Trip report - Nevada - to McDermitt
Apr 30, 2014 22:35:26 GMT -5
rockpickerforever, The Dad_Ohs, and 1 more like this
Post by Tommy on Apr 30, 2014 22:35:26 GMT -5
Hi all, I wasn't sure if I was going to post this - still feeling sheepish about not being able to make it up to Roy and Tony's tour of the Owyhees. At the last minute we couldn't pull it together for the big trip but we had already taken vacation days off so we decided on a lower-budget drive into Nevada to collect some of our favorites and hopefully find some new favorites.
We first headed to a fairly remote place where we had previously found enough interesting stuff to place it on our list of places that needed further exploration. This time we drove up a rough rocky road as far as we could go then got out and hiked up and around a steep peak and made our way down into a canyon ravine that lead us back down in the direction of the truck. Along the way we discovered the mother of all orange jasper boulders sticking out of the ground with strange red markings and agate inclusions galore. Our first thought was to free it from the ground and roll it a mile down the canyon to where the truck was waiting ... haha I'll never admit this was MY lame-brain idea of course - after digging it free it weighed so much that the only way I could even roll it over was to sit with my back braced against a rock and leg-press it as hard as I could.
We gave up on the crazy notion and kept going only to discover a few steps later that our path was blocked by a dramatic 30ft cliff drop off with absolutely no way to go except back the way we came. Already exhausted and discouraged by the thought of having to backtrack all the way up the steep canyon, we decided instead to crawl up and over the steep hillside and try to get out that way ... (I think this one was Eva's good idea ). That's where things got interesting ... the ground was good and soft but crawling up the steep hillside was a killer, me lugging a heavy half-full bucket and Eva sporting a heavy backpack. About half way up we discovered that the hillside we were climbing was a seemingly virgin field of big beautiful red and orange jasper rocks loaded with agate. We both started picking it up and probably weighed 50lbs heavier than when we started - gasping for air, picking up more and more rocks and laughing our asses off the whole way up the hill.
This stuff reminds me of Lavic material on steroids for size, most stones being between 5-10 lbs. Some of it had the same burnt orange color characteristics - maybe this is what the size of Lavic rock looked like 40 years ago?
Friday morning we sat and watched the rain pour down - the trip seeming a bit lost at that point. We had thoughts of heading north towards Gerlach and above but I've read stories of how the black rock desert gets muddy fast in any kind of rain and without a starting point we decided to drive a while and try to outrun the rain by heading up as far as McDermitt. Most of the drive between Fallon and McDermitt was filled with intermittant downpours but it conveniently seemed to stop whenever we needed to get out and explore which included an unproductive stop in the decidedly creepy Lovelock area.
We drove to the top of a peak with the microwave tower mentioned in the Rockhounding Nevada book to a site that was a badly picked over waste of time. We explored a little on the way back down the mountain and found a nearby location that had a lot of chunks of opalite but we thought it was pretty boring and only took a few little scraps for sampling.
The weather was a little better when we reached McDermitt ... it wasn't raining but it was bone-numbing cold with a bitter wind blowing and snow flurries the whole time LOL. Snow flurries are better than rain if you know what I mean. Being a California boy of course I forgot to bring a jacket - all I had all weekend was a hoodie sweatshirt but it did the job.
Video link:
This was our first time at McDermitt so with the books as our starting point we began our search for interesting stuff - heading out random dirt roads - dodging rain and snow flurries as they moved through. Call it beginners luck but right off the bat we found some very nice stuff. At one book location we discovered massive quantities of opalized wood but weren't that interested in it and didn't take any. Still we were struck by the beauty of the place inspite of the weather.
Disaster peak road - I think that's disaster peak in the background but someone can correct me if I'm wrong.
Agate hill location from the book - very picked over - we did find a lot of a brownish orange agate.
At another location we found beautiful purple (cow?) agate, some with unusual red inclusions. We collected a milk-crate full and some of them I've cut so far as showing beautiful dark purple color.
With the sky clearing but still bone cold we were off to find Disaster Peak picture stone and that was a pretty easy drive right where the book said it would be. Our biggest challenge was to limit ourselves to around one milkcrate and no 500lb boulders.
Here I am pondering how good this 500 pound boulder of picture stone would look in my back yard.
My honey dug this big flat piece out of the ground from where it was buried sideways - no easy feat for her and now it's proudly displayed in our garden.
Heading home on Hwy 80 we were curious about the Rose Creek Mountain area so we decided to pull off and while scouting around the area we discovered a very interesting material coming off the side of a steep canyon - light green with dramatic red and yellow inclusions. We found it to be very hard - couldn't be scratched with a knife so we brought home some samples - around a milkcrate full haha. I can't find anything even remotely like it on the internet so I named it Rose Creek Brecciated jasper.
