Sorry I have been a bit remiss in my postings. I have been busy with a wedding, creating brooch bouquets for another wedding and making collages. More to follow on these topics on another blog. Stay tuned. It's getting to be that time of year again here in Washington, where I've got to find places to go rockhounding that won't be buried under snow. It's a hard job, but someone has to do it... so here goes.
A Foggy Evening in Oceanside
We go to Oregon. Yep, the Oregon coast to be exact. The winter is the best time to go agate hunting on the beautiful beaches of Oregon. We usually try to pick a weekend in January or February, when the storms and waves have a had a good chance to wash away the sand and expose the rocky layers beneath. Our favorite spot is a little town called Oceanside. It's hidden on a dead end, right on the coast with a beautiful lighthouse on the bluff up above. The neat thing about Oceanside is that it has a hidden beach you can only reach through a tunnel under the mountain, or during a very low tide. We like Oceanside because it isn't as well known as Newport, It's closer than Newport and Tillamook is only a few miles away.
Tunnel Entrance on South side of Mountain Near Oceanside
We usually rent one of the many beautiful beach houses there in Oceanside and the rates are lower during the late winter. My kids love to rent a boat and go crabbing in nearby Netarts Bay. Then we all have crab for dinner.
The Hidden Beach Near Oceanside - The Tunnel Opening is in the Center of the Picture
We find plenty of agates too. All different colors, sizes and shapes. The trick is to go during a record low tide and follow the tide out. You can also find fossils and petrified wood there.
Also, keep your eyes peeled for this green rock. It tends to blend in with all the black rocks along the beach. I'm not sure what it is, but it seems to polish pretty well.
Unknown Green Rock
For house rental information, I usually use VRBO. It's a great website to find exactly what you need, and renting a house means we don't have to spend money on restaurants.
Beautiful View from the Bedroom of one of the Homes we Rented in Oceanside
Oceanside, Oregon is a beautiful and fun rock hunting destination.
Recently took a four day trip to eastern Washington and had a blast. It was like a trip through history. We found the most amazing mines, rocks and gold/silver/copper ores. The area we concentrated on was the Ruby (City) area, but we started our quest at the Alder mine near Twisp. This gold, silver, copper, zinc mine was mined up to the 1950's and it is a huge mine.
Upper Level of the Alder Mine Near Twisp, WA
We checked out the ores at the top level of the mine in the "open stope" area where they "mined to daylight" and saw many colorful rocks and ore samples.
Alder Mine Ores Overlooking Stoped Area
We walked around and checked out the upper levels of the mine until some other adventure seekers showed up at the levels below. I didn't find any agates, so I was done anyway. :-)
Very Colorful Ores - Alder Mine, Twisp, WA
We decided to move on to our next planned stop which was near Loop Loop City towards Conconully, WA. We headed into Okanogan National Forest up Loup Loup Canyon Road to the Ruby Mining District.
We stopped to view the famous China Wall - the first attempt at a mill for the Arlington Mine in 1892. It is quite impressive, and still standing strong in the middle of the forest. I just wish that idiots had left their paint cans at home. Who drives into the middle of the forest to tag something anyway?
China Wall off of Loup Loup Canyon Road
Our next stop was the Last Chance Mine. My mine book had said that there were colorful rock specimens on the ore dumps here. Boy, were they right! Malachite and azurite and colorful quartz everywhere. It was amazing. The rocks were so plentiful and beautiful, that we didn't know what to pick up. What a wonderful find!
Lots of Pretty Rocks!
The mine was caved, just as well, we wouldn't have entered it anyway. Just outside the old entrance was a beautiful pond where someone has used a backhoe on it.
Pretty Man-Made Pond Below the Mine
This was such a great find we decided to move on up the road, and we headed for the Arlington Mine. It was mostly a silver, lead, gold mine. The road was horrible, but we made it without any problems. It is near the top of Ruby Hill and has some great views. The lower adit is completely caved and has become a gurgling fountain.
