Rock Hounding Near Jeffery City: Mythical Jade, Sweetwater Moss Agates, and the Occasional Rattlesnake

 

Renita spotted the rattlesnake first. She was driving and it was crossing the road, ok the four wheel track, its long sinuous body stood out in sharp contrast to the light brown desert sand. It was a beautiful light brown green and had probably recently shed, with a striking and sharp diamond pattern. Of course I had to get a close up and so I jumped out of the truck as Renita yelled at me to not get to close.

We had just finished a successful day of hunting Sweetwater Moss Agates at Agate Flats. It was our most successful day there ever and we both had found large agates. Renita had found a particularly beautiful and large agate and we were both thinking about how we could highlight their beauty. They are already naturally polished and the one she had found displayed the beautiful black spots of dendritic pyrolusite, surrounded by white chalcedony, opalite, and adamite, (the picture is the actual agate as it appeared before she dug it out).

So like I said it had been a great day for agates. We love hunting them at Agate Flats because it helps us to forget the previous day’s unsuccessful jade hunt. That day we had scoured the hillsides along Beaver Rim and the Power Line, and while we found lots of pretty rocks, we didn’t find any of the stunning pure, (and mythical?), nephrite jade.

Even though we hadn’t found any jade it still had been a successful day as any day we get to walk the vast and empty reaches is a special day. Surrounded by the Granite Mountains, and loving the view of the beautiful Lamikin Dome, the high desert holds a special place in our hearts. The vast empty spaces here are where the wild things are, antelope, mule deer, the occasional horny toad and of course prairie rattlesnakes. Clear skies

ps the snake was of course left unharmed