 6" x 6" x 6" (at least) hunk of solid raspberry-colored jasp-agate! Yay! A real rock! At that point I knew a flat rate box was in my future since this rock was NOT getting left behind and wouldn't fit in my suitcase. So I could collect with abandon, because you can fit a LOT of rocks in a large flat rate box! (30 lbs, it turns out!).
Then we went to the overlook at Harper's Corner, which is absolutely stunning, even though it involves a one mile walk from the car:
Another funny thing, was that wwaaaaaaay out at the end of this finger of a ridge you walked out for the view, right in the area where all the tourists should have been ogling the view (we were the only ones there), there was a huge seam of bright orange/red jasp-agate running through the sandstone! Oh how I wished for my chisel and hammer! Sigh. There wasn't anything coming loose though, and besides it was inside the monument.
It was really pretty though, and interesting to see the top of the seam (the yellow stuff that looks like petrified spilled pancake batter):
On the third day we drove on another scenic road which I forgot the name of. It wasn't very beautiful, but it had cool petroglyphs, and a river! With river rocks!!! I was in heaven! Actual pre-rounded rocks! And in the water too so it was easy to see them!
A funny anecdote: we were driving home back down that road when I saw a bunch of shine up on the hillside. Something was reflecting the sunlight. So, of course, being a good diligent rockhound and outside the park, we stopped the car and hightailed it over to the shiny stuff. On the way, started seeing agate. Then more agate. Then a HUGE piece of agate in matrix. Not high enough quality to take home, but would really have been a nice garden rock!
Then we walked a little farther and found what was shining: beer bottles. So the shine of the beer bottles led us to the pretty agate! That was funny!
The last morning we mailed off my 30 pounds of rocks and headed to the airport. The rocks made it home on Friday, just in time for my INAUGRUAL TRIP TO THE LAPIDARY SHOP. Our local club has a really nice shop, which I hadn't gotten a chance to use yet. So, what better way to find out what was in that big raspberry rock than to cut it all up! Ran it though the 18" saw (OMG that thing is AWESOME), and made 3 big slabs. I still have to do something with the large endcut, but I didn't have time. Big rocks take awhile! Anyway, look what it had inside it!!!!!
So my first slabs and preforms! Soon they might be my first cabs! Although I'll probably have to mutilate some less pretty rock first until I get the hang of it! ;-)
Thanks for listening!