The Caved Arlington Mine Adit - Now a Fountain
Here we got our biggest surprise yet. Buried in the woods, below the mine is the ruins of the mill with most of the machinery still in place! It was amazing.
Arlington Mine Mill - With Ball Mill Still in Place
Even more amazing was the ore lying around the mill. They were just beautiful. They were VERY heavy. Must be something good in those rocks. I still didn't see any agates though :-)
Arlington Mine Ore
All in all it was a wonderful trip and I know we'll be going back next year especially since I have since read that one of the 100's of mines up there was known for pink garnets!
So, We had a long weekend and decided to take a trip to Okanogan County WA. I did a little research and found that there were lots of places to hunt for Jade in the Creeks below SR 20. So off we went.
Logging Road Bridge over Pilchuck Creek
Our first stop was along Pilchuck Creek off of a logging road below Lake Cavanaugh Road. We didn't spend much time here because there was an open gate on the road and we almost got locked in once on Tree Company Forest Land. There was a beautiful camping spot on the Creek and we did find a few pieces of Jade but as I said, we didn't spend much time here.
Looking down Pilchuck Creek from the Bridge
Next, we headed down Lake Cavanaugh Road and pulled off at a good spot along Pilchuck Creek and started looking. We found quite a few good pieces.
Beautiful Spot to Look for Jade
We spent about an hour here picking and choosing what we thought might be jade, and I found a couple pretty yard rocks that may be what they call grossular garnet around here.
Lots of Rocks to Sort Through
The jade is rather elusive. It can weather to have a red or white rind around the pretty stuff inside. You usually can't break it because it's so hard and then if you do, it shatters. We just tried to carefully look at the rocks and determine if there was anything worth lugging back to the car.
From here, we headed up to Deer Creek at Oso. This is supposedly one of the favorite hunting spots for rockhounds. We discovered that the railroad trestle bridge that Gem Trails of Washington recommends to access the opposite side of the creek is closed. We drove down SR 530 over Deer Creek and discovered access from the parking lot of the closed down Oso General Store right past the bridge. It was an easy walk down to Deer creek next to the bridge.
Oso General Store Parking Lot
We found a few interesting rocks here, but not a lot of jade. The hunting was better on Pilchuck Creek. We didn't have time to check out Finney Creek, but it's supposed to be good also.
Deer Creek below the Bridge
When we got home, I'm still not sure what is what, and even apparently die hard jade collectors have a hard time positively identifying their finds, so I will just say that I'm sure there must be some jade here somewhere.
A few of our Finds
I know that we found enough for me to want to go back again and hunt for some more. Meanwhile, I definitely need to get a rock saw. Just so I can see what is inside these beauties.
Last week, I had a spare day to get out and about. My Grandson Darien and I took a trip over Chinook Pass to find the ghost town of Copper City. The U.S. Forest Service is talking about bulldozing the mill site, so I wanted to see the site and ore piles before that happened.
FS Road 1808 has been closed at the Mt. Aix trailhead since 2006 flooding and bridge washouts by Deep Creek until just recently. The trip to this site was a long 4.8 mile hike one way. Now it's only 1.5 miles because one of the bridges has been repaired. There is still road damage along the last 1.5 miles of roadway to the town site.
The directions to the site are as follows:
Coming from the west on Highway 410, travel approximately 35.6 miles from Chinook Pass to Bumping River Road/National Forest Road 1800. Turn right (south) onto this road. Drive 13.5 miles past Goose Prairie and Bumping Lake and keep left at the intersection, turning onto Forest Service road 1808 following Deep Creek. Continue on this road for approximately 4 miles until you reach the road closed sign and a quarry site on the right. Park at the quarry. The hike begins from here.
Coming from the east, drive approximately 27.9 miles from Naches on Highway 410 to Bumping River Road/National Forest Road 1800. Turn left (south) onto this road. Drive 13.5 miles past Goose Prairie and Bumping Lake and keep left at the intersection, turning onto Forest Service road 1808 following Deep Creek. Continue on this road for approximately 4 miles until you reach the road closed sign and a quarry site on the right. Park at the quarry. The hike begins from here.
