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Post by rockhoundingwithkids on Apr 16, 2020 11:42:17 GMT -5
Good morning! I'm new here... my family recently moved to the central valley of CA after living in southern california and sea glass hunting was our hobby with the occasional trip to Bakersfield to find shark teeth. We are expertly novice rock-hounders (my husband is great with the names and terminology and is working on the geologic formations of the area. Me.. barely passed my geology class in college but I pick up the pretty stuff and I've turned out to be really good at gold panning and sluice feeder so that's my job.) We joined the Mariposa gem and mineral club and went to the last meeting right before it shut down from all the COVID stuff. We have a single barrel lortone rock tumbler that is never off. The books we have seem to have lots of locations in the far north of California but not so much in this direction. I found this board while looking up the hornitos poppy jasper thread and I called Dr. T but his (wife?) said he was ill and she took down my number for him to call me. We have 2 children under 3 and we love exploring. (My husbands family lives in New Mexico and we love roaming looking for rocks and fossils.) We're looking for places to explore within 1.5 hours of us. (Mariposa, Bear Valley etc...) I'm having a hard time getting the BLM maps pulled up. I can't seem to zoom in enough to see boundaries in relation to locations. There's lots of cattle and fencing and some of it is posted and others not. We never see anyone out other than the cows to ask about the areas and get more inside information. Same with the mines...(which we haven't come across) we would love to go through some tailings but I also have concerns about chemical extractions and worry about exposure and the kids (if that's even a thing, I know CA is quite strict with this...) and speaking of hazards we've only been out in the winter months so I'm not sure if the snake situation here is as bad as down south? Mountain lions? Bears? I figure Bear Valley might be named that for a reason? This is unrelated but in case anyone knows - we love taking the kids out by the creek and hanging out and sluicing for gold. Even if it was a hunting property we haven't done that in CA but if we had the place to do it...At first I thought I'd look into getting some property with a creek on it which unless you're building a house doesn't make much sense so I've been looking into getting a claim. Ideally we'd like to camp and hang out. I know there's lots of fraudulent claim sellers so I'm really not even sure where to start with that or if only expert miners were allowed. I'd just like to be able to drive a camper out to our own space you know? So if anyone has some advice on where to go or books to read or websites to check out or how to better navigate California's BLM page? [TLDR- toddlers make it hard to go anywhere or write a question on a message board. Please help me find somewhere to take them to get them and us out for more adventures.]
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Post by rockjunquie on Apr 16, 2020 11:50:48 GMT -5
Welcome from Virginia. Lots of folks here from CA who should be able to help.
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stonemon
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2017
Posts: 1,024
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Post by stonemon on Apr 16, 2020 12:28:04 GMT -5
Welcome from western Oregon!
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Post by manofglass on Apr 16, 2020 12:53:00 GMT -5
Welcome to the forum
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Post by rockhoundingwithkids on Apr 16, 2020 13:04:07 GMT -5
Thanks for the welcome! Someone actually pointed me in the direction of OnX hunt and I can't believe I didn't think about hunters needing to know land boundaries... so far it seems to be exactly what I needed.
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Post by knave on Apr 16, 2020 14:14:41 GMT -5
Welcome here!
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Post by 1dave on Apr 16, 2020 14:56:15 GMT -5
Welcome from Utah. The cows won't tell you where the good stuff is? Damned hoarders!
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Post by RocksInNJ on Apr 16, 2020 18:18:49 GMT -5
Welcome from New Jersey.
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,653
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Post by Tommy on Apr 16, 2020 18:31:13 GMT -5
Hi rockhoundingwithkids welcome to the forum! I have to admit to some pangs of jealousy - my wife and I absolutely love that area and are actively dreaming of retiring to Cathey's Valley. The Mariposa club gem and mineral show at the fairgrounds is one of my favorite shows in northern CA. For reasons I don't understand that smallish show receives a greater than typical percentage of vendors who are selling quality slabs and rough. I think it's because it's club locals who don't frequent the show circuit like many vendors do. Regarding collecting, the most famous lapidary material to collect near you is of course Mariposite. It's pretty easy to find in several locations up off Hwy 49 north of Mariposa. Where Hwy 49 crosses the Merced River in the Bagby area folks like to go down on the river and look for jade - I've never actually done it because I don't care for jade much and there is SO much serpentine in the area I'm certain I'd drag home buckets of junk thinking I had struck it rich Google "white rock road" and that marks the area where cross rocks are found aka: Chastiolites. The collecting area is fairly vast and makes for a fun drive around the green hills in the spring. The road in to Eastman lake is fairly prolific with them if you know where to look in the road cuts. They are relatively tiny small (up to dime size) crystals that are found in the soil - they are hard to spot at first but once you see one you'll start picking them up in no time at all. Not sure what to do with them after though haha. Hornitos poppy jasper is an elusive dream rock. My wife and I have been up on the hill probably six times and have yet to find anything of any real quality to make a cabochon out of. If you venture up there you will need a 4 wheel drive for absolute certain. The road up is steep and rutted and should definitely not be attempted soon after a good rain. When you reach the top the area around the Turnbull claim is all fair game for searching for pretty rocks and in the natural watershed valleys there are dozens of old pits where quality poppy jasper was found back in the day. The claim is very well marked so it's easy to avoid while searching around the perimeter. Beware of deep pits - they are there so keep a leash on the dogs and kids If you are boat people you can launch on Lake McClure and head out towards the Merced river and along the way you'll pass Jasper Point. Nothing too exciting but it's fun to look at. Further upstream (and down) when the lake is low it's fun to rockhound the shoreline via boat. Head due west past Patterson and it is said that there is a fossil location where they are found by cracking open slate rocks. I have not been there. Head west over to Hwy 5 and bit south you will find Area 54 which is a small but popular collecting location - google "Blue G Lawsonite" and you'll get hits for it. Not my favorite material but it's a fun day out. A bit farther south in San Benito County is the famous Clear Creek, home of Plasma Agate. Vehicle and person permits are required to enter the area. Hope this helps! Post back with any trip reports and pictures so we can all ohhh and ahhh if you find stuff Edited to add: holy smokes, how could I forget about the rockpiles around Snelling - right in your neighborhood. You probably already know about them but yeah, they are so vast that you can easily see them on google satellite view. Pick a spot and venture carefully into the piles but be careful not to lose your bearings and get lost. Folks find nice jaspers including the occasional poppy jasper there. All I found last time was ticks. I have a metal reconstructed ankle so walking on giant piles of round rocks wasn't much fun for me.
