Post by LarryS on Oct 22, 2012 18:14:42 GMT -5
Taking advantage of the cool 60/85 low temperatures out in the Mojave Desert, we headed out yesterday for another rock hounding adventure. Was always curious about a small site listed in Mary Frances Strong 1971 book on a site that has “red & yellow moss jasper and chalcedony roses.” It’s located about 9 miles east of Ludlow, CA off Route 66 near the Klondike railroad siding. No other books mention it. I-40 was being built at that time. I spent hours studying TOPO & BLM maps along with using Google Earth. Saw some creosote bushes growing in the road, which puts up a red flag. The whole area is a huge flood plain for the Bristol Mountains wilderness area to the north and was concerned about the road being washed out. This summer alone I saw some pretty hefty thunderheads raise havoc in that area while viewing radar images online. I noticed big red blobs dumping huge amounts of rain over a short period. Yet areas close by like Lavic stayed basically dry. Bluesky Susan and Christopher met us at the Dairy Queen in Ludlow at 8:00am.
We decided to head in coming in from the north of I-40, cutting the dirt road route in half. There’s no off ramp on the freeway so we had to slow down on the shoulder and turn off at the dirt road. There wasn’t the usual barbed wire fence. Drove down to the area a couple miles and stopped at the described “low hill” that contained all the priceless gemstones. Hiked all over that area and didn’t find a thing, just volcanic rock. Susan hauled back a huge piece of chalcedony about a foot long for me to put on my mother’s patio.
Then we all decided to head south about 4 miles to Route 66. Drove the wide un-maintained dirt road and ended up going cross-country because the road was washed out. My Jeep could have made it but the others couldn’t. So we had to turn around and head back towards I-40.
We still had plenty of time to kill and headed west to good old Lavic Siding. Spent an hour or two there collecting some nice material. We all notice the pickings were getting slimmer and slimmer and it took work to find decent material. Susan found some small pieces sticking out of the ground and dug them out with her hammer. She gave me one which is combo red/yellow that measured 11” x 7” x 4” thick. A little big for my 10” saw but I’ll figure something out. I found some brecciated jasper in both red & yellow. Plus some odd jasp-ag that is not common there.
Still had plenty of day light left and Christopher talked us into heading into the Cady’s that was north east of our location. So back to Ludlow we headed and drove up to the Broadwell Dry Lake bed. Noticed the BLM installed a huge brand new “Kelso Sand Dune Wilderness” sign but it was located on the north east intersection of the road. Found out today that they expanded the wilderness area that now cuts Broadwell Dry Lake in half. You can collect in wilderness but no motor vehicles. From that point east all the way to the Nevada boarder, you walk baby!
We had to back way off from eating Susan's dust. Road did show some damage from the summer monsoon rains.
After we caught up to Susan, we saw what was going on. She had a rock wedged on her gas pedal, standing on her running board while taking pictures of the distant Bristol Mountains while driving her 4 Runner full speed!
If you look on old TOPO maps, there are about 6 roads heading into the Cady’s off or near Broadwell Lake. All but 3 are still visible and the others have grown over with vegetation or flash floods destroyed them. Drove to the end of this one until we couldn’t drive any further. Susan & Christopher, still in their youthful 40’s took off hiking over the hills to find out where exactly we were at and where the old collecting site was. Yep, we were lost. It was interesting trying to turn around in the narrow wash but eventually we all made it.
We all met back at the Dairy Queen in Ludlow for a sugar treat for the long drive home. Christopher really surprised everyone by giving us some of his famous Fire Agate in the rough. That was the best treat of all! We all had a fantastic time exploring for new rock to add to our ever growing piles at home.
Larry, Diane & Goober
We decided to head in coming in from the north of I-40, cutting the dirt road route in half. There’s no off ramp on the freeway so we had to slow down on the shoulder and turn off at the dirt road. There wasn’t the usual barbed wire fence. Drove down to the area a couple miles and stopped at the described “low hill” that contained all the priceless gemstones. Hiked all over that area and didn’t find a thing, just volcanic rock. Susan hauled back a huge piece of chalcedony about a foot long for me to put on my mother’s patio.
Then we all decided to head south about 4 miles to Route 66. Drove the wide un-maintained dirt road and ended up going cross-country because the road was washed out. My Jeep could have made it but the others couldn’t. So we had to turn around and head back towards I-40.
We still had plenty of time to kill and headed west to good old Lavic Siding. Spent an hour or two there collecting some nice material. We all notice the pickings were getting slimmer and slimmer and it took work to find decent material. Susan found some small pieces sticking out of the ground and dug them out with her hammer. She gave me one which is combo red/yellow that measured 11” x 7” x 4” thick. A little big for my 10” saw but I’ll figure something out. I found some brecciated jasper in both red & yellow. Plus some odd jasp-ag that is not common there.
Still had plenty of day light left and Christopher talked us into heading into the Cady’s that was north east of our location. So back to Ludlow we headed and drove up to the Broadwell Dry Lake bed. Noticed the BLM installed a huge brand new “Kelso Sand Dune Wilderness” sign but it was located on the north east intersection of the road. Found out today that they expanded the wilderness area that now cuts Broadwell Dry Lake in half. You can collect in wilderness but no motor vehicles. From that point east all the way to the Nevada boarder, you walk baby!
We had to back way off from eating Susan's dust. Road did show some damage from the summer monsoon rains.
After we caught up to Susan, we saw what was going on. She had a rock wedged on her gas pedal, standing on her running board while taking pictures of the distant Bristol Mountains while driving her 4 Runner full speed!
If you look on old TOPO maps, there are about 6 roads heading into the Cady’s off or near Broadwell Lake. All but 3 are still visible and the others have grown over with vegetation or flash floods destroyed them. Drove to the end of this one until we couldn’t drive any further. Susan & Christopher, still in their youthful 40’s took off hiking over the hills to find out where exactly we were at and where the old collecting site was. Yep, we were lost. It was interesting trying to turn around in the narrow wash but eventually we all made it.
We all met back at the Dairy Queen in Ludlow for a sugar treat for the long drive home. Christopher really surprised everyone by giving us some of his famous Fire Agate in the rough. That was the best treat of all! We all had a fantastic time exploring for new rock to add to our ever growing piles at home.
Larry, Diane & Goober