A little farther down the freeway we pulled off again and discovered some interesting abandoned mines.
Exhausted and happy we headed home.
Thanks for looking.
We first headed to a fairly remote place where we had previously found enough interesting stuff to place it on our list of places that needed further exploration. This time we drove up a rough rocky road as far as we could go then got out and hiked up and around a steep peak and made our way down into a canyon ravine that lead us back down in the direction of the truck. Along the way we discovered the mother of all orange jasper boulders sticking out of the ground with strange red markings and agate inclusions galore. Our first thought was to free it from the ground and roll it a mile down the canyon to where the truck was waiting ... haha I'll never admit this was MY lame-brain idea of course - after digging it free it weighed so much that the only way I could even roll it over was to sit with my back braced against a rock and leg-press it as hard as I could.
We gave up on the crazy notion and kept going only to discover a few steps later that our path was blocked by a dramatic 30ft cliff drop off with absolutely no way to go except back the way we came. Already exhausted and discouraged by the thought of having to backtrack all the way up the steep canyon, we decided instead to crawl up and over the steep hillside and try to get out that way ... (I think this one was Eva's good idea ). That's where things got interesting ... the ground was good and soft but crawling up the steep hillside was a killer, me lugging a heavy half-full bucket and Eva sporting a heavy backpack. About half way up we discovered that the hillside we were climbing was a seemingly virgin field of big beautiful red and orange jasper rocks loaded with agate. We both started picking it up and probably weighed 50lbs heavier than when we started - gasping for air, picking up more and more rocks and laughing our asses off the whole way up the hill.
This stuff reminds me of Lavic material on steroids for size, most stones being between 5-10 lbs. Some of it had the same burnt orange color characteristics - maybe this is what the size of Lavic rock looked like 40 years ago?
Friday morning we sat and watched the rain pour down - the trip seeming a bit lost at that point. We had thoughts of heading north towards Gerlach and above but I've read stories of how the black rock desert gets muddy fast in any kind of rain and without a starting point we decided to drive a while and try to outrun the rain by heading up as far as McDermitt. Most of the drive between Fallon and McDermitt was filled with intermittant downpours but it conveniently seemed to stop whenever we needed to get out and explore which included an unproductive stop in the decidedly creepy Lovelock area.
We drove to the top of a peak with the microwave tower mentioned in the Rockhounding Nevada book to a site that was a badly picked over waste of time. We explored a little on the way back down the mountain and found a nearby location that had a lot of chunks of opalite but we thought it was pretty boring and only took a few little scraps for sampling.
The weather was a little better when we reached McDermitt ... it wasn't raining but it was bone-numbing cold with a bitter wind blowing and snow flurries the whole time LOL. Snow flurries are better than rain if you know what I mean. Being a California boy of course I forgot to bring a jacket - all I had all weekend was a hoodie sweatshirt but it did the job.
Video link:
This was our first time at McDermitt so with the books as our starting point we began our search for interesting stuff - heading out random dirt roads - dodging rain and snow flurries as they moved through. Call it beginners luck but right off the bat we found some very nice stuff. At one book location we discovered massive quantities of opalized wood but weren't that interested in it and didn't take any. Still we were struck by the beauty of the place inspite of the weather.
Disaster peak road - I think that's disaster peak in the background but someone can correct me if I'm wrong.
Agate hill location from the book - very picked over - we did find a lot of a brownish orange agate.
At another location we found beautiful purple (cow?) agate, some with unusual red inclusions. We collected a milk-crate full and some of them I've cut so far as showing beautiful dark purple color.
With the sky clearing but still bone cold we were off to find Disaster Peak picture stone and that was a pretty easy drive right where the book said it would be. Our biggest challenge was to limit ourselves to around one milkcrate and no 500lb boulders.
Here I am pondering how good this 500 pound boulder of picture stone would look in my back yard.
My honey dug this big flat piece out of the ground from where it was buried sideways - no easy feat for her and now it's proudly displayed in our garden.
Heading home on Hwy 80 we were curious about the Rose Creek Mountain area so we decided to pull off and while scouting around the area we discovered a very interesting material coming off the side of a steep canyon - light green with dramatic red and yellow inclusions. We found it to be very hard - couldn't be scratched with a knife so we brought home some samples - around a milkcrate full haha. I can't find anything even remotely like it on the internet so I named it Rose Creek Brecciated jasper.
A little farther down the freeway we pulled off again and discovered some interesting abandoned mines.
Exhausted and happy we headed home.
Thanks for looking.