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[Perkins17]

During April, my family and I took a vacation to the west coast of Washington, staying in the town of Westport. I hit a ton of rockhounding sites while out there, and took tons of pictures. I have these sites listed in chronological order as to when I visited them.
The first site we hit is a personal favorite of mine, the vantage earth pits:
IMG_20220403_121829774 by Perkins17, on Flickr
This is what the ground there looks like:
IMG_20220403_123016944 by Perkins17, on Flickr
My find of the trip:
IMG_20220403_122834792 by Perkins17, on Flickr
All cleaned up with not light:
IMG_20220416_115626444 by Perkins17, on Flickr
With light:
IMG_20220416_115621855 by Perkins17, on Flickr
That's right, this is a 20 pound chunk of precious and common opal combined together. The stone has quite a bit of flash throughout it and I am real proud of finding it.
This is the ocean near where we stayed:
IMG_20220406_181257381 by Perkins17, on Flickr
IMG_20220406_181251780 by Perkins17, on Flickr
IMG_20220406_181456028 by Perkins17, on Flickr
IMG_20220405_104439905 by Perkins17, on Flickr
The Ginko petrified forest was on the way back so we decided to stop there for lunch:
IMG_20220408_122751156 by Perkins17, on Flickr
IMG_20220408_124610158 by Perkins17, on Flickr
Now for the warning part.  I read about Hansen Creek in 2 different rockhounding books. I was really interested and excited at the prospect of finding quartz and ametheyst crystals in Washington so I decided to visit it on my last day there. When we first began the drive up the mountain, we saw a sign that was clearly written by someone who had mental problems it said something like," I am an addict. I will steal everything you have, even if it is nailed down, tied down, or locked in your car." and then proceeded to talk about how they had lost a toy car. This sign really freaked me out because I didn't have a gun or any other weapon on me besides bear spray. Here is a picture of it:
IMG_20220416_185233 by Perkins17, on Flickr
We kept up the mountain road, which steadily got thinner and more treacherous. We were driving a Nissan Armada that has a great four-wheel-drive function that can handle anything, but as we progressed, we were sliding around to the point that we were in danger. Snow had suddenly showed up in large quantities on the thin road with a cliff with at least a 100 foot dropoff on one side and a steep wall on the other. When it got to the point where we were very close to sliding off or getting stuck, we had to give up and back down the dangerous road backward for probably close to a half-mile before we could turn around. So my big warning is this: do not visit Hansen creek when there is a possibility of snow being on the ground, carry a firearm, and be prepared to stop at the earliest possible parking area to hike up for safety. Thank you for looking and reading. I am sorry I had to put the last part in, I just want to make sure no one else makes the same mistakes I did.

[lithicbeads]

There has been lots of gun pointing at Hanson  over the years. I was hunting in the snow far above Hanson once and  the snow never let up all day. I decided to bail straight down the hill through the collecting area to get to my truck down by the highway .Maybe 2.5 feet of snow on the ground at the site. It was late afternoon when the sun came out so I stopped rushing and took a break. Suddenly a handgun appeared next to my head. I can only assume the bad guy was sleeping under a huge stump. We argued and I got more pissed off when we heard a voice tell the man to lower the hand gun or die. Another hunter had approached as we were arguing. He took the hand gun and told the bad guy that by rights he should shoot him. We left and after we were back in the tree line the other hunter , a young man , said he always wanted a magnum handgun and now he had one. Not many miles away a gem hunter was abducted and murdered last summer with a nearby area closed for months until the murderer was caught. It is no more dangerous than around Pipestone Pass collecting area in Montana but that is not saying much. A woman I know hikes in the area with her kids and has two handguns and is well trained with them. About right.

[Perkins17]

I didn't realize it would be so dangerous until I got there. The "no shooting" sign had a ton of holes in it and I found some .45 and .22 shells/tips laying around. That sign scared me straight, I'll tell you that. I'm sorry you had a  bad experience there as well. It just seems like that area is pretty bad. I'm not sure I'll ever go back there. I haven't see one good review by a fellow rockhound about Hansen.

[irockhound]

The way I read the sign I was wondering about the "rig" they lost but because they are an addict and the bottom said "no cap, I dropped it" I would assume is referring to their kit for shooting up and the syringe is uncapped.  It is crazy out there collecting at times and I personally am armed when I collect remotely.  I had a guy pull a shotgun on me when I tried to enter the Hauser Geode beds saying the the entire beds were his claim.  I just nodded politely and left in a hurry and let the sheriff know.

[R.U. Sirius]

Add to the "dangers of this hobby" list... I have been thinking about a road trip from California to home in Alberta, with several stops in collecting areas. Really, getting murdered or even harassed has not been on my list of concerns until today.

But hey, those hints of precious opal are a surprise... I wonder how stable the material is. Please do let us know if you ever cut it!

[Perkins17]

Yeah, I would like to be armed when out now too, even if it was just a knife. You did the right thing just walking away from the guy with the shotgun. That could have been very dangerous. I am super happy with my precious opal, but way too scared to cut it up. It is pretty solid, which is why I originally dug it up, for slabbing and cabbing, so we'll see if maybe I'll sell it eventually. If I do cut it though, I will for sure post pictures. I live within walking distance of a lapidary guy who might be interested in this piece. He collected high value rocks that are generally foreign.

[AgateLicker]

What I'm getting from the message is that some doodlebrain got ripped off by another wacko and the message is sending not only a warning to other doodlebrain wackos about the owner of the blue Toyota trucks crackheadyness but also putting his usage problems on blast for the world. Yay drugs.

Always carry protection and trust the 'Go Time' feeling, kids!


That hunk is lovely! Thanks for sharing.

[Perkins17]

What I'm getting from the message is that some doodlebrain got ripped off by another wacko and the message is sending not only a warning to other doodlebrain wackos about the owner of the blue Toyota trucks crackheadyness but also putting his usage problems on blast for the world. Yay drugs.

Always carry protection and trust the 'Go Time' feeling, kids!


That hunk is lovely! Thanks for sharing.

Drugs suck, period. The world would be a better place without them. I would have felt much safer with a .38 or something I'm sure. I'm super proud of that chunk lol. I'm glad you enjoyed the "show and talk until everyone is bored".