It’s 4:00am! ?Do you know what your Rockhound is doing?

4:00am brings it's own rewards.

This Rockhound is heading to the Skokomish River. ?It has been at least a year since I spent any time on this river, and I wanted to check it out after the winter floods.

Leaving so early in the morning allowed me to stop and take a few pictures along the way, as well as get home early to do some chores around the house. ?I arrived at Brown’s Creek Camp Ground and parked the truck.

I then headed to the river. ?The water level was not as low as I have seen it in the past, but it was at a level where wading with hip waders was manageable. ?There are a lot of gravel bars on this portion of the river, so I had plenty of material to look through.

Looking down river at the Brown's Creek Bridge.

My first discovery wasn’t a rock. ?It was a nicely hidden camp site.

I carefully worked my way around this site, so as not to disturb anything or anyone.?

From this point on I had the river to myself and it was great. ?I couldn’t help but notice how clear the water was, and was enjoying the scenery so much that I almost missed the first interesting find.

Water shaped hardened clay.

I did find several of these water sculpted clay pieces, and brought a few of them home. ?This one looks like a camel.

When the water is clear like this it is easy to spot the bright red of jasper.

Water this clear is refreshing.

I did find one crossing where the water actually splashed over the tops of my waders, but that didn’t stop me from continuing my hike. ?At 9:00am I finally decided to head back to the truck, and searched this large gravel bar before hitting the trail back.

This large gravel bar gave me the only pieces of jasper I kept.

The Skokomish River Trail is very close to the river in this area, so I was able to hike back fairly quickly. ?Except!! I spent a lot of time taking photos of the old growth trees, the lush vegetation, and the small waterfalls along the way.

This scenic water fall crosses the trail.

I arrived back at the truck just before 10:00am, changed my wet socks for some dry ones and headed home.

This is the extent of my finds today. Not the most I have ever found but interesting.

On the way home I decided to stop at the High Steel Bridge. ?I had never been to this spot before, but it is quite an engineering accomplishment.

I don't know how far down that is, but it to far to fall.

I arrived home at noon. ?Thanks for joining me on this short trip.

chasfire