I had a trip out to Denver for work and added some time on for fun. Some of that fun was rockhounding. I ended up mailing 5 large flat rate boxes back. The first one has arrived with the corners of the box totally blown out.
Credit to whomever did this Google map. I used it a lot in UT.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?msa=0&dg=feature&mid=1u68C4Yn5MDqdj2ojV5hV9bmX4Fs&ll=38.734619200605856%2C-111.92835979999995&z=6The first day of rockhounding was west of Green River UT in some various washes and hilltops.
The first one of those yielded a bunch of little geodes. They ranged in size from a dime to a golf ball. Some were white > gray > lavender (not arrived yet). The site said Celestite in this location so I don't know if the lavender ones could possibly be that.
Most of them were solid or only druzy crystals inside. I was still thrilled to pick up 100+ in just a couple of hours, right off the surface.
After cutting in half and a quick hit on the wheel:
I went to another area to look for agate and didn't find anything but scenery. In the background is the San Rafel Swell, which I believe is the north end of the Capital Reef, which extends beyond the Nat Park and into these BLM lands:
On my way back to exit the BLM area I found some hilltops that were not marked on the map but had lots of chalcedony/agate/jasper. I'm no expert at telling which is which. I picked up quite a bit of different pieces. Mostly red/yellow/white and some of the honey brown.
There were some other things I found that I couldn't quite identify. I went over to an area near the Klondike trails north of Moab and picked up a good bit of two things that I don't think are anything special but looked cool at the time. The first one seemed like it might be veriscite but it could also just be a rock with some unoxidezed iron or oxidized copper.
Veriscite from Wikipedia:
What I found:
Then there was this stuff. Badly fractured and doesn't hold up to slicing and polishing but I loved the pattern and color.
Searching for pet. wood, I found a lot of this stuff. It resembles wood in a lot of ways but I don't know what it is. It has a slight curve to all of the pieces, like wood and a grain. Most of what I shipped back were much larger than this. This one has had a partial hit on the wheel to open up half of this one side.
Any help that anyone can give me in identifying these three materials would be appreciated. I've got others I'll probably ask about too.
I've got lots more specimens coming tomorrow and lots more locations that I went that I will add. I think the common thread is going to be that the quality of the fun far exceeds the quality of the material I collected but it was a great way to spend some vacation days. Stay tuned...
Author
Topic: UT/Colorado Rockhounding Fun pic heavy (Read 908 times)