Road Closed Sign at Quarry on FS 1808
The hike is a fairly easy hike on the level road with the crossing of one washout from a Deep Creek feeder stream and a few spots where the roadway has become a seasonal runoff. It could be fairly muddy during the wetter times of the year. It is 1.4 miles to the Copper City sign and turn off onto the Copper City Trail #654 which is an old mining road to the mines above Copper City. The townsite is only .1 mile beyond this turn off. The trail continues on above the townsite to the top of Miners Ridge.
Copper City Sign
The first thing you will see is the old bunkhouse ruins, now mostly fallen over on the east side of the roadway. A few cabins were once scattered throughout the area but have gradually been vandalized or taken over by the forest. As recently as 1960, a cabin was located directly across the road from the bunkhouse, but no sign of this building remains.
Copper City Bunkhouse Ruins
Heading past the bunkhouse toward the meadow, is the foundation and ruins of the mill. The only remains here are scattered timbers, cable, pipes and ore tailings from the ore processing. Presently the U.S. Forest Service is considering removing the tailings due to contamination of the stream running through the ore tailings. At the present time however, the ore tailings are still there.
According to a preliminary assessment report by the U.S. Forest Service, "In June and October, 1997, Washington Department of Ecology personnel collected water quality samples along an un-named tributary of Deep Creek, above and below the Copper City Millsite, and one sample was collected from Deep Creek just above the confluence with Bumping Lake (Rayforth and others, 2000). The samples along the un-named tributary were taken both above and below the old Copper City mill which has collapsed into the drainage. Water sampling revealed substantial increases in iron, zinc, arsenic, copper, and lead below the collapsed mill. Copper concentrations below the collapsed mill exceeded the state’s acute aquatic standard for surface waters. However, metals concentrations in Deep Creek just above Bumping Lake were similar to those above the mill."
..."The Site was extensively explored and developed by the Copper Mining Company which located 42 claims in the area in 1906. Development and production in the area focused around five mineralized shear zones within quartz monzonite/granodiorite cut by rhyodacite dikes. The most significant mineralized zone is explored at the Clara-Red Bird Mine by adits at three different levels and several surface workings. Total development in the area is estimated at over 1,000 ft. of underground workings (Huntting, 1956). The primary mineralization in the area occurs in mineralized shear zones cutting quartz monzonite and granidiorite host rock. Primary ore minerals were chalcopyrite, scheelite, molybdenite; gangue minerals include pyrite, arsenopyrite, quartz, calcite, and tourmaline (Derkey and others, 1990). Commodities produced included gold, silver, copper and tungsten (Derkey and others, 1990).
Copper City Mill Ruins
U.S. Bureau of Mines data indicate that 5 tons containing 34 ounces per ton (opt) silver and 1,486 lbs. of copper were shipped in 1917; 150 tons containing 1 opt gold, 99 opt. silver, and 4, 347 lbs copper were shipped in 1938; 650 lbs of concentrate containing 62.4% tungsten trioxide were shipped in 1940; and 5 tons containing 48 opt silver and 2,000 lbs copper were shipped in 1942 (Van Noy and others, 1983)."
Close-up View of Some of the Tailings
The tailings at the top of the mill site consist mostly of unprocessed ore. At the base of the mill, gravel sized tailings that have been processed through the mill appear to be contaminated with tron, zinc, arsenic, copper and lead. Maybe by processing, maybe just from leaching of the minerals from the ore itself. Whatever the cause, the tailings below appear uninteresting, while the ore above is scattered with visible samples of chalcopyrite, pyrite, azurite, and malachite. It turned out to be a beautiful day, we came home with a few good ore samples and had a wonderful time.
