Category: Rockhounding and Adventure Trip

After the crazy busy summer that completely wore me out, my friend, Sharon Smith, asked me to go with her and her boyfriend to South Dakota to go rock hunting.  She, also, has had challenges as of late and needed to get away.  We were going to go later in October, but the SD weather in early October was perfect, so we moved the trip up.  It was sunny the whole week with temperatures in the 70s and 80s.  We timed it perfect since South Dakota had snow the following week.

I left Grand Marais and rendezvoused with Sharon and Tom in Brainerd, MN.  We then headed west to Kadoka, SD.  We found a small campground with almost no people and stayed for several nights.  On the first day of rock hunting, we drove only seven miles away to the White River.  The water level of all the rivers is extremely low.  When we pulled off the highway, we saw a guy driving a four-wheeler, so we drove over to talk with him.  He leases the land and gave us permission to rock hunt.

We parked the truck and followed cow paths down the bluff, through the willows, and over rocky terrain to the river.  All along what is currently a dry part of the riverbed there were thousands of rocks.

We found vast quantities of chalcedony seam agate, petrified wood, and Sharon found the only Fairburn of the week.  We also found petrified wood and chalcedony.

The next morning, we drove around 20 miles to the southwest of our campground and met up with a woman, Carol, who is a relative of one of Sharon’s friends.  There were rocks covering vast sections of the terrain.

The next morning, we drove through the Badlands National Park to and from our next rock hunting area, which was the Railroad Butte area.  There were tons of buttes with adjoining drainage ditches.  Again, there were rocks everywhere.

Of course, we had to stop and take pictures of the badlands formations.

During our drive, we saw bison, a mountain goat, and a ram.

Here are some more close-ups of some of the rocks I found.  I’ll start with some of the chalcedonies.

I also found petrified wood and one piece of rose quartz.

In the past, I have brought with me on trips out west my standard rock hunting UV lights.  This time I decided to bring a couple of the 365 wavelength UV lights, which are used on the Lake Superior shoreline to find the fluorescent syenite rocks.  OMG.  The amount of fluorescence was amazing.  The chalcedony fluoresced mostly green and the petrified wood orange.  The first photo shows some of the specimens in normal light.  The remainder shows fluorescence under 365 wavelength UV light.  I did not notice until I arrived home, but some of the chalcedony specimens had phosphorescence after the UV light was turned off.

I have been lucky enough to go on major Grand Canyon hikes 17 times. Three times in the past I hiked to Supai, the only village located within the Grand Canyon. The first time I showed up at Hilltop Parking to meet a friend. He did not show up. I waited an extra day and finally decided to hike to Supai myself. From Hilltop, it is eight miles to the village and an additional two miles to the campground. I was amazed to find out I was the only person in the campground.

The second time I hiked Supai was with my ex, Chris Sarver. The third time was with my youngest son, Jonathan. I gave him “Supai” for his college graduation present. There was no problem getting reservation any of these first three times. In 2018 when Helen and I decided to try to secure reservations at Supai, we found out how difficult it now is. Campground reservations can only be made online. This year the campground sold out for the whole year in just two hours. I spoke with a woman who said their group was successful in getting campground reservations because they had more than a dozen people trying to access the reservation webpage the second it became available for 2019. A picture of the campground, which is a mile long along the river, is below. What is interesting about this campground is there are no designated sites. First come, first get the best spots.

I have hiked the Grand Canyon twice before with my friend, Helen Riley. We attempted to get reservations at Supai before. One time the bridges were taken out in a flash flood so it was not possible to hike the trail. Another time the lodge was under construction and not available. Also, the campground was already full. So, we decided to try to get reservations at the only hotel in the small village. We talked with a mutual friend, Marcia O’Brien who requested to join our adventure. I began calling the lodge the first day reservations could be made, which is the only way to secure a reservation. It took me over 500 calls and several days to finally get through. When I asked for the confirmation number, they said they would send it to me via US Postal Service snail mail.

