North Fork Snoqualmie River

Last Friday was such a beautiful day, and I was off, so I just had to get out. Looking for rocks at this time of year can be difficult due to the snow. But a couple weeks ago I stumbled across a neat Geological Survey Report about the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area and it made me want to check out the North Fork Snoqualmie area. I figured that the elevation would be low enough for me to get to without snow and it's not a huge distance away. So off I went.

The first part of the North Fork Road was a nice gravel road, but that soon changed the further I went.

North Fork Snoqualmie Road

As soon as I got up the canyon, it turned to mud. Pretty deep mud. But I kept going anyway. Pretty soon my car was covered in mud. I passed quite a few areas where it looked like the road had been washed out and repaired. I stopped to check out the rocks and take some pics on the way.

Small Creek at a Washout - Should Have Looked Closer at the Red Boulder

Unfortunately as I got close to my destination I ran into snow. I was only .2 miles from my target mine, but the snow just got too deep. The canyon that it's in just doesn't get much sun.

The End of the Road

One of the mines I wanted to see was on the other side of the creek, and I noticed that unless I had on waders I would never get across now. It's just too deep.

Lennox Creek

So, I turned around and headed back towards North Bend. I stopped and checked out the North Fork Snoqualmie River for awhile. It too was running pretty fast. 

North Fork Snoqualmie River

I had read a report that there was a mine up above this area that didn't have a road, so they tried floating their ore down the river in barrels. Needless to say a lot of them didn't make it and you can find the ore in the river sometimes. Unfortunately I only found one little rock that has a bright speck of gold on it. I actually picked up the rock because I liked the colors in it, greens and red. I also found a nice piece of serpentinite (I think) for a yard rock.

If You Look Real Hard You Can See the Gold Speck - Hah!

Following a brief stop there I headed on back down the road. After crossing the Sunday Creek Bridge, I noticed a small stream coming down from the hill, so I stopped and got out to look over the rocks. I found a nice piece of pink feldspar (I think) here, and a heavy piece of quartz. 

Small Unnamed Creek

Needless to say, I didn't hit the jackpot here, but I sure got to enjoy the beautiful day, scenery and weather. 

Mt. Si - What a Beautiful View! 

I will definitely be back after the snow melts.

My Finds - Not Sure what they are - But They're Pretty!

9/6/13 Update:

Just took some rocks out my polisher and found that some of these polished really well. What do you think? It's not really jasper, more like sandstone, but it polished nicely to this point. I figured it would break up into pieces...

Kind of looks like Picture Jasper