On the rocky road again!

This past Tuesday was an absolutely splendid day for rock hunting here in our central Arizona deserts.  With rain and colder temperatures predicted for the long New Year's week-end, I decided to take advantage of Tuesday's opportunity.  With a little bit of lunch and a lot of water packed in my cooler, I set out for one of my favorite chalcedony locations.



And you're going to have to humor me, because this is a "secret" location.  I'm not going to tell you where it is.  You'll understand, I hope, when you finish reading.



My late husband and I discovered this place about 25 years ago, by accident.  We were looking for another site someone had told us about, but either the directions were wrong or I misunderstood them, and we ended up sort of lost.  Not lost in the sense of "Where are we?" but in the sense of not being where we intended to go.  But being out in the desert, we figured we might as well look around and see if we could find anything.



As it turned out, we didn't find much, except for a few small pieces of what looked like orange-ish, pinky jasper.  Just three or four chunks, none of them very big.  And then we gave up and went home.

Two of those jasper chunks, however, produced some very lovely cabochons, including this one:

 

 

Life being what it is, we didn't have a chance to go back to that spot, wherever it was, for a couple of years.  We had acquired a four-wheel drive pick-up at that time and one day I suggested we try to find that spot and look for more pink jasper.

 

Somewhat to my husband's surprise -- and mine as well, to be perfectly honest -- I navigated us right back to that spot.  This time we were able to drive further off the main road than we had before.   We came upon a track that led away from the road and into the desert, so we knew people had been driving through here before.  After about a mile, the track more or less ended at a wash that had a steepish bank on the other side.   We made it across, barely, then drove just a little further before we stopped.

 

As soon as we stepped out of the truck, I began seeing small pieces of chalcedony . . . everywhere.  I'd never seen so many in one place!  Most were small and broken, but there were many nicely formed desert roses.  A lot of the pieces had areas of brightly sparkling druse; some were entirely covered with the tiny crystal coating.  Without much trouble, we located larger pieces of this material, large enough for slicing to make small cabochons.

 

Over the next several years, we returned to this location many times and we were never disappointed.  Though we never found very much more of the pink jasper, the occasional piece turned up.  In one particular area we found substantial-sized pieces of pink chalcedony.

 

 

The last time we went out there was December 2004.

 

So I headed back out there this past Tuesday for the first time in 10 years, by myself, adventurous.  Would I be able to find the same location?  Would I have any difficulty crossing that little wash with the steep bank?  Had the area been picked clean by other rockhounds?

 

Google maps confirmed the main roads hadn't changed, and Google Earth confirmed other details, so I set out with a certain amount of confidence that I'd have no trouble finding the place.  Sure enough, I drove right to it, turned off the paved road, and headed into the desert.  All the old excitement returned.

 

When I reached a point where I wanted to start looking for rocks, I parked and stepped out of the car.  I almost immediately reached back inside to grab the camera.

 

All those little red circles are around bits and pieces of chalcedony on the ground about two steps from my truck.  And now as I look at the photo again, I see some pieces at the bottom I missed!

Obviously not all of these stones are worth picking up.  They're pretty little leaverites.  But they're indicative of larger pieces . . . somewhere.



And the first of those larger pieces  wasn't very far away.

Yes, just lying on the ground, waiting for me to pick it up.



This is my secret place.  I brought home three small bags of rocks, not all of which really needed to be brought home.  I'll put some out in the "sparkle garden" by the front gate.  Others will be cut and polished and made into jewelry.  Some may end up wrapped in wire almost just as I picked them up.

That's what I did with this one, which my husband picked up on that second venture to what we dubbed "the Chickenman place."

Did I find anything quite that lovely this past Tuesday?  Did I find any nice chunks of pink chalcedony?  Well, you'll just have to wait and see.