Yes, a Vegas rockhound here. Are you in Vegas also squirrel? There is tons of hounding to do around this area in pretty much any direction you drive. And I am still learning a lot about it myself since I really didn't get into lapidary work until about 5 years ago. The local club is a wealth of information. There are many old timers who know more about this area then I will ever be able to learn. I've gained a lot of local experience and knowledge from club activities and field trips. And they have a decent shop for use by club members if you don't have any of your own equipment. I spent a lot of time at the shop before I had equipment of my own.
An easy spot to start you local adventures is at the clubs mine claim. The Ore Car Mine. The area is littered with agate, you just walk around and collect what you want. And club members tend to throw out all kinds of random stuff there also so you will often find non-native rocks lying around as well. There are directions to it at the clubs website.
http://www.snvgms.org/There is petrified wood up near Valley of Fire. There is a red onyx (actually a banded calcite) about an hour north off the 95 freeway. Theres supposed to be some good stuff down around the little town of Goodsprings, but I haven't collected there yet personally. Just yesterday the club was on a field trip to an area just south of the Amargosa Opera House but I wasn't able to go. Too bad because its another new (to me) area I wanted to learn about. And the list goes on.
I'd start with the club mine and seriously think about joining the club. And if you want detailed directions to some other sites I can get them to you. And as I always tell folks, if you are interested you are welcome to come to my place, see my shop setup, and also see samples of much of the local material. And I've got plenty of stuff here to share if you want some rocks to get you started.
Author
Topic: Rockhounding around Las Vegas NV (Read 370 times)