Post by choochoorocks on Feb 20, 2024 0:58:22 GMT -5
We finally made it out to Lavic and South Cady Mountains last December!
Day 0: We got to the Barstow area late afternoon, and with about an hour of daylight left, we took a drive through Rainbow Basin Natural Area. Beautiful area, with very interesting landscape formations and colors. The whole loop drive was under an hour and worth a stop if in the area.
Seeing desert landscapes always makes me happy. Coming from the Bay Area, desert areas have a novelty factor for me, plus I associate desert with good rock hunting!
Day 1: Lavic Siding. I found out too late that I left the guidebooks in the hotel, so had to go by memory and a few approximate GPS locations I'd marked in Google Maps a couple years ago. So needless to say, I couldn't find the underpass that would take me to the other side of the railroad. But I think we still did good north of the tracks. We collected lots of nice jasper, along with a few pieces of moss agate. We had a great time with that colorful material, and it was fun for the kids.
After Lavic, we visited Hector Hills. Once again, I had to go by memory without the book. Luckily, we found a good area. I hadn't found much about Hector Hills online, and some books seem to imply there isn't much there to be collected, but on the contrary, we found that the ground on both sides of the road were loaded with agates.
Most of the Hector Hills agates are not as colorful as say Lavic material, but they were interesting nevertheless. Most of the material was clear-to-white chalcedony, sometimes with orange streaks/patches, sometimes with black inclusions or black dendrites. There was also some brownish chalcedony (sard?), and some stuff that looks like palm bog.
Once again, for anyone going there with kids, this is another fun stop simply because of the ease with which one can collect material. The problem here is that there is too much to collect. For me, I tried to practice my diplomatic skills with them, although I have to say I'm still working on it. How do you say to kids "don't collect that piece of leaverite" while ensuring that they still feel positive about rock hunting and will want to come with you next time?
Note: Hector Hills was super windy and cold in December.
Day 2: we went to South Cady Mountains. It was only a half day trip as one of my kids had a tummy ache and we had to leave, but we did find a pit full of beautiful jasp-agates.
All in all, it was a great trip. Can't wait to go there again!
