Sunday, September 11, 2011

A Busy Week Rockhounding and Getting Ready to Head South

Note! I am standing in one of the tepee rings that dot the area.

From Gilllete we drove to Boysen State Park, where we got the last lake front campsite in the state park. It wasn't long after that the rest of the campsites filled and so we settled down for the Labor Day weekend,( when you fulltime holidays are a time to put up with the crowds).
Our plan was to rock hound in the Owl Creek Mountains for a few days and then pick up our Genie at Matt and Pattys house in Daniel. Finally, we needed to return to Flaming Gorge to license the fifth wheel and winterize the boat before starting the slow and round about journey to our wintering spot in Texas.
We spent three days scouring the ridges and draws along the flanks of the Owl Creeks. The problem here isn't finding good rocks to cut and polish but to be selective and only keep the best rocks you find. We concentrated on looking for green colored stone and found a coffee can full. The question is is it jade or adventurine? I did find some lepidolite and some amazonite and Renita found a large rock of beautiful Wyoming Bloodstone.
Leaving Boysen we headed to Flaming Gorge where we first winterized the boat. The next day we traveled to Matt and Patty;s house near Daniel, where they waited for us with hugs and kisses and a big pot of home made chili! There we also loaded our Genie Cabochon maker and rock saw which we had purchased on Ebay and after saying a happy goodby we headed back to the Gorge.
Our last day there we set up the genie and I ground and polished a few cabochons, which are the stones we wire wrap, and it worked great! Happy days as we now can work rock as we travel, instead of just collecting and hauling the rocks all the way to Texas. Oh, and I applied the one year rule and got rid of some stuff in our fifth wheel so we would have room for the new equiptment and more rock! Clear skies..

1 comment:

  1. Where do you go in Texas for the winter? We are thinking of trying Texas for the 2013 winter, but don't have any place in mind. Any suggestions? chappy81101@yahoo.com

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