We knew the dates for our Supai reservation, so we made airline reservations and booked motel rooms before and after the Supai portion of the trip. Then we waited for the snail mail confirmation to arrive. And we waited. And we waited some more. I even wrote a letter in August and donated money to Supai’s flood recovery program. Still no confirmation. Finally, in January we canceled our airline and hotel reservations and planned a different trip to the Smokey Mountains. In February of this year, we finally received the Supai confirmation letter. We canceled our plans for the Smokey mountains and re-booked our reservations out west.

The first week of May the three of us flew from Detroit to Las Vegas. We rented a car, stayed the first night in Las Vegas, and drove the next day to Peach Springs, AZ, which is the closest town to the hiking trailhead to Supai. On the drive, we stopped and explored Hoover Dam.

The road leading to Supai Hilltop Parking is located around ten miles east of Peach Springs. We left as early as possible in the morning and drove the 60 miles down the access road. There is absolutely nothing on that road except for cows (you must be careful driving) and a security checkpoint when you drive onto Havasupai Reservation land.

When we arrived at Hilltop Parking, I knew things were different. We barely could find anywhere to park. Finally, we got lucky and secured a parking space in the main parking lot. It was a beautiful morning with bright sunshine and temperatures in the 60s. We put on our packs and started down the eight miles to Supai Village.

During our descent, when we were still a couple of hours away from the village, it started to pour rain. We were walking down slot canyons and old riverbeds, so I was extremely afraid of flash floods. For the most part, we were not walking along with active waterways, so we were fine. In fact, you do not even see the river during the hike until you are a half-mile away from the village. We donned rain gear, put away the cameras, and trudged on. We were very happy to finally get to the lodge! There was so much rain, it turned the normally blue-green water muddy brown. Even the locals said that it does not happen very often.

The color of the water in the river is blue due to its high lime content. The lime in the water combines with sticks, mud, and leaves to make terraces in the river as well as amazing travertine formations hanging from the cliffs. All the waterfalls are along a trail that continues north from the village. Fifty Foot Falls and Little Navajo falls are first. Then, the trail snakes around the top and down alongside Havasu Falls. The campground starts just after this falls and continues for a mile alongside the river to Mooney Falls. There is a set of chains, handholds, and footholds to descend Mooney Falls. To get to the Colorado River the trail continues for almost six miles. This is not a well-maintained trail and is very rugged, requiring many river crossings. We decided to not be that adventurous. Pictures of some of the waterfalls are below.

As many of you know, I love my Canon SX 60 camera with its built-in zoom lens. The camera came in handy to get photos of the local fauna and flora. The area had recently received a lot of rain so much of the cacti were in bloom. I have never seen so many flowers in the desert!

While I was training for the canyon hike, I aggravated my right hip. After two and a half days of hiking 22 miles and 5,000 feet of elevation change, my hips were extremely sore. I was afraid of damaging them more (and messing up my golf swing) so I decided to helicopter out for $85. I loaded in some of Helen and Marcia’s weight, they started hiking out at 5:00 am to beat the heat, and I joined them at the top. At least I was able to get some cool photos from the air.

We returned to Las Vegas for a couple of nights, had a good night out with dinner and a Cirque du Soleil performance, and headed home. Thanks to Helen and Marcia for an incredible epic adventure!

NOTE: Helkarcia on our shirts and banner represents “Hel” for Helen, “Kar” for Karen, and “Cia” for Marcia.

A decade ago, the staff at Muskallonge Lake State Park decided to organize a small agate show. In the first few years, the show was quite small and very quaint. As the years went by, the show grew in popularity until it exceeded the ability of the state park to handle the show’s large size. Since the park was under major construction and renovation this summer, they canceled the show in early spring. A movement was started on Facebook to move the show to Grand Marais. Although I was not involved with the Facebook push, I was asked to lead the effort. Before agreeing to do so, I called the superintendent of Muskallonge and asked if they wanted the show back after this year, or whether they wanted the show to stay in Grand Marais. Park staff admitted that the show had grown beyond their capacity, so the decision was made to permanently move the show to Grand Marais.

