Hi all. I have been busy (and a bit lazy) posting the finds from the trip to see the Eclipse. I posted separately the large log find and some of the fossil sponge. This is the rest of the material I collected on the trip with the exception of the Topaz. Since I kept giving the Topaz to people all along the trip I came home with little. The 2 couples who broke down in their motorhome near Jeffrey City and the Grandfather who was visiting his first grandchild I met at a restaurant along with kids, waitresses and even the rangers in one of the Wyoming State parks all got to have some Topaz Keepsakes. I didn't really need more I was so lucky the first couple times I went there better to share the wealth.
The trip started with a 112 degree stop in Mojave on the way and then straight to Topaz Mountain. I dug Topaz for a day and then moved over to Green River to collect Pigeon Blood Agate and Coprolites. I beautiful Gopher snake caught me off guard while collecting the PBlood Agate. and I spent one day on that material. I came home with some very large very high grade Pigeon blood as you can see from the pic of some of the large pieces. The next morning I decided to try a couple canyons I have had luck in the past. I was looking for more of the Lemon Yellow Wood I found there but came up dry. I was hunting the coprolites and after a few hints in the main wash they led me up a side canyon and there they were in clusters dotting the hillside. I did really well. After this I moved up to Wyoming to meet my friends and we went to Blue Forest. First night with only a couple hours to dig I hit the big log. Next day digging maybe 2 feet away I hit a cast of almost all blue agate with 3/4" walls and the base was solid with wood floaters. I picked up a bunch of other wood and limbs and did well for the shorts time there.
We then went to shot the eclipse which was absolutely awesome. While in town I saw a lapidary saw in a guys yard and introduced myself and he turned us on to the Fossil Sponge location which we only hit for maybe 2 hours but came up with some real winners. From there we moved down to Jeffrey City and after finding the looking for Jade was going to be a much harder and longer hunt we decided to hit the Sweetwater agates for a day. I got some beauties. And of course the last morning walking around (!!without my snake chaps on and wearing tennis shoes!!) I almost stepped on the Prairie rattler.
A most memorable trip and loads of great material to cut. Blacklight pic is taken in our bathroom with a UV flashlight to show the green in the sweetwater agates. I just noticed i missed putting the tray of sponge slabs.