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Post by hummingbirdstones on Apr 16, 2020 18:41:08 GMT -5
Welcome to the addiction from Northern Arizona!
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Post by Starguy on Apr 16, 2020 19:25:19 GMT -5
Welcome to RTH. Great info here.
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Post by rockhoundingwithkids on Apr 17, 2020 11:15:11 GMT -5
Ughh, I had a whole post wrote out and my toddler hit a button! Dang it... anyways Thank you so much for sharing so much information!!! Exactly the guidance we've needed! It seems like we've been on the right track just needed some more direction and I think you've provided that. I fell in love with Cathey's Valley the first time we were up there. It's been a weekly trip since! It's so beautiful.... I'm hoping to find an old ranch couple with no kids that wants to adopt us I'll try to attach some pictures of the Mariposite and Serpentine we've found so far and a boulder size piece of something that we're trying to figure out what it is. My husband thinks it might be a low quality jade or maybe a different kind of serpentine. I do have to stop my husband from filling buckets of it, as you can see in the few times we've gone collecting it's already taking over our front door. I'm so glad we have different things to focus on instead of getting more of this stuff.. because you're right. It's everywhere. We've only gone down White Rock Rd to Beach Rd. I believe or maybe not even that far. Had never realized there was another lake nearby either. Really excited to try and find the rest of that list too! We seen and read about the Snelling rock piles... it's incredible that it's just dumped everywhere but haven't explored them. I seem to find ticks everywhere we go lately! Pictures of the mystery boulder, mariposite, serpentine, quartz and garnets we've found. The tumbled agates I believe were from either down south or NM. (I'm not sure if this link works...) Let's try this... Mariposa County Finds Hi rockhoundingwithkids welcome to the forum! I have to admit to some pangs of jealousy - my wife and I absolutely love that area and are actively dreaming of retiring to Cathey's Valley. The Mariposa club gem and mineral show at the fairgrounds is one of my favorite shows in northern CA. For reasons I don't understand that smallish show receives a greater than typical percentage of vendors who are selling quality slabs and rough. I think it's because it's club locals who don't frequent the show circuit like many vendors do. Regarding collecting, the most famous lapidary material to collect near you is of course Mariposite. It's pretty easy to find in several locations up off Hwy 49 north of Mariposa. Where Hwy 49 crosses the Merced River in the Bagby area folks like to go down on the river and look for jade - I've never actually done it because I don't care for jade much and there is SO much serpentine in the area I'm certain I'd drag home buckets of junk thinking I had struck it rich Google "white rock road" and that marks the area where cross rocks are found aka: Chastiolites. The collecting area is fairly vast and makes for a fun drive around the green hills in the spring. The road in to Eastman lake is fairly prolific with them if you know where to look in the road cuts. They are relatively tiny small (up to dime size) crystals that are found in the soil - they are hard to spot at first but once you see one you'll start picking them up in no time at all. Not sure what to do with them after though haha. Hornitos poppy jasper is an elusive dream rock. My wife and I have been up on the hill probably six times and have yet to find anything of any real quality to make a cabochon out of. If you venture up there you will need a 4 wheel drive for absolute certain. The road up is steep and rutted and should definitely not be attempted soon after a good rain. When you reach the top the area around the Turnbull claim is all fair game for searching for pretty rocks and in the natural watershed valleys there are dozens of old pits where quality poppy jasper was found back in the day. The claim is very well marked so it's easy to avoid while searching around the perimeter. Beware of deep pits - they are there so keep a leash on the dogs and kids If you are boat people you can launch on Lake McClure and head out towards the Merced river and along the way you'll pass Jasper Point. Nothing too exciting but it's fun to look at. Further upstream (and down) when the lake is low it's fun to rockhound the shoreline via boat. Head due west past Patterson and it is said that there is a fossil location where they are found by cracking open slate rocks. I have not been there. Head west over to Hwy 5 and bit south you will find Area 54 which is a small but popular collecting location - google "Blue G Lawsonite" and you'll get hits for it. Not my favorite material but it's a fun day out. A bit farther south in San Benito County is the famous Clear Creek, home of Plasma Agate. Vehicle and person permits are required to enter the area. Hope this helps! Post back with any trip reports and pictures so we can all ohhh and ahhh if you find stuff Edited to add: holy smokes, how could I forget about the rockpiles around Snelling - right in your neighborhood. You probably already know about them but yeah, they are so vast that you can easily see them on google satellite view. Pick a spot and venture carefully into the piles but be careful not to lose your bearings and get lost. Folks find nice jaspers including the occasional poppy jasper there. All I found last time was ticks. I have a metal reconstructed ankle so walking on giant piles of round rocks wasn't much fun for me.