The objectives for the Rock-On Festival are to:

• Provide a venue for rockhounds to feed their passion, purchase specimens and other related items, and increase their understanding of rocks and minerals.
• Attract visitors to Grand Marais in a slower tourism week situated between the summer season (ending on Labor Day), and before the fall color season to help generate revenue for Grand Marais businesses.
• Provide a venue for dealers to sell their rock and mineral items.

This show was extremely successful. We had more than 1,500 attendees, 25 dealers who rented 33 booth spaces, six food vendors, and seven information presentations. The food dealers included four food trucks, breakfast served both days by the Grand Marais Snow Trails Club, and a Keynote Speaker dinner on Saturday night served up by the Grand Marais Women’s Club. This dinner sold out since it was limited to only 125 people.

Thanks to everyone involved in helping to make this inaugural rock and mineral show a success! It will be held again next year at the Community Center in Grand Marais, MI (located on Brazel Street across from the Gitche Gumee Museum) the weekend after Labor Day (September 12-13, 2020). Once more information is available about next year’s show, please go to grandmaraisrockonfestival.com. You can also go to our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Grand-Marais-Rock-On-Festival.

 

In the past most years I drove or flew out to one of the large gem shows such as Tucson, Quartzite, or Denver. These days I typically go every three years, given the time and expense of these trips. This adventure involved 6,125 miles of driving over 26 days. The main two reasons for the trip were to buy gift shop items for the museum at the Tucson Show as well as speaking at the Albuquerque Gem and Mineral Club. In addition, I visited several geologic sites to take photos for possible future books. I went to Palo Duro Canyon State Park (southeast of Amarillo, TX), Carlsbad Caverns, Saguaro National Park, Sedona, the Grand Canyon, and Antelope Canyon. I feel extreme gratitude that I am able to take a trip like this.

Late last year I received an invitation to go to Hawaii — again. As some of you know, I was fortunate to be able to go to Hawaii a few years ago (thanks to the generosity of friends and frequent flyer miles). However, during that first visit to Hawaii I was not able to go to the Big Island. The item on top of my bucket list has been to see an active volcano. So when this new invitation was to go to the Big Island and stay for free with friends – I decided to do it. To help pay for the trip I dove into a closet that I have not looked in for 17 years, which was full of artifacts, old photos, and other items. I sold some of the things from my blog and now have several notebooks with this collection in the museum’s gift shop Thanks to Sharon Smith for the invite and the good time, and to Steve and Dorothy Moon for their hospitality, generosity, and amazing excursions.

During the time we were on the Big Island, there was a lot of volcanic activity. Lava is currently flowing into the ocean on the southeast side of the island. A picture of the steam cloud is below.

Early in our visit we decided to drive to the top of the world — Mauna Kea. If you count the total height of the mountain from the bottom of the ocean floor, this volcano is over 33,000 feet – taller than Mount Everest. The photo below shows the first view of Mauna Kea after we drove above the almost permanent cloud layer (which that day was at 6,500 feet). The next photo is the sister volcano – Mauna Loa.

The diagram below features Mauna Loa, which is larger In volume but smaller in height. Both mountains are the top two tallest in the world.

Here are a couple of photos I took from the top of Mauna Kea.

Because of successive lava flows, sometimes molten pathways become covered and form lava tubes, or pukas. Sharon and I went and checked one out in the Volcanoes National Park.

Basaltic rock is everywhere on the Big Island – geology in your face to be sure! Below is a picture of rough basalt that is only a couple of hundred years old. The next photo below shows a finger of lava from Mauna Loa that flowed around one hundred years ago.

Since I live in Grand Marais, I am used to Lake Superior sand. In my research before the trip, I found out that there is a green sand beach on the Big Island – one of only four in the world. We had to walk in one-way three miles or so, but it was worth it. The green comes from the olivine crystals that were embedded in the basalt, but then eroded out. The beach is surrounded by half a lava crater.

