ynot Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 (edited) The next location that I went to was Ebbetts pass on the crest of the Sierra Nevada mountains (Hwy 4) This is a petrified wood area that has been well picked and it is a hard place to find a good piece anymore. I did get a few good pieces of jasper wood casts that made some good cabicons. I also found these ... With bug damage more... Edited November 11, 2015 by ynot Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 More Ebbetts pass... A large burl with a crystallized vug... And a half round... to be continued... Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 Aside from petrified wood the best thing about the Ebbetts pass location are the views.... be back later..... Tony Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 And the living trees there are amazing... (Not Me in the picture.) Tony Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 Went to the Mule mountains in southern California to look for "fire" agate and found a couple of fossils on the desert pan. This is the best.... Next location posting will be a while but it is of trips to the Virgin Valley Nevada.... To be continued.... Tony Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 Love that half rounder and the views. Are those white pines? Reminds me of our european "Zirbel", or pinus cembra, which you run into up in the alps. 1 Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 10, 2015 Author Share Posted November 10, 2015 Love that half rounder and the views. Are those white pines? Reminds me of our european "Zirbel", or pinus cembra, which you run into up in the alps. Thank You Roger. The trees are Junipers. Here is another one that I really like. (2 views of the same tree) Tony Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted November 10, 2015 Share Posted November 10, 2015 That sure does have a lot of character! 1 Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 Hey Everybody, After joining the rock club, I found that one of the other members was crazy for Virgin Valley opal. He leads a trip to the Rainbow ridge mine in the Virgin Valley every year. After being in the club for a few years I decided to go (not caring for the frailty of opal in general.) on one of the trips. I did the "tailings" for 75$ (US). You get 8 hours to look and some nice opal can be found in the tailings. The mine also sells a skip-loader bucket of dirt from the diggings for 500$ (US). I watched a man find several very nice pieces from His bucket of dirt, and got hooked. Over the next several years I made a yearly pilgrimage to buy a bucket (some years I got 4). Some of the buckets did not have much in them, but most had a fair amount of nice pieces in them. And there were a couple that were full of very nice opals. The opal from this area is very unstable and I keep most of Mine in water filled glass beakers with rubber stoppers. This allows the opals to be displayed without worry about them crazing. The opals can have different color do to the angle of the light source / view. As such I have taken several pictures of a few pieces to show the change in color. (Not all have this characteristic.) More.... 1 Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 more Virgin Valley opal wood... More to follow... The big ones... Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 The next few are the largest pieces that I have found... Piece 1 More.... Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 More.. piece 2... piece 3 More... Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 and a couple of pine cones that I found there.. more... Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 11, 2015 Author Share Posted November 11, 2015 And lastly a piece of wood with "veins" of opal... Had room for one more so here are some that have been polished... The "sparkle" of the opals does not like to be photographed and does not do justice to the pieces that I have shown here. Tony 1 Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 19, 2015 Author Share Posted November 19, 2015 (edited) Here is a pine cone (no opal) from the Virgin valley. Took several trips to Tonapah Nevada, for turquoise. Would stop at a site west of there for petrified wood. Most of what I found was small pieces or "chalk" . but this did show itself to Me on one of the searches. A 6 inch "round" of agatized wood from Coaldale junction. The next location/trip was to Montana for the August 2014 "rockhound jamboree" put on by the western federation of mineralogical societies. Stay tooned! Edited November 19, 2015 by ynot Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raptor Lover Posted November 19, 2015 Share Posted November 19, 2015 Aside from petrified wood the best thing about the Ebbetts pass location are the views.... mojave 017.jpg mojave 018.jpg be back later..... Tony What a beautiful view 1 "Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you" Job 12:8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrangellian Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 I can see how that would get ya hooked. That 4" piece is impressive. Must be worth a pretty penny... fyi Some of your pics are small, like thumbnails, not sure why 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 20, 2015 Author Share Posted November 20, 2015 I can see how that would get ya hooked. That 4" piece is impressive. Must be worth a pretty penny... fyi Some of your pics are small, like thumbnails, not sure why Going to the mine is much like going to a casino and dropping the money into a slot machine, but the odds of hitting a jackpot at the virgin valley mines are much better than in the casino! ( I found 3 pieces that were appraised by the mine owner as being 4,000 $ each. That was My best "bucket" so far.) I took the pictures and then cropped them to size and a few came out really small-- will try to improve that. In August 2014 I went to Terry Montana, to join the fun at the rockhound gemboree put on by the western federation of mineralogical societies. There were multiple field trips to several sites, but My main interest was to find some "Montana Moss Agate" (One of the things from My childhood hit list.) On the way to Terry, I did stop at a Triassic marine deposit in northeast Nevada, to look for ammonites. This site is known as Crittington springs, and has geodized ammonites. It is also a 20 hour drive from My house, so makes a good side trip camping area. (I was on site for about 5 daylight hours,) Here are a few of the ammonites I found there.... More to come.... Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ludwigia Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Those opals are really something special. I just jumped for joy last summer when you sent me one. You're right about the photos. They just don't do these things justice. 1 Greetings from the Lake of Constance. Roger http://www.steinkern.de/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 20, 2015 Author Share Posted November 20, 2015 some more from Crittington springs... To be continued... 1 Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 20, 2015 Author Share Posted November 20, 2015 more... Be back later. Tony Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plantguy Posted November 20, 2015 Share Posted November 20, 2015 Nice plant material Tony, especially the opalized wood. Live tree pictures aint too shabby either.LOL. thanks for showing us. I miss California once in awhile! Regards, Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 20, 2015 Author Share Posted November 20, 2015 (edited) Those opals are really something special. I just jumped for joy last summer when you sent me one. You're right about the photos. They just don't do these things justice. Thank You Roger. I just wish they would not craze when dried. Nice plant material Tony, especially the opalized wood. Live tree pictures aint too shabby either.LOL. thanks for showing us. I miss California once in awhile! Regards, Chris Thank You Chris. Another Crittington springs ammonite... Next - on the Yellowstone river in Terry Montana. Tony Edited November 20, 2015 by ynot Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 22, 2015 Author Share Posted November 22, 2015 When I arrived in Terry Montana there were over 500 other rockhounds there. It was and is the largest group of people that I have "collected" with, and it was fun. I spent the whole time looking for "Montana moss agate" on the banks of the Yellowstone river. This agate is considered a wood replacement but shows no wood structure. (so I will not show any of it here.) However there were pieces of petrified wood found that did show the wood structure. This is the best piece of petrified wood that I found... Another picture next post... Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ynot Posted November 22, 2015 Author Share Posted November 22, 2015 Another picture of the last piece... More to follow... Darwin said: " Man sprang from monkeys." Will Rogers said: " Some of them didn't spring far enough." My Fossil collection - My Mineral collection My favorite thread on TFF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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