not that one.
Went back into the palisades today, on a chilly and overcast but relatively nice day. It's a few days past the last snow, so the bentonite was get-your-boots-dirty muddy, not gateway-to-the-underworld muddy.
Line of palisades cliffs, all volcanic ash / mudflow in origin. They've weathered down to some nice hoodoos.
Lots of red, tan and black petrified wood from this area. Not all of it is solid, but it looks like it might cut and polish better than some I've found. There's a good amount of really big trunks back in here, much bigger than I can move. It's on BLM, so not going to go muck around with my ATV on the soft dirt. It's enclosed by private property, but we're all still trying to treat it as a miniature national park, a little rockhounding aside, and make sure it stays pretty pristine. I'm sure I've posted pictures of this place before in better light, today it was a heavy dark overcast and snowed for a bit.
A bentonite pit at the bottom of the valley kicks up these brick-red jasper nodules. They have a thin opal skin on them, both common and clear opal. Some of the jasper is orb and plume, and some solid red, I haven't done a ton with the nodules yet but bright red jasper actually isn't that common out here... so saving them for when a mosaic project calls for it.