There are also black sand beaches that consist of sand-grain size pieces of basalt.

The southernmost point on the Big Island is the southernmost point in the U.S. The photo below shows an area near the southern tip.

The other highlight of the trip was seeing active lava at a side vent of Kilauea. Here are photos I took from the viewing platform of the same side crater during the day, and one at night. Two weeks after we were standing at this spot, the side of the crater caved in.

Last year I did not drive out west because I was working on the online rockhounding classes. So this year I decided that I had to make the drive – all 6,285 miles of it.

Thanks to friend, Helen Riley, for flying out to Arizona to share the adventure, which included hiking the Grand Canyon and Sedona. I also visited the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert.

First, a few Grand Canyon photos.

A couple of Painted Desert photos…..

I really enjoyed the Petrified Forest.

We went on eight different hikes in the Sedona area. They were all different, but all awesome.

On my way back east, I stopped in Albuquerque for a few days. Thanks to the Hannishs for their hospitality. When I left early one morning, I caught this sunrise glow as I drove over the mountains east of Albuquerque.

Since my friends knew I was driving out to the Tucson Gem Show, three asked whether I was going to again hike the Grand Canyon. I love sharing the canyon with friends, so a year ago I made the necessary reservations. I hiked with friends Wendy, Helen, and Phylster. We stayed at Bright Angel Lodge the night before our descent. We hiked down the South Kaibab Trail to Phantom Ranch, where we stayed for two nights. On the day we spent at the bottom, we went on a day hike up the Cedar Creek trail to the section that overlooks the Colorado River. Then we hiked out the Bright Angel Trail. In all we hiked 21 miles with 12,000 feet of elevation change. Considering that all four of us are in our mid-50s, we did well to complete the hike with no injuries – not even a blister! The weather was sunny and warm, which was amazing since it snowed at the canyon the three days after we left.

Included below are some of the pictures from the hike. More can be seen on the blog at www.agatelady.blogspot.com.

In April during spring break, friends Gerald and Jill Phillips and I drove down to Irvine, Kentucky to go agate hunting. We teamed up with Scott and Melinda Hardy to learn the tricks of the hunt. I must admit it is totally different than looking for Lake Superior agates.

First of all, you need a pair of fishing waders. Although they call them creeks, in my opinion they are rivers. Not only was the current swift, but we had to portage around deep holes on several occasions. As I also explain in the Mineral of the Month update this month, you search by using sound. When you find round rocks in the river, you hit them with a rock hammer or other metal object. The silica rocks have a certain “ping” sound, as compared to other river rocks.

I must admit that the river was beautiful. It had a brilliant aqua blue green color. We hunted for six hours walking upstream in the river where ever we could and down a four wheel trail on the way back to our car. It was certainly a good time.

Here is a shot of the river and a couple of shots of Melinda, Gerald, and Jill.

I have not yet cut any of the possible agates I found. However, I did buy quite a few from Scott Hardy. I have a great assortment for sale at the museum for prices that are far less than what you see on the internet. Here is one of the agates I purchased from Scott.

In addition to agates, there are a lot of other silicified rocks you can find in the river.

 

I attended Moose Lake Agate Days, located around an hour south of Duluth, for the fifth year in a row, second with a booth. Since the event was mentioned on the Travel Channel’s Cash and Treasures show, the number of people in attendance was almost out of control. On Saturday, there were definitely too many people in the gym. However, sales were great and the agates this year were even better than last year.

I was able to spend a little bit of time agate hunting. However, the owner of my favorite gravel pit is leasing out the pit to an asphalt company. There are so many trucks coming and going, that it is not safe. As a result, Doug has asked people to stay away until the contract is over in two years or so.

Thus, my friends and I tried our luck at farm field hunting again. We returned to the Aitkin, MN area and went with permission to the field in which I found the semi-fister in May. I didn’t find any big ones this time, but my friend, Jill, did.

Below are some of the photos I took to document the big agates that were either available for sale, or at least displayed. The first two show some of the booths inside and outside. The other photos show some of my favorite agates that I saw and was able to document.

