Post by Sabre52 on Nov 6, 2007 22:56:14 GMT -5
Howdy folks, Well, today I had a one day break from bird work and since I was feeling bad about not doing Burro Creek, my wife agreed to go on a mini rock hunt out to the Mojave Desert. Left Ojai at five AM and made the drive out in four hours. Stupid 14 freeway down towards LA was screwed up as usual and we got lost as usual on all the new surface streets but eventually made it to the desert where I promptly found out I could not get into my favored spot. Well, after I stopped screaming and cussing we explored a bit and darned if we didn't stumble onto a bonanza of beautiful jasper and agate. Not a pretty site and I did suffer a run in with a Catclaw bush which I stumbled into while scooping up a hunk of jasper but man good rocks were everywhere. Loaded up in four hours all within 100 yards of the truck. Wow! Anyway, here are a couple of pics of the site. Not very pretty but the ground in this ravine was actually bursting with good material and some were even so big I gave up on digging them out because it was just too much work. I'll wash and take pics of the material in a day or so....Mel
The ravine:
Layer where erosion was revealing lots of pretty stuff. Incredible reds especially!
The surface was actually almost paved in good rock but it didn't photograph well. Beautiful day though 85 degrees and bright and sunny.
Well, unloaded the truck. What a mess! Had to hit the breaks hard once due to rotten drivers and all the buckets spilled. Anyway unloaded and squirted them off. Here are a few pics to whet your appetite. Closeups this afternoon maybe. Man, some of them are spectacular!
The whole lot. One bucket almost full of just tumbling stuff and I needed it too:
Milk crate and my big wash tub full of the larger hunks:
Don't know why I made two posts of this but here are closeups of some of the stuff we found:
Big green and red boulder:
Other side where I chipped it:
BIg red hunk unchipped:
Bright red one chipped:
Red and white banded boulder:
Dug this hunk right from the lava. Nice mossy piece!
Finally, some of the tumbling materials. Lots of weathered out flakes just to pick up:
The ravine:
Layer where erosion was revealing lots of pretty stuff. Incredible reds especially!
The surface was actually almost paved in good rock but it didn't photograph well. Beautiful day though 85 degrees and bright and sunny.
Well, unloaded the truck. What a mess! Had to hit the breaks hard once due to rotten drivers and all the buckets spilled. Anyway unloaded and squirted them off. Here are a few pics to whet your appetite. Closeups this afternoon maybe. Man, some of them are spectacular!
The whole lot. One bucket almost full of just tumbling stuff and I needed it too:
Milk crate and my big wash tub full of the larger hunks:
Don't know why I made two posts of this but here are closeups of some of the stuff we found:
Big green and red boulder:
Other side where I chipped it:
BIg red hunk unchipped:
Bright red one chipped:
Red and white banded boulder:
Dug this hunk right from the lava. Nice mossy piece!
Finally, some of the tumbling materials. Lots of weathered out flakes just to pick up: