Jim wanted to know if I was interested in checking out a small stream on the property of a friend of his. ?Naturally I jumped at the chance and we met at Jim’s house prior to heading to Salkum where the creek was located. ?Bob and Dorothy met us at their door and showed me the creek and a few of the rocks they had collected.

The water was quite low and I headed for the first gravel bar I could see. ?Not much there except water tumbled basalt, but I did find one small piece of junk pertrified wood. ?I gave up after a short time, and visited with Jim and Bob for a few minutes.

Jim then suggested we go to Barrier Dam and see if we could get to some gravel bars on the Cowlitz River. ?No luck there, but we spent an hour or so watching the fish jump, and the fishermen pull in 3 nice sized fish. ?Apparently 2 of them were wild fish and had to be released.

Our next stop was the Newaukum River.

Serene and Peacefull

Jim left me here and headed home, while I started wading upstream. ?It only took a few minutes before I found my first agate.

Small but promising.

I continued upstream. ?The water was quite low and I was able to check out quite a bit of area in the middle of the river. ?I was only wearing knee boots, so I was limited, but managed to locate a soccer ball sized piece of petrified wood under the water.

This tumbled piece has a skin of agate that looks like Hubbard Basin material.

I also located quite a few boulders of what I thought was white jasper. ?I didn’t bring any home, but will probably go back and get some to use for intarsia borders. ?Most of the rocks were covered with periwinkles and moss, so it was hard to separate the basalt from the good material.

My next find was also in the middle of the river, and I was quite pleased to be able to identify this 2o pound piece of petrified wood.

Under 6" of water, it wasn't easy to identify.

I left this piece for when I was headed out and continued up the river. ?I am pretty sure this river gets picked over throughout the summer, but I was still able to find a small carnelian agate on the next gravel bar upstream.

Almost buried in the gravel.

Even though it was small, it had a nice shape and pattern.

I decided to call it a day and headed back to the truck, picking up the large petrified wood piece on the way.

Overall it was a nice relaxing day.

Thanks for joining me.

chasfire