Post by tropidale on Mar 30, 2017 20:13:43 GMT -5
Hi Rockhounders!
Hubby and I are headed to Yellowstone for a week in late May, and I am trying to get the lay of the land in terms of areas near, but outside the park where we can do a little surface rockhounding.
My idea is to stop along the road where creeks are flowing (such as north of West Yellowstone, and Gardiner north of the park, and just scoop from the water or search along the bank where we find a gravelly spot. Would we find anything at all taking this approach? I don't expect to hit the motherlode but would like to bring home a small box of agates or whatever else we find. It seems that, this close to a volcano, the rivers and streams should be lousy with pretty rocks. But then, I am not an experienced rockhounder. I do my best hounding at rock shows.... I should add that we are coming in from Florida so it doesn't take much to get us oo-ing and ah-ing.
We don't plan to go too far off the pavement. We are city slickers. Although we did take a side trip in Utah last year that turned into a dirt track but there was agate and jasper everywhere. It was fun. (but only about 2 miles into the desert....)
Another question. I know we are not allowed to take any rocks out of the national parks, but can we at least poke around and pick up rocks in the park as long as we catch and release exactly where we find it?
Oh, and is there any possibility that we would find a sapphire in a stream, or would we have to go to Helena or another sapphire hot spot? Sapphires are on my bucket list but I don't want to kill a whole day of our short trip to check it off the list. We can always come back when we retire next year.
Final question. Just how much bear risk is there out in Yellowstone and surrounding areas? Do we really need to carry bear spray if we aren't going to do any back country hiking? Like I said, we are city slickers.... and one of us has a little bear phobia....
Thanks,
Dale
Hubby and I are headed to Yellowstone for a week in late May, and I am trying to get the lay of the land in terms of areas near, but outside the park where we can do a little surface rockhounding.
My idea is to stop along the road where creeks are flowing (such as north of West Yellowstone, and Gardiner north of the park, and just scoop from the water or search along the bank where we find a gravelly spot. Would we find anything at all taking this approach? I don't expect to hit the motherlode but would like to bring home a small box of agates or whatever else we find. It seems that, this close to a volcano, the rivers and streams should be lousy with pretty rocks. But then, I am not an experienced rockhounder. I do my best hounding at rock shows.... I should add that we are coming in from Florida so it doesn't take much to get us oo-ing and ah-ing.
We don't plan to go too far off the pavement. We are city slickers. Although we did take a side trip in Utah last year that turned into a dirt track but there was agate and jasper everywhere. It was fun. (but only about 2 miles into the desert....)
Another question. I know we are not allowed to take any rocks out of the national parks, but can we at least poke around and pick up rocks in the park as long as we catch and release exactly where we find it?
Oh, and is there any possibility that we would find a sapphire in a stream, or would we have to go to Helena or another sapphire hot spot? Sapphires are on my bucket list but I don't want to kill a whole day of our short trip to check it off the list. We can always come back when we retire next year.
Final question. Just how much bear risk is there out in Yellowstone and surrounding areas? Do we really need to carry bear spray if we aren't going to do any back country hiking? Like I said, we are city slickers.... and one of us has a little bear phobia....
Thanks,
Dale