I had casually mentioned to Becky that I had thought about going rockhounding. ?It was just a thought, with no real plan to do anything about it ?.
Some nice rocks are usually found near waterfalls.
Long story short, Becky calls up and we quickly plan a trip to one of the creeks near Toutle. ? Chuck and Becky met me at my house at 7:00am and we spent the 1 1/2 hour drive discussing which creek to hike.
The choice was down to two, and we stopped at the first one, deciding to do it first and then head for creek number two. ?It didn’t take long to get our gear on and start out, since we didn’t have to do any hiking to get to the creek.
Parked near the start.
This spot was pretty picked over since it was so close to the road, but we still were able to find a few pieces of petrified wood.
Starting out.
I also found a small feeder stream that I headed up for a short distance. ?I found a number of small pieces of jasper and agate in this stream before heading back and joining Chuck and Becky.
Trying to hide under the water.
Our hike up the main creek wasn’t the most productive, but there was plenty of gravel bars to check out.
The blow down were quite large.
There was also lots of beautiful scenery and mosses.
Moss grows everywhere in this climate.
The rocks were getting bigger the farther up the creek we went, although the material we were finding wasn’t. ?I did find and really nice piece of jasper.
Probably the best piece I found on this trip
It was getting close to noon when we finally realized that we were getting hungry. ?We stopped and highgraded our finds, leaving some behind for others to find. ?After lunch we continued up the creek. ?It seemed as though there were fewer pieces to find, although we did find a few.
Becky found a very nice heart shaped dark red jasper at this spot.
We finally found a good spot to connect with a logging road for the hike back to the car. ?The hike back to the car didn’t take vary long, but we decided to head home instead of trying the other creek.
My haul wasn’t very big but here are a couple of pictures ?of the material I kept.
Agate, jasper and petrified wood.
Small pieces of carnelian.
We arrived home a little after 2:00 pm. ?I unloaded must stuff from the car and Chuck and Becky headed to their house.
Thanks for joining us.
chasfire
im fixen to enjoy a months vaction hiking,backpacking some where in washington state…but havnt decieded where yet…hoping to do some gem hunting..could u please give me some ideas….will be walking most of time..but can take public trasportation…any ideas would be greatly apperiated…thank you for yur time………….james feist….701-500-4980
James: Where you go and what time of the year has a lot to do with the locations I would recommend. That said, your best source would be “Gem Trails of Washington”. It would show a number of locations that are still accessible, although most locations are not on public transportation routes.
chasfire
The blue/green jasper sure looks to have promise, great find.
Woody
I agree. i haven’t cut it yet but plan on it soon.
chasfire