Pleasant Surprise Found at MFQ Saturday…

Missy and I arrived at MFQ mid morning Saturday, driving down to check out the clearing activity that was going on per my buddy Jim, who I called Thursday evening on my way to work. The forecast was for a very nice warm and sunny day, temps in the 70`s, but by the time we arrived at 9:30, it was still cool enough to require my blue sweatjacket. As we pulled into the upper parking area from the highway, I spotted the clearing activity on top of the hill….

01 Clearing Off for Expansion

…I then looked toward the back center wall, however I was unable to see the back wall due to a very high pile of rock crushed into chunks suitable for support and driveways….as we drove around this huge pile of crushed rock, I came upon a nicely sloped pile of untouched goodies blasted down from the upper bench…needless to say I was estatic because my buddy Jim was unaware of any recent activity, most likely due to his view from the roadway being blocked as mine was, by that huge pile of crushed rock. The pile was wide enough that it required four photos to show it….

02 New Blast Pile

03 Middle of New Blast Pile

04 East End of Blast Pile

05 Front Side of Blast Pile

 …after quickly letting Missy out, I changed into my boots, grabbed my mini mattox, and made a fast walk around the front edge…it was obvious the only thing workers had done since bringing the wall down, was to clean up the front edges with the dozer. I didn`t find anything pretty out on the front edges, so I grabbed a bag and headed for the back wall, as I was able to spot some pockets from the truck. Within moments, I had spotted several nice druse pockets like this one….

08 First Pocket Found

…and from this one pocket came some very nice druse pieces like these two guys….

06 Nice Druse Pieces Found at Start of Search

…after filling one bag full of wrapped druse plates, I moved on down the wall to the next several pockets, many of them similar but a few had some nice poker chips attached as well…as you can see from the next images, this wall was full of pockets…..look below the green line….

13 Wall Pockets

15 Wall Pockets

…and at one spot along the wall, I looked up, as I normally do, and spotted some beautiful black druse pockets way up there…about fifteen feet higher than I could possibly begin to reach….

10 Blk Druse Pocket Up High

11 Blk Druse Pocket Up High

…the next pockets I had to climb up to the top of the stepladder to access….right under that green/blue line….

14 Wall Pockets

…the material in front facing me, was loose, so after pulling it back with my mini mattox, it looked like this…

18 Druse and Poker Chip Pocket

…I was cleaning away the loose stuff, looking for an opening to a pocket and oila !! one appeared….

20 Druse and Poker Chip Pocket

…pulling a few nice plates of druse and poker chips out of this opening, resulted in finding yet another pocket right behind it….

21 Third Pocket

…and pretty soon, I had yet another bag full of very pretty druse and poker chip plates. I went back to the truck to get yet another bag and to check on Missy. I no sooner returned and was down in the dip along the back wall….

17 Wall Pockets

….searching for yet another pocket that could possibly turn into four pockets like this one did, when my buddy Jim showed up to visit….I walked down the pile toward my truck to meet him about halfway….

12 From Top of Blast Pile

…and where we both came to a stop to talk, I looked down and spotted some beautiful pieces of black druse and some black dogtooth crystals just laying all over…

24 Blk & Brown Druse & Chips Piece

22 Hit The Jackpot

23 Hit The Jackpot

25 Brown Druse Piece

…what a great meeting spot Jim selected to talk to me at…I owe him big time I would say. After we talked abit, he left to go work on cutting some more wood, and I looked around a bit more, picked up several more black and brown dogtooth crystals, and druse pieces, filling at least two bags full. I then looked to my left and spotted these two huge boulders with vugs of poker chip crystals inside each one….

27 Poker Chip Vug

28 Poker Chip Vugs

 …I decided to take a water break, and then returned with more wraps and another bag, as well as my hammer and chisel, and proceeded to get a good workout in, removing some nice clusters of big gray colored poker chip crystals from these vugs….

29 Poker Chip Vugs

31 Poker Chip Vugs

…and then I returned to the wall, where I found a few more pockets that contained those nice gemmy plates of druse and poker chips. I filled two more bags, my last ones even, of these plates. I then walked around the back side of the pile where I located some nice gemmy green poker chips, some with dogtooths, and some were small and some large yard rocks style….and set them up on a nice flat boulder….I ran out of steam about this time, and loaded them up last before heading for home….sure was a nice day. 

Feb 23rd…..Due to two winter storms the last two weeks, I was unable to get out and hunt, so as promised, here are some of the dogtooths and druse pieces all cleaned up…..

32 Dogtooths Found

33

34 Blk & Bro Druse Pieces

35

36

37

38

 

 

 

 

MFQ on New Years Day

What better way to spend New Years Day than go rockhunting ???  I couldn`t think of a better way to spend the day, specially since I was off the night before, and could get some good rest before making the drive down to hunt. Missy and I woke up and headed down early, photographing the dawn`s early light on the way down there….

01 Sunrise Enroute

…Missy and I arrived about an hour later, the air a bit crisp at that time of the morning, and from where I parked near what was left of the blast pile, I could again see pockets up high, so I grabbed my stepladder and began exploring…..

05 Whats Left of the Pile

12 Ladder to Pockets

…this first pocket above and below, working out to be a very good one. I filled two bags with beautiful wrapped plates of calcite druse with poker chip blades that sparkle and shine in the sunlight….

13 Pockets Above Ladder

…more of these puppies….

03 Druse From First Pocket on Wall

…and of course while I was cleaning those pockets out…there were a couple of smaller ones on either side of that large pocket…Missy was content to roam around the quarry and check things out….

08 East Side Quarry

11 Far East Side

…we headed home about 4 pm, with four bags full of goodies. all in all a great New Years Day and great start to rockhounding in 2015. 

 

Novaculite Collected at Magnet Cove

I thought I would show you some of the pretty colors in the Novaculite that I collected at the quarry near Magnet Cove back in November on my fall trip. Mr. Parker has a great variety of material there and in many colors and blends of colors too. Many of the pieces I picked up had fish eyes in them as well. Novaculite is good material for cabochons and for knappers too. The Indians used Novaculite for many of their arrowheads and scrapers. While I do not make jewelry or indian artifacts, I do like this stuff for yard rocks due to its beauty. Let me know if you need information on the location and I will put you in touch with Mr. Parker to set up a field trip there. 

01 Small Chunk Gray and Red

05 Gray & Red With Fisheyes

02 Gray Black and Red

03 Gray Black & White With Fisheyes

04 Gray With Red & Fisheyes

08 Fisheyes in Gray & Red Chunk

06 White Blk Gray Blend

07 White Gray Black Blend

 

08C Fisheyes in Gray & Red Chunk

These are some of my favorites that I collected down there…hope to bring back some larger ones the next time down there. Some of them had dendrites on them as well and here are my favorites with those….

48 Novaculite With Dendrites

54 Dendrite on Rainbow Novaculite

56 Beautiful Shades Novaculite

57 Dendrites on Novaculite

61 Dendrites on Novaculite

62 Dendrites on Novaculite

63 Dendrites on Novaculite

if you have any questions or wanna say hi, give me a shout at jwjphoto7@gmail.com