Thomson's Harbor State Park, Presque Isle, Michigan
Mar 15, 2016 20:24:33 GMT -5
fantastic5, jamesp, and 1 more like this
Post by Jugglerguy on Mar 15, 2016 20:24:33 GMT -5
This past weekend, Drummond Island Rocks made a quick trip up to Alpena for a little rock hunt. He got all excited and went home to explore more beaches in the area using Google Maps. He found a remote spot with a public access and sent me a message with the info. At the same time, I was talking to an acquaintance who suggested the same location. This guy didn't know anything about rocks, but just said that there were a lot of them on the beach. So I decided to check it out today after school. I love daylight savings time! I called a different friend who lives in very near the beach in question and we met up to check it out together. The road was good, but the time of the year made the drive interesting. I'm glad I took my Jeep.
The beach is located in Thompson's Harbor State Park.
We drove through water.
We drove through snow.
We drove around trees.
We finally got to the parking lot.
I put on my waders, backpack, grabbed my rock scoop, neoprene gloves, and bucket and headed to the beach...
only to find very disappointing limestone. Petoskey stones are limestone, but I wasn't going to find anything good here.
After five minutes on this beach, I removed all of my rock collecting gear. and jumped back in the Jeep. My friend told me that that whole stretch of beach had the same rock. He told me he could take me to another beach that might be better. This guy's not into collecting rocks either, but he walks the beach a lot from his house and his wife picks up a few rocks. He said that he didn't think there were many Petoskey stones.
After a short drive I ended up here.
That's about a .7 mile walk to the beach. After the last beach, I almost just wore my shoes and left the waders in the Jeep. But I decided to wear them in case the picking was good. I was warned that it was a long walk.
The walk was similar to the drive to the other beach.
I ran into some water.
Good thing I wore the waders.
There was snow.
Still glad I had the waders.
And finally to the beach.
Still a little ice.
I may have been the first guy to the beach this year. I didn't see anyone swimming or getting a tan. I did see deer tracks and some disturbingly large dog tracks not accompanied by people tracks. Off to the right the rocks were similar to the other beach.
I found a goganda tillite...
but I decided not to bring it home.
The rocks looked a little more promising in the other direction.
The next three pictures were taken from the same spot on the beach.
Dunes.
I didn't find too much. I find that when the rocks are bad, I'm more likely to pick up rocks that I shouldn't pick up. Here's an example of that.
This looks really soft, but I'm going to try my dry tumbling technique on it.
Another one that probably won't tumble and should have stayed on the beach.
Cute little chert.
A fossil. I don't usually find these in red.
And just when I thought I would leave without a Petoskey stone or a pudding stone, I found this little guy.
When Chuck and I went hunting a couple days ago, we both complained a lot about the weight of the rocks we hauled back. I can now say that having sore muscles beats well rested muscles. That walk back up the .7 mile trail would have been brutal, but so is this bucket.
It was a beautiful beach and a nice walk in the woods, but this is not the beach to go to if you're interested in coming home with a bunch of rocks.
The beach is located in Thompson's Harbor State Park.
We drove through water.
We drove through snow.
We drove around trees.
We finally got to the parking lot.
I put on my waders, backpack, grabbed my rock scoop, neoprene gloves, and bucket and headed to the beach...
only to find very disappointing limestone. Petoskey stones are limestone, but I wasn't going to find anything good here.
After five minutes on this beach, I removed all of my rock collecting gear. and jumped back in the Jeep. My friend told me that that whole stretch of beach had the same rock. He told me he could take me to another beach that might be better. This guy's not into collecting rocks either, but he walks the beach a lot from his house and his wife picks up a few rocks. He said that he didn't think there were many Petoskey stones.
After a short drive I ended up here.
That's about a .7 mile walk to the beach. After the last beach, I almost just wore my shoes and left the waders in the Jeep. But I decided to wear them in case the picking was good. I was warned that it was a long walk.
The walk was similar to the drive to the other beach.
I ran into some water.
Good thing I wore the waders.
There was snow.
Still glad I had the waders.
And finally to the beach.
Still a little ice.
I may have been the first guy to the beach this year. I didn't see anyone swimming or getting a tan. I did see deer tracks and some disturbingly large dog tracks not accompanied by people tracks. Off to the right the rocks were similar to the other beach.
I found a goganda tillite...
but I decided not to bring it home.
The rocks looked a little more promising in the other direction.
The next three pictures were taken from the same spot on the beach.
Dunes.
I didn't find too much. I find that when the rocks are bad, I'm more likely to pick up rocks that I shouldn't pick up. Here's an example of that.
This looks really soft, but I'm going to try my dry tumbling technique on it.
Another one that probably won't tumble and should have stayed on the beach.
Cute little chert.
A fossil. I don't usually find these in red.
And just when I thought I would leave without a Petoskey stone or a pudding stone, I found this little guy.
When Chuck and I went hunting a couple days ago, we both complained a lot about the weight of the rocks we hauled back. I can now say that having sore muscles beats well rested muscles. That walk back up the .7 mile trail would have been brutal, but so is this bucket.
It was a beautiful beach and a nice walk in the woods, but this is not the beach to go to if you're interested in coming home with a bunch of rocks.