Post by rockpickerforever on Apr 23, 2013 14:42:13 GMT -5
Last Saturday we took a day trip with barclay and another couple out to the Sacatone Overlook, at the eastern edge of San Diego county. It's about an hour and fifteen minute drive from our house, heading east out I-8. The weather was better than a person could reasonably expect to ask for - just perfect! We arrived around 9am, and parked near the Old School mine.
Saw lots of critters on the drive out - a couple of deer along the side of the road, two coyotes heading out into the road to confront a raven over a bit of fresh roadkill. Once we were off the paved road, we saw rabbits, ground squirrels, and something that looked like a gopher - no visible tail - but man, he was pretty fast for a gopher! Also a large hawk of some kind, sitting on a large boulder.
The area is full of pegmatites, and while you can find the whole gamut of the usual pegmatite rocks (quartz, feldspar, tourmaline, mica, etc) we came mostly looking for garnets. The view is to the west, the rocks in the foreground are a section of pegmatite where the Old School mine is located.
The view is to the east-southeast, photo taken at around 4000 feet in elevation. Tule Mountain is to the right, at 4647 feet. Beyond that, there's a steep 3000 foot drop to the bottom of Carrizo Gorge. To the east of that is the Jacumba Mountains, rising to over 4500 feet. Go east another 12 miles, and you're on the desert floor at about 300 feet!
Three shot panorama. Notice the railroad cut just to the right of center? You can just make out some lighter colored rock slides.
Here's a closer view of it. You can see one of the tunnels at the left side. When built way back when (completed Nov 15, 1919), it was called "The Impossible Railroad." They had to blast into the mountains to make tunnels, and used quite a significant amount of wood making the huge trestles that spanned several gorges. Quite an engineering feat. But that's a story for another time...
Around noontime, a BLM Rangerconfronted spoke with us, and asked us what we were looking for. He let us know in no uncertain terms that, while we could pick up stuff on the surface, we were not to dig for it (yeah, that again), we were not to move/remove large rocks, or hammer on rocks and break them up, and to make sure we stayed off any claims in the area. He mentioned a certain one, and pointed in that direction (we were nowheres near it). The guy was a little overzealous, if you ask me. I got the impression he felt as if God himself had put him in charge of protecting this area. But, that's another story, too.
Lot's of things to poke you. This is a hedgehog cactus.
And as if to make up for their prickly nature, they treat you with a beautiful show.
Some type of cholla, possibly buckhorn?
Cholla, another spiky plant, sunflowers - nice color/pattern combo
Don't know what this plant is. While it had an inviting green color, it had some wicked spines!
Lots of different flowers in bloom. I thought this was Devil's paintbrush, maybe not?
Don't know what it is, not a lupine... Almost looks like a delphinium? I have a book somewhere with flower IDs, but don't know where it is - shame on me.
Buckwheat
Ephedra
Lizard, warming up in the sunshine - and watching me! The ranger had told our friends when they drove in after us to watch for snakes, that they were out. While we did not see or hear any rattlesnakes, the guys saw a four to five foot long racer/coachwhip snake.
Not petrified yet!
Stump above could have been one of these old flower spikes
Or one of these? At first I thought these were a few palms clinging to the hillside, but when I saw the photo later, they almost look like Joshua trees? Those shouldn't be found here...
View to the northeast, Salton Sea is in the distance
And finally, what we found!
Tiny red crystal, maybe rubellite (tourmaline), or could be garnet.
I said it was small!
Some schorl, also called black tourmaline. This was a good sized chunk.
This is probably the largest one I've found, over an inch in diameter
And what we came here looking for - a nice almandine garnet crystal!
The back side is covered with mica.
Not gemmy, but it will make a nice specimen.
By 3pm, we'd had enough of rocks and fresh air, and headed home.
Hope you enjoyed coming along! Jean
Saw lots of critters on the drive out - a couple of deer along the side of the road, two coyotes heading out into the road to confront a raven over a bit of fresh roadkill. Once we were off the paved road, we saw rabbits, ground squirrels, and something that looked like a gopher - no visible tail - but man, he was pretty fast for a gopher! Also a large hawk of some kind, sitting on a large boulder.
The area is full of pegmatites, and while you can find the whole gamut of the usual pegmatite rocks (quartz, feldspar, tourmaline, mica, etc) we came mostly looking for garnets. The view is to the west, the rocks in the foreground are a section of pegmatite where the Old School mine is located.
The view is to the east-southeast, photo taken at around 4000 feet in elevation. Tule Mountain is to the right, at 4647 feet. Beyond that, there's a steep 3000 foot drop to the bottom of Carrizo Gorge. To the east of that is the Jacumba Mountains, rising to over 4500 feet. Go east another 12 miles, and you're on the desert floor at about 300 feet!
Three shot panorama. Notice the railroad cut just to the right of center? You can just make out some lighter colored rock slides.
Here's a closer view of it. You can see one of the tunnels at the left side. When built way back when (completed Nov 15, 1919), it was called "The Impossible Railroad." They had to blast into the mountains to make tunnels, and used quite a significant amount of wood making the huge trestles that spanned several gorges. Quite an engineering feat. But that's a story for another time...
Around noontime, a BLM Ranger
Lot's of things to poke you. This is a hedgehog cactus.
And as if to make up for their prickly nature, they treat you with a beautiful show.
Some type of cholla, possibly buckhorn?
Cholla, another spiky plant, sunflowers - nice color/pattern combo
Don't know what this plant is. While it had an inviting green color, it had some wicked spines!
Lots of different flowers in bloom. I thought this was Devil's paintbrush, maybe not?
Don't know what it is, not a lupine... Almost looks like a delphinium? I have a book somewhere with flower IDs, but don't know where it is - shame on me.
Buckwheat
Ephedra
Lizard, warming up in the sunshine - and watching me! The ranger had told our friends when they drove in after us to watch for snakes, that they were out. While we did not see or hear any rattlesnakes, the guys saw a four to five foot long racer/coachwhip snake.
Not petrified yet!
Stump above could have been one of these old flower spikes
Or one of these? At first I thought these were a few palms clinging to the hillside, but when I saw the photo later, they almost look like Joshua trees? Those shouldn't be found here...
View to the northeast, Salton Sea is in the distance
And finally, what we found!
Tiny red crystal, maybe rubellite (tourmaline), or could be garnet.
I said it was small!
Some schorl, also called black tourmaline. This was a good sized chunk.
This is probably the largest one I've found, over an inch in diameter
And what we came here looking for - a nice almandine garnet crystal!
The back side is covered with mica.
Not gemmy, but it will make a nice specimen.
By 3pm, we'd had enough of rocks and fresh air, and headed home.
Hope you enjoyed coming along! Jean