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Post by puppie96 on Aug 9, 2004 4:01:40 GMT -5
I haven't been here for the last 11 days or so because I've been traveling to Yellowstone and back, along the way stopping in the Black Hills and throughout the trip searching out rockhounding sites of the low effort and close to the road variety. We hit on some really interesting stuff and this was totally beginner stuff. Besides, we went to The Rock Shed in Keystone SD and met Shawn and had a tour of his whole operation! Also, collected "front yard rock" the whole time from Shawn's front yard -- I couldn't take my eyes off of it -- it was a sea of tumbling mix, pieces that to him were scrap -- too small. Bought a bunch of stuff from him, then started looking for rockhounding sites with some advice from him, and ended up finding on our own one that he didn't know about -- this was a place where you can find garnets in schist and I'd picked up some pieces before I even recognized that I had the stuff! We found places in WY and SD with agates just lying around all over the place and at one site I think I picked up a bunch of green aventurine. Here I am with all this rock and I don't know what to start on first! More details on all this later, if anyone is interested. Have not downloaded photos of the trip including Shawn and The Rock Shed, but I will do so as soon as I can and post them.
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Post by sandsman1 on Aug 9, 2004 4:50:26 GMT -5
hi pup welcome back ---sounds like you had a realy great trip and found a buncha great rock,, i look forward to the pics and ya got to see the rock shed cool
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deepsouth
fully equipped rock polisher
He who rocks last rocks best
Member since January 2004
Posts: 1,256
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Post by deepsouth on Aug 9, 2004 5:17:38 GMT -5
Good to have you back Puppie, and Wow , it sounds like it was a very fruitful trip too, even did the rockshed tour. That must have been something !!! and the best part must have been finding all those free rocks in the many places along the route.
Hope to see the pics soon
Jack
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Post by Cher on Aug 9, 2004 8:27:09 GMT -5
Now that sounds like fun, I wonder if there is any way to pump some rock hunting blood into my hubby? ;D Sounds like you had a great time, congrats on the nice finds.
Cher
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llanago
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2004
Posts: 1,714
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Post by llanago on Aug 9, 2004 9:45:17 GMT -5
Here I am with all this rock and I don't know what to start on first!
Send it to me!!! ;D
Sounds like you had a great trip. I am as green with envy as green adventurine. Isn't it fun to do your own rockhounding! When we went to Falls City, I got excited over eveything I found. There's just something about finding them yourself.
Can't wait to see your pics! I want to go up that way so bad and don't know when I will ever be able to. So, I will just have to "live it" through you and your pics.
Hurry up and get them posted girl!!!
BTW, missed ya' while you were gone.
llana
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Post by BearCreekLapidary on Aug 9, 2004 16:43:00 GMT -5
Hey Pup, Sounds like you have a great time, I wish I could have went along as well. I am definitely due for a vacation of some kind! I keep telling my wife that mowing two acres is not a vacation . Glad you had a great trip and it good to see you are home again. Take cars and be sure to post the photo's when you get time ... you know for us folks that can't get away . Enjoy, John
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Post by krazydiamond on Aug 9, 2004 18:22:29 GMT -5
welcome back, puppie96, i am joining the green brigade with jealousy, sounds like you had a great time AND found some cool rocks.
when you get a chance, fill in some more details and SEND PHOTOS!!!!
thanks, KD
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Post by cookie3rocks on Aug 9, 2004 22:32:50 GMT -5
"Had a good time/found rocks", what else is there? I'm due a vacation and have decided, where ever we go, there must be ROCKS ;D Glad to have you back, Vibe Queen. (only you really understand me ) PICS< PICS! cookie
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RedwoodRocks
freely admits to licking rocks
Member since March 2003
Posts: 762
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Post by RedwoodRocks on Aug 9, 2004 23:16:52 GMT -5
Sounds like you had a great trip - Sightseeing and rock gathering WooHoo!
