Garry and I met up with Eric and his family from the Kitsap Rock Club, and had three days of great rockhounding.
Central Oregon has some beautiful sunsets.
I headed down on Sunday afternoon, while Garry and Nancy met me on Monday. ?Monday morning I spent at Dendrite Butte scouring the hillside for limb casts. ?I was lucky to find a number of nice pieces, including the following two.
What to look for.
What it looks like.
What you see.
The hidden part.
It was great to get to this area again, and a bonus finding some nice material.
I met up with Garry later in the day and we went up the mountain to retrieve a log section that he located on our last trip. ?We never did find the log because we think someone else got there first. ?We did find the source log though, and managed to haul a section out.
A large log buried in the ground.
After digging out a section and starting it on the way to the truck, I looked around and was surprised to find a small limb.
Six sections of the small limb I located.
I dug out these limb sections, but left more in the hillside.
The end that keeps going.
Garry and I managed to haul his log out to the truck in only a couple of hours. ?We then called it a day. ?I headed to Maury Mtn, while Garry met Nancy at their rented cabin.
Tuesday found us all at Maury Mtn. where Eric and his family joined us. ?We were able to find some really nice moss agate.
Garry and Nancy check out the ground.
It was quite warm so we quit early. ?Once again Garry, Nancy and Eric and his family headed back to their cabin while I headed to the Ochoco National Forest and the Tube Agate site. ?We made arrangements to meet up on Wednesday morning.
Early Wednesday morning I looked out my truck window and caught a deer checking out the tube agate digs.
Even the deer are looking for agates here.
I figured the deer must know something so I started digging right where she was at. ?It was one of the best decisions I made. ?I was able to get a number of great tube agate pieces, including one I cut this slab from.
Front lit tube agate.
Back lit.
When Garry, Nancy and Eric and his family showed up, Eric started a dig a few feet away from mine.
Move dirt to find the good stuff.
Garry wanted some shade so he headed for the trees to dig his hole.
Shade trees sure make for nice digging in hot weather.
We spent all morning digging up some nice material. ?I decided to head home and left the rest happily finding more agate.
Thanks for joining us.
chasfire
Thanks for taking us along with you. We all had a good time and came home with some neat rocks.