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,653
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Post by Tommy on Apr 17, 2020 11:27:17 GMT -5
You're very welcome rockhoundingwithkids , sounds like you guys are off to a great start. Just a note about posting photos that are uploaded on Imgur, you'll need to isolate the URL with the actual .jpg photo link otherwise it breaks here. Windows users can right-click directly on an Imgur posted image and choose "copy image URL" like I have done here: i.imgur.com/NhMrkQH.jpgFor displaying the photo here in a post you'll need to wrap it in BBC tags like this: [img]https://i.imgur.com/NhMrkQH.jpg[/img] The code above equates to this:
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Post by Pat on Apr 17, 2020 11:36:31 GMT -5
Welcome from California.
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,653
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Post by Tommy on Apr 17, 2020 11:56:54 GMT -5
We've only gone down White Rock Rd to Beach Rd. I believe or maybe not even that far. Had never realized there was another lake nearby either. I'm sure you'd figure this out by yourselves but the best way to Eastman lake is from the Merced side. Along the way the crossrocks can be found in various areas but in particular the intersection of Avenue 26 and Road 29 is fairly productive on the road side of the fences of course. Not sure what it looks like right now - grass is probably very high. These were found at the 26/29 location in about a half hour of not very serious searching. We were just farting around on our way up to Eastman to let our dogs take an evening romp in the lake. You probably know this because it's easily researched but it's crazy to think about all those miles and miles of rock piles were dredged out of the Merced river by gold miners. With the location being just a few miles downstream of Hornitos poppy jasper region can you imagine all the jasper that could lie towards the bottom of those piles? It keels me to think about it haha.
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Post by rockhoundingwithkids on Apr 17, 2020 11:58:52 GMT -5
Ahhh... I think my computer coding ended when HTML went out of style. Any ideas on that boulder? You're very welcome rockhoundingwithkids , sounds like you guys are off to a great start. Just a note about posting photos that are uploaded on Imgur, you'll need to isolate the URL with the actual .jpg photo link otherwise it breaks here. Windows users can right-click directly on an Imgur posted image and choose "copy image URL" like I have done here: i.imgur.com/NhMrkQH.jpgFor displaying the photo here in a post you'll need to wrap it in BBC tags like this: [img]https://i.imgur.com/NhMrkQH.jpg[/img] The code above equates to this:
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,653
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Post by Tommy on Apr 17, 2020 12:14:37 GMT -5
Any ideas on that boulder? Based on the region where it was found I would say (almost) positively it's serpentine. There are lots of ways to test for jade looking at the hardness and type of fracturing but the most definitive is probably the specific gravity test if you can chip an area of solid green that doesn't have a bunch of junk in it. Serpentine will be in the 2.5 range and jade in the 2.90 - 3.10 There are lots of youtube videos on the specific gravity test but I like how this guy describes it:
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Post by 1dave on Apr 17, 2020 12:31:20 GMT -5
Andalusite? We've only gone down White Rock Rd to Beach Rd. I believe or maybe not even that far. Had never realized there was another lake nearby either. I'm sure you'd figure this out by yourselves but the best way to Eastman lake is from the Merced side. Along the way the crossrocks can be found in various areas but in particular the intersection of Avenue 26 and Road 29 is fairly productive on the road side of the fences of course. Not sure what it looks like right now - grass is probably very high. These were found at the 26/29 location in about a half hour of not very serious searching. We were just farting around on our way up to Eastman to let our dogs take an evening romp in the lake. You probably know this because it's easily researched but it's crazy to think about all those miles and miles of rock piles were dredged out of the Merced river by gold miners. With the location being just a few miles downstream of Hornitos poppy jasper region can you imagine all the jasper that could lie towards the bottom of those piles? It keels me to think about it haha.
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Tommy
Administrator
Member since January 2013
Posts: 12,653
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Post by Tommy on Apr 17, 2020 12:49:49 GMT -5
I believe the rocks are chastiolites but the actual crystals inside are andalusite?
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2020 12:54:16 GMT -5
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