Daniel had never been rockhounding before, and wanted to give it a try. ?We were tied up early so we didn’t leave until after 9:00am. ?The weather at my original destination was supposed to be rainy, so I decided that the Skokomish River would give us the best chance of a dry day. ?Parking near Brown’s Creek Campground we headed up the trail to intercept the river where I had left it on my last trip. ?The trail meanders through old growth forests and gnarled old maple trees. ?I insisted that Daniel get his picture taken in this one.

Hollow trees make for good hiding places.

After a short hike we were able to get down to the gravel bars and start some serious rockhounding. ?Daniel immediately started examining some of the rounded gray river rock.

Close examination reveals a leaverite.

I explained to him what we were looking for and how to identify it by it’s color and texture. ?He was suitably impressed by my knowledge, and kept bringing interesting rocks to me to check out.

The river was beautiful today and I couldn’t help taking this picture of a small portion of the large gravel bar we were working.

Calm waters.

While I was distracted by this scene, Daniel brought over two rocks. ?My jaw dropped. ?These were some nice jaspers. ?One of the nicest orbicular jasper I had seen from this river and a very nice red jasper.

Daniel’s best find.

I immediately put away my camera and returned to the matter at hand, serious rockhounding. ?I was able to find plenty of nice jasper, but nothing to match Daniel’s.

These clay blocks looked like someone cut them with a saw.

There are plenty of clay banks along this river, and when they start breaking up the blocks make for interesting patterns.

Daniel and I continued searching this gravel bar, which included numerous downed trees and log jambs.

Daniel looks pretty small perched on this tree trunk.

I was able to find one piece of material I had not seen from this river before. ?It was a small piece of bright red and yellow jasper. ?I spent the rest of the time checking the gravel bar for more, but was unable to find any.

Red and yellow jasper next to Daniel’s Orbidcular jasper.

I finally looked at my watch and noticed that it was time to head back to the truck, so we quickly covered the last of the gravel bar. ?It took a little ingenuity to scramble up the vertical banks and get back to the trail, but once we did the hike back was easy.

We did notice that there were some fresh cougar tracks in the trail. ?I think there might have been at least two cougars that were on the trail, but all we saw were the tracks.

I glad we didn’t run into these fellows.

We also had to cross a few nice looking feeder creeks. ?Some of which might be worth checking out for keeper jaspers.

This creek looks like it would be worth checking out on a future trip.

We arrived back at the truck at about 2:00pm and after taking a picture of our haul, we headed home to a hot shower and dinner.

Our haul for the day.

Thanks for joining us.

chasfire