 

It has been three years since I drove out west to attend the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. Of course, in 2005 and 2006 I lived in New Mexico all winter and sold my mineral art as a member of a co-op gallery. Thus, during these years the drive to Tucson was a lot shorter! Last year was the first time in a decade that I did not attend. This year since I have the new vehicle, I decided to drive. However, since I was driving out without staying for a few months, the driving was consolidated into a three week period. As a result, the total miles of 6,060 represented an average per day of over 275 miles! Considering that I spent five days in the Tucson area, three days in New Mexico, and four days at the Grand Canyon, it is obvious that there were several days that I drove over 800 miles – especially on the way home!

After visiting friends and relatives down state, I started driving south to Arkansas on February 2nd. Thanks to the books on tape loaned to me by my friend, Marsha, I drove to within an hour of Arkansas the first day. The next day I visited Garvan Gardens in Hot Springs, operated by the University of Arkansas. I needed a break to get some exercise. Although it was chilly, there were several trees in bloom. I am sure the blooms didn’t make it much longer since the temperature dropped to the mid-teens that night. During my travels, it was colder than I expected, but I stayed toasty sleeping in my Suburban on a roll-away mattress situated on a raised platform.

On Tuesday, I rendezvoused with Dee and Gee, who own one of the crystal mines located around 40 minutes from Hot Springs. They told me about a near-by campground that is free in the winter. We met up again the next morning and I followed Gee over to his mine. I enjoyed walking over his dump piles looking for evidence of any quartz crystals. I only stayed for a few hours, but found several dozen crystals, including the monster shown below – well worth the $20/day fee!

After continuing my drive to New Mexico, I spent the next few days visiting with friends, soaking in the hot springs at Ojo Caliente, and hiking at Bandelier National Monument. Pictured below are some of the pictures I took at the Tsankawi portion of Bandelier. This part of the national park has been left untouched by the National Park Service and remains the way it was when the cliff dwellers left over 500 years ago.

The driving continued on Monday as I arrived in Benson, AZ that night. The next morning, we were greeted with four inches of snow. Of course, everyone blamed me for bringing the snow from Michigan. I spent the rest of the week attending the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show, which are actually 44 different shows. I don’t think that anyone actually goes to all of them, but I visited at least a dozen. I not only purchased some of my standard products, but I have several new things for the museum’s gift shop. I also had the pleasure to buy higher-ticket items for friends in Lansing. It is a good thing that I have a bigger vehicle because I had to fit a lot of product into the car. I don’t think I could have done it if I didn’t have room under my bed’s raised platform.

At one of the shows, to entice buyers to come in, they situated one of the most incredible amethyst geode that I’ve ever seen. How this was mined out of the earth and transported from Brazil to the J.O.G.S. show in Tucson – I’ll never know!

After I left the show, I camped at Tucson Mountain Park, which is located west of the city. Below is one of the cactus pictures that I took at sunset.

The next item on the agenda was the Grand Canyon. I drove through the eastern entrance of the park. The photo below was taken from the top of Desert View.

This was my 14th hike down the canyon, but only the second time that I hiked all the way from Phantom Ranch to the top in one day. I was glad that an opening occurred so that I could stay down an extra day to recover a little before I had to hike out. I descended down the South Kaibab Trail, which is the shortest rim to river trail at a little over 7 miles, but also the steepest. The first picture below was taken at the top of the Kaibab Trail.

As I walked down, since I was on a solo hike this time, it gave me the opportunity to read one of my Grand Canyon geology books as I descended layer by layer. Since the top section of the trail is in shadows all day, it is quite icy this time of year. Hiking poles and boot crampons are a must if you want to be safe. The trail starts with a long series of steep zigzags through the Kaibab Limestone. The tan walls are pitted with thousands of white and yellow chert nodules. These pockets formed from the silica spicules that accumulated from the sponges that lived in a shallow sea here 270 million years ago.

