Montana Moss Agates

It was a really pretty snake, about four feet long and colored with yellow and green stripes. I noticed it when I almost stepped on it and Renita heard my initial yell, "Snake",(ok maybe it was a scream). I have never particularly liked snakes since I was about five years old and my brother scared my sister Connie and me at a place called Witches Cave,(He later went on to become a herpetologist).
We were at the Matthews Recreation area outside of Miles City, Montana, looking for Montana Moss Agates and not having any luck. See the usual method is to wade the shallow Yellowstone river but it is still too high and the rocks are mostly underwater, too much water to see the agates.
Deciding to find another place we drove to the Kinsley Bridge and I had to stop for some photos. The bridge looks like it was made a long time ago and is a four span single lane bridge. The one lane is sheet metal planks covering a wood base and it looks like it hasn't been repaired since Custer made his fatal trip to Little Big Horn.
Taking some images I watched as several cars drove across the bridge and as I walked back along the river rock road I found some rock that was pretty close to agate. As I neared the truck Renita got out, bent over and picked up a beauitiful Montana Moss Agate from the road. Goodness gracious the girl sure can spot rocks from the passenger seat!

Looking around she found another piece and I found some pretty rocks, aren't they all really, but nothing compared to hers. We decided to cross the bridge and as we did so I noticed gaps where the metal sheeting had broken, hmmmmm, but we made it across and parked alongside the road.
Now the road looked to be river rock that had been dredged from the river and before long I found my first Montana Moss Agate. Road picking is actually a pretty good technique when all else fails. We ended up picking up quite a few specimens and the day was a success,(well every day is a success when we don't work and  finding beautiful rocks is a bonus).

Many of our friends think that we have found all the rocks we work and a lot of it is, but we also work lots of rough we buy as we rock pick flea markets, rock shops, and antique stores. We also have quite a bit given to us by people who have gotten tired of their own or inherited rock collections.
We ate lunch along the Yellowstone river and then hunted along the road finding more agate. We decided we were tired and it was time to visit the Pirgoue State Park, a place known for where you can wade across to the island and hunt moss agates.

Unfortunately the river was again to high for wading and we thanked our lucky stars for the agate we had found. On the way into town, Renita called a local rock hound who invited us to his house. It was a worthwhile trip as Ray invited us in and then proudly showed us his collection.
His specialty is Montana Moss Agates and he has about as fine a collection of cabochons as we have ever seen. Ray showed us some of his other collections and our mouths drooled as he proudly held up his huge mammoth molar!
Going into his back yard he showed us his two piles of moss agate rough and we bought some to go along with the rough we had found,(We keep found separate from bought). We arrived back home, our fifth wheel, with twenty more pounds of rock for the road! A fine day along the Yellowstone!  Clear skies.