Elk

Elk Retreat.

A Wildlife Refuge near my home has a herd of elk that likes to lounge around.

Another Day!

I went back to the Salmon Creek area today to check out more country. ?I was just getting out of the truck when I heard a lot of noise that sounded almost like wild turkeys. ?Looking around I noticed three pilated woodpeckers scolding each other. ?I was able to get a picture of this one as it looked for dinner.

Pilated Woodpecker.

It looks like he is contemplating his next meal!

I then headed back to the truck, unloaded my “trusty steed”, and headed up the road. ?I rode the bike most of the way to the top of the hill, past where Jerry and I went last week, and was going to start looking for agate when I noticed these 5 bulls enjoying a morning stroll.

Bull Elk

Anyone for breakfast?

I decided that after this I would not worry about finding any material. ?My day would be complete if not one piece of agate was found. ?However, I continued to get lucky, and was able to find this nice piece of petrified wood.

Petrified wood

It looks like this one was laying there for quite some time.

This was located in the woods about 1/4 mile from where the big 22 pound agate was found.

I continued to hike and was not finding any more decent rocks, so I decided to head back to the bike.

Crossing one of the smaller streams I was pleasantly surprised by this nice carnelian.

Carnelian

Lots of red in this one.

It was about the size of a ?golf ball. ?I started looking around and found a number of other agate and petrified wood pieces, and then this one turned up.

Jasper and Carnelian

A nice layer of red carnelian in this Jasper.

This piece was the biggest and probably weighed in the neighborhood of 15 pounds. ?It had carnelian layers throughout, so I decided to haul it home.

I looked around some more but didn’t find anything else worth staying for, so I headrd back to the bike and home.

Biking sure makes for an easy ride back to the truck.

Thanks for joining me.

chasfire