Chuck, Becky, Jerry, and I decided that March 1st would be a great day to spend some time at the site mentioned in “We’re Back!!”.
We met up at our usual park and ride spot and caravaned down to the parking spot, arriving at 7:45am. It didn’t take us long to load up and get to the jump off point on the road.
Bikes AHOY!
Jerry decided to push a cart in instead of ride, so he was able to get a little bit of a head start. We headed to the place where the 105 pound piece of agate was found and started probing and digging.
We found a few agates, and I then decided to head out on an exploring trip. I left the others digging contentedly, and started hiking up the ridges. I had walked over a couple of ridges without finding any sign of agate, when I reached the cliff face and started finding some smaller pieces of agate laying on the surface.
Hard to miss this one!
I worked my way along the base of the cliff and picked up the small pieces of agate as I came to them. The following pictures are some of the small ones I found as I hiked.
Small nodule.
Hidden in the dirt.
Barely visible.
I was following the base of the cliff when I came upon a recent slide. I decided that I needed to check out this slide area better so started climbing. I was finding more and more agates the higher I climbed, until I came to a layer of clay with softball sized nodules embedded in it.
These nodules were white with black or smoky agate centers. I thought of thunder eggs when I first saw them, but the outer surface was smoother than any thunder eggs I was used to. I also started finding some opal nodules.
I filled up my back pack and then headed back and got the others. I directed Chuck, Becky, and Jerry where to go and I went back to the bikes and unloaded my pack before heading back up.
I almost caught up with them when I snapped this picture of them climbing the slide.
Nature sure makes us realize how small we really are.
We managed to join up and started digging in the clay layer where we started finding more nodules of both agate and opal.
Nodules were scattered throughout the clay layer.
Here is a look at how steep the area we were digging at really is.
You almost need a rope to work this slope.
We worked this area until it was time to head out. Jerry, had left at around 11:30am and we started back at 1:00pm.
We all had a great day and I ended up with 40 pounds of agate and opal.
Thanks for joining us.
chasfire
2 Comments
Richard:
Not only did you have a good weather day, but also a good rock day. It sure looks like a place that needs further exploration, that, I know you will give it.
Friday, when Kathy, and I were there, I noticed a number of flakes in the surface dirt that looked man made. I also found a small piece that may well be a scraper. Seeing this, I tried to knap a piece of the agate, but my beginning knapping skills were not up to this material. It was just too tough, and will nead heat treatment for me to work.
Woody
Woody. We also had that same conversation as we looked at your pile of small chips and the ones that we were also finding. It is possible that local Indians had made preforms there, but the absence of real small chips and the pattern of the flakes leads me to believe that that is the way the outer layer sluffs off of the main rocks. Look at the smooth outside of the larger rocks that you have and you will notice where other layers had been. Just a thought.
Jerry