Post by Michael John on Jan 17, 2008 3:18:06 GMT -5
Since the weather was decent and it hasn't rained in days, I decided to take a little trip across the Cali border to see what I could find. Unfortunately, like most of my rockhounding outings, it was less than spectacular. I've been studying the areas of Tecopa, Shoshone, Sperry Wash, etc, for a couple of weeks, and thought I had some idea of what I was in for, but it didn't turn out that way.
The start of the trip should have been an indicator to turn around and go home, but I'm not real bright at taking clues sometimes. Google Earth seemed to show two clear ways to get from Pahrump over to the Old Spanish Trail. Well, whoever draws-in the roads for Google is more than just a little optomistic. I ended-up driving all over a dry lake bed and through the desert trying to get to the Old Spanish Trail ... in my Chysler Sebring. I didn't plan on this little trip being on anything worse than possibly some gravel roads. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I managed to find it, with no damage to my car.
So, once I hit pavement, I started toward Tecopa. Within about ten minutes, the road took me up over a small mountain pass. At the top, where the mountain had been cut away for the road, I noticed some good looking rocks imbedded in the sides. I pulled over, grabbed my pry bar, and got some nice chunks of obsidian, mahogany obsidian, and rose quartz. I didn't take too much because I had more areas to check-out.
Next stop, Tecopa. I drove around there for a while and found nothing. Everything's just borax and talc around there.
Next, I continued-on to find other areas I'd seen on Google Earth. Most of the "roads" out there are not marked, and calling any of them "roads" is a LONG stretch. Finally, the sun went down and I went home.
So, all I ended-up with was the stuff from the mountain pass. IMO, all of the old "roads" out there are so deteriorated that the only hope of rockhounding in that area would be with one hell of a 4WD truck, which my truck is not. If I get a wild bee in my bonnet some time, I MIGHT take a trip down there in my truck some time to possibly try to locate some areas and attempt to get to them, but right now that's not looking too attractive to me. I'm pretty bummmed-out about what I thought would be a fruitful trip.
The start of the trip should have been an indicator to turn around and go home, but I'm not real bright at taking clues sometimes. Google Earth seemed to show two clear ways to get from Pahrump over to the Old Spanish Trail. Well, whoever draws-in the roads for Google is more than just a little optomistic. I ended-up driving all over a dry lake bed and through the desert trying to get to the Old Spanish Trail ... in my Chysler Sebring. I didn't plan on this little trip being on anything worse than possibly some gravel roads. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I managed to find it, with no damage to my car.
So, once I hit pavement, I started toward Tecopa. Within about ten minutes, the road took me up over a small mountain pass. At the top, where the mountain had been cut away for the road, I noticed some good looking rocks imbedded in the sides. I pulled over, grabbed my pry bar, and got some nice chunks of obsidian, mahogany obsidian, and rose quartz. I didn't take too much because I had more areas to check-out.
Next stop, Tecopa. I drove around there for a while and found nothing. Everything's just borax and talc around there.
Next, I continued-on to find other areas I'd seen on Google Earth. Most of the "roads" out there are not marked, and calling any of them "roads" is a LONG stretch. Finally, the sun went down and I went home.
So, all I ended-up with was the stuff from the mountain pass. IMO, all of the old "roads" out there are so deteriorated that the only hope of rockhounding in that area would be with one hell of a 4WD truck, which my truck is not. If I get a wild bee in my bonnet some time, I MIGHT take a trip down there in my truck some time to possibly try to locate some areas and attempt to get to them, but right now that's not looking too attractive to me. I'm pretty bummmed-out about what I thought would be a fruitful trip.
