Return to Central Oregon

Last month Garry and I spent 2 1/2 days in Central Oregon exploring new rockhounding sites. ?The weather was nice but a little on the warm side even though we got sprinkled on. ?We headed back down this past week, and Chuck joined us. ?We spent 3 days digging in old established sites.

Iris Agate

One of the best examples of Iris agate I have ever found. Found at Maury Mountain.

I did go down a day early and checked out a site south of Prineville Reservoir.

Cliffs

Overlooking the area.

There wasn’t much material, but I had a great time hiking and exploring. ?I did find some small agate and jasper pieces, so the area would benefit from some more exploration.

Agate

Clear agate

I met up with Garry the next day at the Ochoco Ranger Station, and we waited for Chuck. ?He was supposed to arrive at noon, and when he didn’t show by 2:00pm we got a little worried. ?We had planned on checking out the Vistaite site mentioned in “Oregon Gemtrails” ?and were getting anxious to be on the move.

Dig site

Vistaite rockhounding site.

I was able to contact Chuck at 2:30pm and he was still in Madras having his truck worked on. ?Garry and I then went to the Vistaite site and explored and dug until 6:30 or 7:00. ?We didn’t find any material digging, but was able to located some smaller pieces of float. ?We then headed back to the Ranger Station to wait for Chuck. ?We met him on the way and located a spot to camp for the night.

Heading out the next morning we drove to a tube agate site and spent the day digging and filling holes in the meadow.

Chuck

Being close to the truck made hauling our finds out easy.

Garry’s hole was quite a bit bigger.

Garry

That looks like one deep hole.

I started my hole next to Garry’s and we both located some nice material. ?Garry’s best find was a large piece of feather tubes, while I found a couple of nice tube agate pieces.

Tube Agate

Great tube agate find during a great time.

We left the Tube agate site and headed up to Elkhorn Campground near Maury Mountain and spent the night. ?The next morning we drove to the Maury Agate beds and spent the morning hiking and exploring. ?We all found some nice float material, as well as some areas to check out further.

Iris Agate

Another slab of the Iris Agate I found at Maury Mountain.

The weather changed on us though and it got cold. ?It actually snowed on us a couple of times, and storms were moving rapidly across the hills.

Storm

The storms were moving qutie rapidly towards us.

Just before we decided to head home because of the weather I noticed some Mamatus Clouds moving from west to east. ?These clouds are associated with thunder storms and are quite striking.

Mamatus Clouds

A fantastic sight.

We headed home and got snowed on again on our way over Mount Hood, arriving home safely late that night.

Thanks for joining us.

chasfire

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “Return to Central Oregon

  1. Garry

    It’s always fun to read your website about where we’ve been. In May last year it was too hot to hunt in the middle of the day – and this year we get snowed on! That high desert country is beautiful, but you just have to pay your money and take your chances. At least we didn’t have to worry about rattlesnakes this year.
    You should post a photo of that iris agate you found at Maury Mountain – it’s a beauty.

    1. chasfire Post author

      Garry: I agree that you take your chances there, but this time it turned out well worth the trip. I added the iris agate and tube agate photos to the post.

      chasfire

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