Any rockhounds out there in TW?

One of the reasons I got my tacoma was to more easily access some remote areas for rockhounding. Here is a recent find of jasper in the California desert. Anyone else on TW a rockhound and if so, what have you found?

 

I rockhound for a living. Except looking for mineral deposits rather than hand specimens..

 

What’s the best deposit you have found? Ever come across interesting crystals? What kind of deposits do you look for?

 

My avatar picture is camping out on Glass Butte Oregon, basically a mountain of obsidian. This is the wife digging out a 25 lb chunk of black/red obsidian. We bought the Taco to get us into the back country of the northwest to go rockhounding.

 

So Rockhounding is the sport of searching for cool rocks eh? Learn something everyday lol

Is Obsidian really dragon glass? Lol

 

Any rockhounds in AZ? I really wanna scoop up my own geode!

 

You should head to the Hauser geode beds. California, but not that far of a drive from AZ

 

What do you (or other rockhounders) do with a chunk of dragon glass like that?

 

Obviously construct edged weaponry

 

my wife is, sorta. her grandfather was and apparently had one of the largest collections in the states. i don’t know what it is but apparently there’s dozens and dozens of boxes of boxes.

 

I go out and look for "rocks" on occasion...

 

My wife and I are into agate hunting in a big way. We live in Minnesota and are always out hunting for Lake Superior agates that are found along the lake, and south where the glaciers spread them out. The Tacoma is a great vehicle to get us to where we want to go.

 

Aren’t those printers drawers great for display shelves? Your photos look like ours too!

We ended up having to put airshocks on my Taco for the weight of souvenirs we collect on our weekend trips into the Mojave and Colorado deserts of Southern California.

 

she was the only grandkid that cared about the collection. most are still at her parents house and some in boxes at ours. i don’t know what made the “display” at our place criteria.

 

I'm too lazy to type it all out again but you can read about it here:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...und-in-the-woods.200991/page-43#post-18608617

 

There are some spots in Wickenburg and in payson for sure. I went to globe or Miami as a kid in the 80’s and have no idea where to look. But they are massive. In the AZ forum there is mention of a spot in bulldog canyon. I’ve been looking for someone to try that spot out without the fam to slow me down the first time. There are places but most people will keep it secret to preserve it for future generations.

 

In the case of obsidian we just clean it or chip off the scale and admire God’s handiwork, but you can shave with the chips as they are razor sharp!

 

Those look cool! Do you run them through a tumbler and polish them up? They are half way there as is.

 

That’s the best kind of rock I’ll trade you for my chunk of obsidian.