20 Minutes!

I wanted to stop at the Blackfoot River site I visited last month, but our time was limited.  We needed to be in Great Falls by early evening.  We arrived at the Blackfoot River site at about 3:00pm and still had 1 1/2 hours to go to get to Great Falls.  That only left me 20 minutes to search the gravel bars.

Parked in the sun along the Blackfoot River.

I jumped out of the car and headed to the river, not even taking the time to get a bag or rock hammer.  It took me five minutes to get down to the gravel bar, and since it would take me that long to get back, I only had ten minutes on the gravel.

Plenty of gravel, but not enough time.

I started along the steep bank and worked my way around the bend to this large gravel bar.

My destination for this trip.

This gravel produced the first true agate that I found.  It was about the size of a baseball, and was half buried in the sand and gravel.  I scooped it up, washed it off, and then remembered to snap a picture of it.

Very nice color in this agate.

My time was fast running out, so I made a quick search on the rest of the gravel bar, and then headed back.  I cut through the weeds, discovering more gravel to check out.  I located some small jaspers in this gravel, and still was able to make it back to the car within 20 minutes.

Here is a picture of the pieces I found in the 10 minutes I had.

Not very many, but still keepers.

I didn’t get to spend the time at this site that I would have liked, but it was enjoyable.

Thanks for joining me.

chasfire