[Rockhounds] field trip to Silver Island Mountains, UT, Part 1

[DonH]

Hi,

This is a brief report on a field trip sponsored by the Golden Spike Gem 
& Mineral Society of Ogden, UT.  I met Kay Berry on the list and joined 
them yesterday to hunt for agate, jasper, drusy quartz, and eccentric 
sedimentary decorative rocks such as the textured black "wrinkle rocks."
My main purpose was to meet new people and tour the nearby Bonneville 
Salt Flats.  The trip is still going on and most of the folks are still 
out there, but I had too much to do and only went yesterday.

http://www.blm.gov/ut/st/en/fo/salt_lake/recreation/bonneville_salt_flats.html

We met at 08:30 just off Exit 4 of Route 80, on the border of Nevada, at 
the truck stop.  Then we drove to their campsite at Leppy Pass, where I 
met the other members.  We drove on the dirt road along the northwest 
side of the range.  It was easy driving by my standards; perfectly 
accessible by road sedan.  The agates and jaspers form in seams in the 
country rock, up to 12" thick as far as I could tell.  Most of the 
collecting was surface picking; ironically, trying to break the 
lapidary-quality rock out of the seams would only damage it instead.
I picked up a few pieces with colorful patterns and some vesicles coated 
with either drusy quartz or botryoidal and mamillary forms.  Some of 
these are best viewed under magnification, but I am always looking to 
add to the micromount collection.

We had some nice conversations about collecting, sharing sites, and 
access to lands.

Here are two members collecting, with a view of the border of the salt 
flats in the background:

http://mysite.verizon.net/res12qvqt/stop1-3JUL2009.jpg

Here is our youngest collector, displaying his rocks and a horned toad 
(all of which are not actually visible in the photo):

http://mysite.verizon.net/res12qvqt/child3JUL2009.jpg

We stopped at three sites, and judging by the large hunks of cutting 
rough in the back of trucks, I'd say they all got what they came for.

Then, two of the couples went back to the campsite, and Kay and Blaine 
headed with me to the salt flats...