Well, we enjoyed our last trip to Salmon Creek so much, that we just had to go back. We really want to find some of the bigger agates I keep seeing people find. Anyway, the day was gorgeous and we headed out again with a late start (as usual). I decided we should check a different, less well known area of Salmon Creek, so we headed towards Merchant Road from highway 505. After we crossed the Salmon Creek bridge I noticed that the areas on the south side of the bridge had been clearcut very recently. We decided to stop and check it out, since so much ground was visible.
View Down Logging Road from Highway
We got out and headed down the road and right away discovered small chips of carnelian. I decided to check out all the tree stumps we passed, and sure enough I found this interesting little bit of river polished petrified wood.
Petrified Wood Hiding Near Tree Stumps
As we moved down the road towards the river, we started finding more and more pieces of carnelian in the road, where the rain had worn gullies in the road. I even found some really nice jasper.
View of Road Towards River and Highway
When we noticed how late it was getting, we decided to turn around and head back. Of course I had to check out one more spot where the loggers had made a clearing above the road. This was where I found my 10lb piece of petrified wood. I don't know how I knew to dig it up, but I'm glad I did. It almost looks like a big piece of a tree root. Wish I had a rock saw!
Who Knew This was Petrified Wood?
After heading back to the car, we decided to drive a ways down Merchant Road. Just around the corner was this neat old farmhouse and barn.
Old Farmhouse
Old Barn
All in all, we did pretty well for the day. We got home very late and tired, but the day and the outdoors were both wonderful.
Our Finds For the Day
Here's a closer view...
Close-up View
For further trip reports on this area, view the links below.
OK, I just can't take this heat, and neither could my brother visiting from Kodiak AK, so we headed up the road to the Carbon River Mining District in the Mt. Baker Snoqualmie Ranger District near my house. I have been researching this area for quite some time and have found some mines, am still searching for more mines and have found a few really nice rocks up there.
Coplay Lake
We decided to pay a visit to Coplay Lake and check it out. It was nice and cool and peaceful up there. I have found some really nice crystals in this vicinity in the past.
Unknown Brown-Red Crystals
I have read some old reports about the mines in this district and I know that there are some mines near East Lake. I think some of the reports are confused because they place the East Lake mines near the Clipper Mine and the Chicago group near East Lake. I think the East Lake Mines are near East Lake personally. Anyway we drove around the back side of East Lake and low and behold, we found a mine right next to the road. We could tell by the tailings.
My Mt Rainier Climbing Brother on top of the Tailings
We also noticed a strange large pipe in the area, but could not locate the mine opening. It may have been bulldozed by the forest service.
Unknown Iron Pipe
The pipe seemed to be made of iron and was very thick. It was filled with rocks. We finally figured out the pipe was a well. We didn't find much here except some peacock ore stained rock. Most of the rocks were a reddish colored quartz.
Closer View of the Tailings
Next we headed to my old favorite, the Clipper Mine. It's an easy 1/4 mile hike to this large hard rock mine. I can usually find a few nice pieces of Malachite, azurite, tourmaline, pyrite and maybe even copper here. It has definitely become a popular place since I posted a YouTube video of it.
We hiked up the old mine road to the mine and poked around here for a while.
Mine Road Crossing Shiplake Creek
You can definitely see signs of past mining in the area.
Old Culvert
There is old cable lying around everywhere, telling me that there was serious mining going on up above. They used the cable to tram the ore down the hills.
Mining Cable
You will know you're in the right spot when you see the BIG pile of tailings on your right.
Huge Tailings Pile
We poked around here for a while and found a few nice rocks. It was a great way to get up away from the heat and also bring back something to show for it.
Some Nice Finds for the Day
Here is a closer view of my son's pyrite find. He claims he hates rock hunting, but he always finds the best rocks. Go figure.
Large Pyrite Specimen
Now, if I could only find the surprise gold mine up above it...
Shiplake Creek
We stopped and took pics of Shiplake Creek next to the road on the way out. It was a wonderful, cool day.