Cal
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Post by puppie96 on Aug 10, 2004 5:01:44 GMT -5
Hi Guys! Thanks for all the welcome back greetings, I appreciate it! I am having a really hard time tearing myself away from all this new rock. It was mostly all still very dusty/dirty so my treat for the day was to hose it off and see what I've got and I am just stunned!I've kept the stuff sorted by site and in all picked up stuff in about a half dozen places. The common denominator is lots of agate. The guide book I was using emphasizes particular rocks to be looking for, like jade at one Wyoming site, and while I do think we found some jade, there was just color all over the place and agates and jasper and stuff of all descriptions. As I sorted it today I tried to get photos of the rough rock after washing it. I short circuited a vibe batch to get some stuff started from the site I considered the best. Already I've washed it out once and the white "rind" on the agate is going away quickly. This is so exciting! Shawn is a great guy, even nicer in person that he is online. And you would go crazy over all the stuff in his store. I was just amazed at how easily we found all these sites using a guidebook. And I didn't really talk him into a rockhounding trip, per se. We were going to Yell, I just planned the itinerary to pass good rock sites where we could stop for "just a few minutes" and it's "not far from the road." He actually got into it, both finding the sites and finding the rocks once there. For the amount of time we put in, the output was great. It doesn't matter which of the major routes you take across Wyoming, they all have accessible sites. If you don't have a particular site in mind, just look down and pick up whatever's on the side of the road. No kidding. It added a whole new dimension to the trip. I highly recommend it.
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WarrenA
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2003
Posts: 1,530
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Post by WarrenA on Aug 10, 2004 23:28:41 GMT -5
Where did you go in the Black Hills? anyplace to recommend?
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Post by puppie96 on Aug 11, 2004 0:55:24 GMT -5
Black Hills area was more difficult than Wyoming, which has much public land. Also we didn't have as good a guide book. Shawn was reading our book and told us that one area had reactivated claims so it was out. Another he wasn't familiar with, we actually found it and it was interesting. This was a garnet site west of Custer, the site was a big outcrop made up of schist and quartz and "the garnets are where the two intersect." After scrambling up the pretty steep slope I picked up a lot of stuff off the ground and looked at the side of the cliff. It took me a minute to recognize that I was looking at the garnets -- the pieces of schist were studded with them, about pinhead size. I got some really neat stuff there but I think it would be better to keep the best ones as display rocks the way they are -- some of them are really impressive, they have an incredible silver sheen as if it's painted on and the adjoining quartz crystals have reddish veins. This place was on a forest service road. Our book listed a couple of sites southwest of the Badlands which was more remote than we wanted to go to. Shawn suggested a possible place to hunt Fairburn agates but it was too far for us in the wrong direction. He also said that agate is so common in the area that it is worth it to just search any road cuts. We tried to find another site which probably we couldn't access anyway, when we didn't find it we stopped in the area where we could pull off on a dirt road and I picked up a bunch of probable agate and jasper. I should add that it was extremely hot and this limited this activity -- all I really wanted to do was to find a river somewhere and search a gravel bed, but Shawn couldn't think of a good spot in the area. If you go to Crazy Horse they gift you a big chunk of rock if you want it! You have to pay admission, though. I've got 3 of these, they are heavy granite chunks with loads of great inclusions. Stuff is just all over the place in the Black Hills area. I was picking up great stuff out of parking lot gravel at the motel where we stayed in Rapid City! There are also a lot of fossil sites if you are into that. The book we were using was a rockhounding guide for midwestern prairie states. For Wyoming I had a book just for Wyoming, and it was a much better guide, better directions and more inclusive. When are you going there?
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WarrenA
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2003
Posts: 1,530
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Post by WarrenA on Aug 11, 2004 23:27:05 GMT -5
A trip to the Hills isn't a difficult thing except that now with this rock sickness I am not sure that it will fly you know Do we have to go there AGAIN and the I suppose all you want to do is look for ROCKS, just what do I get to do. I live just east of South Dakota 23 miles, 35 to Sioux Falls. I guess I could go by myself.
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Post by puppie96 on Aug 12, 2004 1:48:56 GMT -5
Well, from what I've read about SD, you don't need to go all the way to the Black Hills to find cool rocks. Actually isn't it the eastern part that's glaciated? If so there should be lots of cool stuff.
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WarrenA
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since November 2003
Posts: 1,530
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Post by WarrenA on Aug 12, 2004 23:26:40 GMT -5
Most of the rocks that I find I just pick up in the landscape rock (don't tell anyone) When I am working on a new house they usually have most of the work done about the time that I am so on break I walk around the house head down kind of just shuffling along bend down and pick one up and gaze at it see what it looks like and IF I like it I can put it in my pocket I asked permission long ago.
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Post by puppie96 on Aug 13, 2004 0:42:55 GMT -5
Wow, I know all about several of these things. One, doing that sneaky pick up and look and just seem interested and kind of pretend to throw it away. Two, picking up landscape rock. Note that I'm the one insisting on posting photos of my backyard rock all the time. Have you looked at the rock trails guide for your area? It sounded like eastern SD etc were great places for hounding!
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