Pescadero storm cloud agates (more pics added)

I'm sorry Lynn. I'm very novice to this. You're saying the large pock-marked piece may have plumes? I'm not sure in what context what plumes are.

I absolutely love that fireplace!

This thread its certainly full of beautiful rocks! Love that fireplace as well! ;D

Thanks for taking this thread in an awesome new direction Lynn. I love that fireplace - it's really beautiful and yes we found a lot of that same type of stone. I brought a few pieces home and threw them in my fish tank.

Your thoughts about ruining the stones by tumbling is certainly a strong opinion that you are welcome to even though I respectfully disagree. Many of the stones that my girlfriend and I have collected in Pescadaro area were also covered in calcification and if I hadn't tumbled most of it away then I wouldn't have been able to discover such wonderful inner beauty and "storm clouds" within and share them with the fine people here on the rock tumbling hobby forum. We have also found bits of Morgan Hill-like jasper there and I also wouldn't hesitate to tumble that just like the agates - to enhance the beauty and discover the inner secrets.

Henry - I think it's awesome you went out there, inspired by this thread. Yes the best time is a receding to low tide and after a few storms have washed away most of that annoying sand stuff that tends to cover a good rock beach. If the good rocky portions are covered with sand - wait till after a good storm and you'll come back to discover an amazing difference. My girlfriend and I stay off of Pescadero State Beach because it is my understanding that it is closed to collecting - we go just south of there - the beach below the southern tip of the State Beach parking lot and walk south to the rocky area. Some times the pickings are better than others - we spent four hours on our hands and knees in November and came out with a wonderful selection of jaspers and a few jades but only a few noteworthy agates.

Happy hunting :-)

Thanks for the info Tommy. I'm still not totally familiar with the differences between quartz and agate...guess it's a learning curve. What blows me away is the "Poppy Jasper" which I thought was exclusive to the Llagas Creek/ Morgan Hill area. Yep, the area I went to was the south parking lot, traversing my way through the notch in the point, south across the boulder field. Guess I have to wait for a storm. ;D

a fireplace made of jewlery grade materials. Gotta love it!

Yup I recently moved back to the town I grew up in.

Regarding the jade - it was way past my bedtime last night when I wrote that LOL. I should have said a few stones I believe to be Jade. The picture is of one in particular that I'm really sure is jade but again, I could be wrong - it's very hard - can't be scratched by steel and my brother who is a long time rockhound said he thought it was so that was enough for me :-)

There's a few other pieces I believe are jade but I'd have to dig them out of my girlfriend's large jar of green rocks bathroom decoration and I might get my hand slapped...this one however didn't make the cut because it was too big and ugly LOL

Wow! Hard to to tell, but it looks like jade. The poppy jasper thing, is just amazing.

Henry, Like I said, I went there about 100 times since 1995. Sometimes the beach would be full of pebbles (& agates). Sometimes everything was covered with sand with nothing to be found. That just means I'd go a 1/4 mile or so to another location. I was rarely there at low tide. It was like a competition - me against the tide. The prize was agates!

The ones in the tray are the cream of the crop. I have several large ice cream buckets full of lesser, but still great beach agates. I would bring them home & sort them. The next time I went to the beach I'd dump several gallons of less interesting agates back into the ocean to continue tumbing for a future rock collector.
Lynn