South of Death Valley

Howdy Michael, Long ago I did the Tecopa and Sperry Wash trips from Mary Francis Strong's 1971 Desert Gem Trails book. Just followed the maps and found both areas but, as the book said, the Tecopa opal nodules, while very fiery and interesting, had very small opal filled areas and the Sperry Wash area is huge and the palm was scarce even 30 years ago. The palm is spectacular though and worth the hunt. I have seen a couple of fantastic pieces that have come from there in the last 20 years so I guess if you're persistent, there are still good hunks to be found....Mel

Michael: We followed the Strong book milege exactly. Have the book in front of me now and it says the palm area begins 10.5 miles from where you turn into the Armagosa River canyon off Hwy 127. You follow the wash to the east just after the old Sperry Station ruins. Of course this is an old book and has a more precise road log which is probably no longer any good. I know when we drove in, lots of the instructions didn't seem real good. As I recall, You also had to hike up out of the wash for the palm. Been like 30 years or more so I can't remember a lot about that trip except it looked like rain and we were real nervous about being in that canyon bottom if it started coming down *L*. The road log for the Kingston Amethyst Mine from the book is as follows: Drive east from Tecopa into the Kingston range for 20.5 miles to the summit. From the summit to the turnoff is one mile. Book says if you go through a cattle guard and see a spring and trees you've gone too far. The turnoff you're looking for is supposedly obscure and runs south to a camp area. Hiking trail runs sw from the campsite to two amethyst locations. I've never tried this trip because to me, the road log seem vague as no milages are given after you turn off to the south....Mel

Unfortunately, there IS no local rock club here anymore. From what I gather, the people in Vegas mostly hound in Utah. I'm searching the internet for every clue I can find, plus Google Earth is an excellent tool. I'm only like 30-45 minutes from the area I'm asking about, but there's a LOT of area to cover down there, so I don't want to waste gas driving around aimlessly. If I had a dirt bike, I'd just ride it down there, but I don't.

I think I've solved the pet palm wood issue. Sperry Wash is just south of the date ranch ... DUH! Date palms have been growing in a lot of the washes between Tecopah and Sperry Wash since B.C., so I'm guessing that I can probably look in any of the washes with date palms in them and find pet palm.

I've found a couple of references indicating that there are some places to get Chrysocolla in the Tecopa area. That would be cool, if it's different than the stuff at my mine, and especially if it's easier to get to it.

Another place I'll definately be checking-out is Turquoise Mountain, which is down by Baker. From what I gather, very little of it is claimed, and you WILL get turquoise if you go there. Judging by what I see on Google Earth, it looks like it's easily accessible, too.

My next search is to try to find the exact location / directions to those amethysts.

I've still had no luck in finding a place to collect agates. They seem to be everywhere in the US except around here LOL.

Again, thanks for your help!

So where do you go hounding, Geo? Over in Utah?

You Vegas folks aren't all that far from the Burro Creek area in Az, lots of nice agates down that way!
Well OK it is a good 3-4 hours, but if you really are all that hot to collect agates, you can't miss at Burro Creek.

Rallyrocks, Burro Creek is way down by Tucson, which is about a 7-8 hour drive, one way. I'm hoping to find some nice agate much closer, like within an hour's drive.

well this might not be quite where your talking about. but you do have the red rock canyon area. i have got some nice agates there and jasper. and even a opal. it had green fire. mike

Mike4bears, Red rock is a National Conservation area. Per the BLM, "To protect resources, please do not collect plants, rock specimens, fossils, or disturb the wildlife in the Red Rock Canyon NCA."

Maybe stuffing a few in your pocket wouldn't hurt anything, but actually "collecting" would likely get you a ticket, if you were caught.

Mike, I gotta agree with you on the "useless lands" policies. Although I can understand the reasoning for protecting lands, I think the government often over-steps their bounds on public use.

I tried some collecting just outside that area before, and it wasn't what I consider fruitful. If you know some specific areas to look, that would be cool.

George, yeah, if you could give me the info on those two places, I'd love to check them out. Given all of the mountains around here, I figure there's gotta be some good agate around. I just haven't found it yet.