[Rockhounds] Bucket List

[jbacko]

Tom Bowers wrote:
> Well folks . . . , the best laid plans -
>    
>   Thought I'd update the list on my "bucket list" rockhounding trip.  I never made the trip described in the earlier email below.
>    
>   BUT - I'm going to try again.  This time I plan on traveling from TX through CO, WY, MT, Alberta, ND, SD, NE, KS, OK, and back to TX.  My interests are broad:  fossils, rocks, minerals - anything as hard as my head.  
>    
>   My wife and I will be departing in mid-June and returning when we run out of money.
>  
>   Tom Bowers
>
> Seriously, I'd appreciate any info anyone on the list would like to share,
>
>
>   

Some thoughts off the top of my head from my experience:

If you can get back issues of Rock&Gem Magazine, review all of the 
articles by Kenneth Rohn. He has traveled and written extensively about 
MT, SD, ND, and WY.  I have used his observations to visit many of the 
places he mentions and have found them to be accurate but a bit 
enthusiastic. Still, the articles are useful as pointers of where to go.

Any gravel bed along the Yellowstone River between Sidney and Miles City 
is a source of Montana Agate and petrified wood. Access is easy and 
usually free at the marked fishing access sites. Don't forget to visit 
Tom Harmon at Crane.  Along the Missouri River is probably the best for 
fossils, but there are good areas in the badlands around Miles City. Be 
careful as they are very touchy about vertebrate fossils in the area. 
When I go back this summer I intend to go a bit further West as well and 
screen some sapphires and hunt garnets, good things to do. Of course 
that will put me within striking distance of Yellowstone NP...hmm.

Fort Robinson State Park in NE is a good place to stay. One has access 
there to the national grasslands and prairie agate, and it is near to 
Agate Fossil Beds National Monument for dinosaurs.  Prairie agate is 
kind of rare but jasper and jaspagate  in good colors is common. The 
grasslands are actually huge garbage dumps of ancient glaciers as well 
as ancient river benches and almost anything is a potential. I have 
found belemnites in the area in newly-plowed fields. The grasslands are 
administered by the NFS and U.S. Forest Rangers are the "police". They 
WILL ask you about fossils you have collected or potentially collected.

The badlands and Black Hills of SD are must see areas. Mount Rushmore is 
nice but crowded. There is no charge to see the monument but the parking 
has been sub-contracted and that is the effective charge. The Crazy 
Horse monument is a fee area.

There are a lot of pegmatites in road cuts in Western SD that are worthy 
of a look; I found nice pieces of schorl and microcline in some right 
above Wind Cave National Park (which is also nice). Try and visit the 
rock shop in Custer (near the KOA); he knows the area well and has some 
interesting things, including the piece used in "The Postman" which is 
the bronze monument towards the end of the film. Of course it isn't 
bronze but it sure looks like it!

WY is harder to rockhound. The bloody wind blows all the time except for 
a few minutes when it is changing direction. There are good areas for 
petrified wood, etc. but they are probably better visited with a rock 
club or guide, not the casual visitor passing through. The Bighorn 
National Forest around Buffalo is nice. Antelope are everywhere.

I think Pete Modreski gave you some lowdown on CO. See him. He's good.

NM is good for fluorite and thundereggs. Sites are relatively easy to 
visit for both of these. Don't forget Socorro and the NM Bureau of Mines 
museum. Pick the minds of the graduate students at the museum. They 
expect it and are very helpful.

The easiest things to get in OK are selenite in the panhandle and Salt 
Plains, and barite roses in the red belt East of Norman. When  you are 
traveling through the Arbuckles, get off I-35 and follow the parallel US 
highway. There are well-marked areas of successive geologic exposures 
from Devonian to Pennsylvanian along the route. This is a classic area 
for geology students from OU.

In West Texas, see Terry at the Antelope Inn in Alpine. She arranges 
field trips to ranches in the area for plume and moss agate. And there 
is the classic Woodward Ranch for plume agate.  Unlike Alpine, Marfa is 
quite "artsy" now. There is steatite and soapstone in the road cuts 
around Van Horn. Don't forget the Davis Mountains and MacDonald 
Observatory. Around Fort Davis are vineyards where one can taste some 
Texas vintages. Hunting topaz around Mason is always nice but one has to 
nose around like an armadillo for a few days to be effective.  The 
rewards can be great and the fees are reasonable.

There is a rockhound's guide to Alberta: "Minerals of Alberta A Handbook 
For Students, Rockhounds and Prospectors" by Leonard J. La Casse and 
James Roebuck, Hallamshire Publishers, 1978, ISBN 0-88841-004-2 pa. 
Needless to say, Canada is a whole different country. And don't forget 
your passports. Canada doesn't care much, but the US will on the way back.

john