When I was around half way down and hiking through the Supai Group along the O’Neill Butte (formed 310 to 285 million years ago), I explored a flat area to the west of the trail. I was surprised to find some self-organized microcrystalline quartz pockets inside the sedimentary rock.

As you hike around the O’Neill Butte and past Skeleton Point, the trail descends down a massive cliff of red wall limestone that was deposited in a shallow sea that covered most of the North American continent more than 318 million years ago. After you finish with the switch backs, the trail straightens out as you pass outcrops of Mauv Limestone (350 to 400 million years old) that have ripple marks and worm burrows.

Next, after passing the rest area at mile 4.6, the trail reaches “The Tipoff,” when you enter the inner gorge. This is the first real good look you have of the Colorado River, which appears directly below you. On one hand you are relieved that you can see Bright Angel Campground and know that the end is in sight. Then you realize that you still have nearly 3 miles to go, including a good deal of the elevation change.

The last mile and a half of the trail seems to be a never ending series of switchbacks. I was entertained, though, by seeing my favorite Grand Canyon rock: Zoroaster Granite. This salmon-pink rock is comprised of pink orthoclase feldspar, white quartz, and shiny silver mica. Around 1.7 billion years ago, the area that is now the Grand Canyon was an ocean. The continental plate ended at what is now Wyoming. The ocean plate collided with the continental plate, and the ocean crust subducted down approximately 7 miles below the earth’s surface. Some of the rock heated and metamorphosed to form various schists and gneisses. Other rock subducted a little deeper and melted. As the magma rose back toward the surface in big blobs, similar to the wax blobs in a modern-day lava lamp, it squeezed its way into and around the metamorphic schists to cool into veins of pink granite. Below is a close-up picture of the granite, as well as a photo of the inner gorge wall showing the seams of granite inter-twined in the Vishnu Schist.

After leaving the top at around 8:30 a.m., I arrived at Phantom at 4:30 p.m. I stopped in the canteen to get my cabin assignment. Each of the dorm cabins have 5 bunk-bed cots, a toilet, and a separate shower. After a quick shower, I headed to the steak dinner, served family-style, at 5:00.

On the in-between day, I hiked to the top of the inner gorge on the north side, down the Cedar Creek Trail. This was a tremendous day. I found a south-facing ledge and parked myself for a few hours. I spent the time reading my geology books, taking pictures, eating my Phantom Ranch bag lunch, and taking a nap. As I sat there, I really studied the rocks and layers of the Grand Canyon. One of the surprising things I learned is that there are many gaps in the geologic record. One of the largest is the gap named by explorer, John Wesley Powell. He named the gap: The Great Unconformity. The amount of geologic record missing varies across the length of the canyon. In the picture below that I took from the Cedar Creek Trail, you can see that the horizontal Tarpeats Sandstone (525 million years old) sits directly on top of the 1.7 billion year old Vishnu Schist and Zoroaster Granite. Thus, 1.2 billion years, or one-quarter of the earth’s history, is missing! This gap is shown below in the left photo. The picture on the right was taken from the Cedar Creek Trail, looking down the inner gorge toward the east.

At Phantom Ranch, when you are preparing to hike out of the canyon, the day starts early when one of the employees knocks on your door at 5:00 a.m. Breakfast is at 5:30. I started hiking out by headlamp just after 6:00 a.m. I took the shot below with the self-timer, by placing my camera on the corner of the silver bridge.

Then, I hiked the 9.6 miles out the Bright Angel Trail getting to the top at 3:00 p.m. In total over the three days, I hiked nearly 23 miles with an elevation change of over 12,000 feet! Although I enjoyed it, I must admit that it does not get any easier, especially since I am now in my mid-50s! Below are a couple of the photos I took on the nine-hour hike out of the canyon. I sure was glad to get to the top!

I would like to thank all those who helped me and/or spent time with me along my travels including: Kim Amthor, Jonathan and Jessica Brzys, Marsha Hendrickson, Clare Comstock, Ardis and Ed Hannish, Karen and Harold Boaz, and Sandra and Mark Lange.