Post by 88pathoffroad on Nov 14, 2008 21:20:37 GMT -5
I went out today to a spot up in the hills behind Dallas, Oregon for a try at finding some quartz, zeolites or agate. The spot I wanted to go had loggers working directly overhead and skidding logs across the road, so I had to back up an easy 3/4 mile down a logging road with a 500 foot dropoff on one side. Good times in a full-size Chevy van.
Went exploring up some other roads (that's how I found the first spot, heh) and came upon more loggers. Turned around, went back down and went down the wrong side road. Came upon a tree across the road, so I got out my hatchet, dispatched it and kept on going.
I went slow and started noticing bits of white quartz and calcite in the road rock, so I stopped at the bottom of the hill and walked the road, picking up pieces of agate, quartz and calcite as I went. Here are some of the best finds:
Grey/clear agate chunk...
Couple of agate chunks with some clear/white/blue agate...
Drusy quartz piece with two or three separate pockets...
THIS is a good find. The cube in the center was a calcite crystal; the quartz crystals have grown completely over it.
Couple of calcite bits...nice and clear, but run over by logging trucks.
Rhombohedral calcite:
Scalenohedral calcite:
It's like ice...very clear. Iceland spar?
And this is something I found a couple of weekends ago. This is a seam of stilbite crystals with some calcite in the base matrix. I found this on the way back down a new logging road that had been freshly blasted. Excellent find.
I've found tons of other stuff around this area, anyone care to see more? I'm a JOAT when it comes to rocks, I like minerals, crystals, agate, jasper, everything.
All told I think I have a 50-pound bucket's worth of quartz and agate, all picked up off the sides and middle of a logging road.
Went exploring up some other roads (that's how I found the first spot, heh) and came upon more loggers. Turned around, went back down and went down the wrong side road. Came upon a tree across the road, so I got out my hatchet, dispatched it and kept on going.
I went slow and started noticing bits of white quartz and calcite in the road rock, so I stopped at the bottom of the hill and walked the road, picking up pieces of agate, quartz and calcite as I went. Here are some of the best finds:
Grey/clear agate chunk...
Couple of agate chunks with some clear/white/blue agate...
Drusy quartz piece with two or three separate pockets...
THIS is a good find. The cube in the center was a calcite crystal; the quartz crystals have grown completely over it.
Couple of calcite bits...nice and clear, but run over by logging trucks.
Rhombohedral calcite:
Scalenohedral calcite:
It's like ice...very clear. Iceland spar?
And this is something I found a couple of weekends ago. This is a seam of stilbite crystals with some calcite in the base matrix. I found this on the way back down a new logging road that had been freshly blasted. Excellent find.
I've found tons of other stuff around this area, anyone care to see more? I'm a JOAT when it comes to rocks, I like minerals, crystals, agate, jasper, everything.
All told I think I have a 50-pound bucket's worth of quartz and agate, all picked up off the sides and middle of a logging road.